A few triggers to literature

I started a blog a few years ago because I just wanted to become a writer, hopefully a good one. I failed ominously. Firstly because of my indiscipline and secondly because I thought that I didn’t have something good enough to tell, plus I never felt that I was such a good writer in Spanish. Yes, Spanish is my native language. Anyhow, my country is no more than an unknown bunch of words to the rest of the world. So I thought, How come a boy, who comes from an invisible country and who doesn’t even write that well, may become a renowned writer? Obviously, I was wrong. When your trigger for writing is a goal such as “being renowned” you are definitely doing wrong. Undoubtedly, discipline, reading, humility and living your life (in terms of gaining experiences) are critical factors. Yet, when you bet on art, you do it because you love it, anything else is just pretension, we know it.

Also, by the end of the day, nobody cares where you come from, or at least this is what I like to think. Of course, there is privilege and oppression regarding where you were born, especially if you were born in a third world country, but that is a discussion for another time. My point is that, back then, I was younger, and I wasn’t sure about what I was supposed to do. Despite this fact, I decided to start writing, and I sort of keep on and hopefully I can do it better now (in English). I was inspired by other fellow writers, some of them quite good and kind of well known in Guatemala. 

During the first decade of the 21st century, numerous Guatemalan writers had a blog. Some of them were quite popular. I used to be a regular reader of many of those blogs. I ought to say that, in some way, they saved me. During those years I was looking for some meaning in my life. Everything was empty, church and god didn’t work for me, neither painting nor music. Fortunately, I found literature or maybe it found me. (I have to say that it was my second encounter with it, perhaps in the future I’ll write about that story too). During those years my interest in literature soared, by 2011 I got closer to  Quetzaltenango’s International Poetry Festival, a literary event that takes place in my city every year. I became one of the organizers and my job was mainly graphic design stuff and setting up activities. In a nutshell, that experience changed my life forever.

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Blogs such as El paracaídas (The parachute) by Vania Vargas, Noticias para dios que se fue sin despedirse (News for god who left without saying goodbye) by Julio Prado, Chulo chucho colocho (Pretty curly-hair dog) and Soledadbrother (Lonelinessbrother) by Javier Payeras, and Fe de rata by Juan Pablo Dardón (Mouse’s faith) [in Spanish it’s a pun which sounds similar to “Fe de errata” which is a term used by editors and publishers referring a text that must be corrected, it’s known as “errata” in english]. These were blogs tremendously popular among fellow writers, people close to the arts, culture and civil movements. In the early 2010’s Youtube wasn’t that popular, at least in Guatemala, mainly due to our terrible internet connections and because nobody knew about that platform. Otherwise, blogs were easier to access and they were a trend. Now is a different story. Blogs are not that popular anymore, but hey! Here I am trying to set up another one.

Something interesting about that generation (Yes, I’m assuming that those blogs and those writers are a generation in Guatemala’s recent literature history) is that they were disrupting critical thinking on society, government, the arts and literature itself. Each one had their own style. For instance, Vania is a master of storytelling and poetry, no one like her speaks so clearly and drives language to such complex and beautiful instances. Julio is a straight-to-the-point narrator, and that means that he’s always pointing out to your brain, your heart or your soul. You are not meant to (or should I say, you cannot) stay indifferent. Juan Pablo is such a humour genius, but you should consider getting into Guatemalan idiosyncrasy before you can get any of his jokes, but once you get in, you will love them. Javier was this sort of damned poet, writing about a decadent Guatemala city and society. He shows overwhelming fire and destruction from the very first place.

You might be asking: Are there any other writers in Guatemala? Of course, there are, and all of them have something to say, something worth paying attention to. I just wanted to talk about these four since they were the first ones I ever met. Eventually each of them published books and got a name in guatemala and latinamerican literature. It is not a secret that they are quite unknown to the global public. I mean, Spanish speaking world is kind of smaller than English speaking world. In other words, you can reach more people by writing in English.  Nowadays, some of them are still quite active on social media, particularly Twitter. I would say that they became the first generation of Guatemalan writers whose work started on the internet. They were this disruptive trend from which many others got inspiration to start writing or got interested in the arts, culture and social movements in my country. 

During Quetzaltenango's International Poetry Festivals I made plenty of friends, some of them are my best ones; we even continue being pals up to now. Anyhow, we had a lot of face-to-face meetings with writers and artists. My memories depict infinite talks about life, literature, alcohol, drugs, politics, love, desperation, hope and almost any aspect of life amid one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Literature saved me for better, showed me another world, another possibilities. Those years were a sort of no-turning-back point and I’m happy because it was this way. Hitherto, my friends and I have enjoyed ourselves despite the fire.