The poetry of the Mexican Coral Bracho has always had a strong political charge. Of political criticism. That has been one of the characteristics praised by the jury that has awarded him the FIL Prize for Literature 2023. At the opening of the fair this Saturday, the writer gave a good example of that concern that always accompanies her for the most dramatic situations that the world is going through. "How is it possible that mankind continues to struggle with all imaginable violence against itself? How is it possible that wars continue to be accepted and encouraged? And how do governments that threaten the freedom and lives of those they govern continue to be imposed and accepted?" In the same way that a message is intuited through the verses, with these words of Bracho the collective mind of the audience traveled from Israel to Ukraine, from Africa to Latin America, visiting the terrible circumstances that these days are gathered in the news.
The author of It Must Be a Misunderstanding has defended poetry as the always useful tool for "the development of an ethical conscience for humanity" at a time when the world needs "a new way of seeing, an analytical and critical capacity that allows us to find solutions that benefit all human beings and that puts the well-being of all and the conservation of life on the planet above all of the outsized economic gains that almost all governments allow, take advantage of, and support."
After almost three hours of previous speeches, the fair was already bustling outside and Bracho's poetic and calm voice has not found the tranquility typical of verses. The murmurs that came into the room barely allowed us to hear his speech. The poet has also had to share the spotlight with the omnipresence of Raúl López Padilla, creator of the FIL, who died in April of this year and who has been recognized by all for his career in interventions. Silence and a dose of spirituality have also been missing to listen to the interesting journey that the writer Verónica Murguía has traced through Bracho's poetics. In her portrait, she has highlighted that something "of a magician, of a fortune teller" that her friend's verses have, the "complexity of her gaze that contrasts with the quality and freshness, the modesty and simplicity" of her personality.
It is not usual for poetry to achieve the highest recognitions that are usually granted in the world of letters, but sometimes it happens. Bracho has explained how poetry encompasses the same socio-political and emotional charge that we find in the rest of literature. "What are we? What space do we live in? What is time? What is fire, water? And the air? And the stars? What are the living beings that inhabit this planet like and how do we relate to them?" Metaphysics has always been poetic matter, but the author has also extended herself to more prosaic and cruel matters with which she has to live every day. And he has done so with the astonishing form of the questions. "How is it possible that, over the centuries, other human beings continue to be attacked and degraded because of their race, their customs, their situation of poverty? How can it be that abysmal economic inequality, and persistent inequality and violence against women and diverse racial and sexual identities, persist in the world? How is it possible, finally, that violence has become a daily expression in countries like ours, where homicides are already countless?" In the absence of answers, Bracho's poetry condemns "what custom, stereotypes and prejudices prevent us from seeing and feeling."
If human beings evolved self-awareness through feelings and sensitivity, the laureate pointed out, "we must now turn to them to promote a true approach to the world in which we live, a vital posture that values and protects animals, that respects nature and fosters a deep closeness and cohesion between human beings". It doesn't seem that the ball of the world is turning in that direction these days, something that Bracho is sorry about. But he has not wasted the opportunity to give his own recipe for improvement, which consists, in his view, in the promotion of a creative education for children and young people, and for society in general, an education that fosters "the capacity for reflection and purpose, which makes us freer and brings us as close as possible to the different ways of thinking and feeling of other people". Nor does this sound easy, with the polarization that seems to trap a new country in its nets every day.
But the writer does not falter in her attempt and towards the end of her speech she has taken up the power of poetry as a unique way of seeing the world and of "giving sensitivity an important place in life". Bracho thanked the jury for the award "as unexpected as it is moving" and the publishing house Era, where most of his work has been published, a work he has always enjoyed. She never thought of being a poet, but a scientist, but words and the peculiar way in which poetry, with all its plasticity and music, can describe the world caught her between the verses of Góngora and Quevedo, of Lorca and Neruda, Baudelaire and T. S. Eliot, Lezama Lima and her friend David Huerta.
That language "that opens and suggests paths to know and feel the immensity of everyday space, of the infinity of the smallest and the closeness of the most distant", with that language "poetry illuminates, touches and seeks to enter into everything that is given to us to feel and know throughout a life".
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