The Rómulo Gallegos Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (Celarg) is hosting this meeting of minstrels from Thursday to Sunday, attended by representatives from Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Speaking, the poet and attorney general of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, stressed that the most important moral reserve of his country is the preservation of Culture, intellectuality, books, poetry and art in general.
Saab praised the efforts made by the Bolivarian State in the midst of great difficulties, but which in practice reveals, he said, the interest of the nation to promote values such as this Expoesía event, and the tradition that “we have of preserving cultural and creative values.”
He stressed this first International Poetry Book Fair pays tribute to the Carabobo magazine, which has promoted poets from all corners of the world, and a mythical contest of unpublished and established poets.
There will be days of glory from today until Sunday where there will be conferences, book presentations, recitals, talks, he said.
The Colombian Fernando Rondón, recalled that it was in Medellín and Caracas where the first Congress of the World Poetry Movement was held last year.
He acknowledged that this movement is one of the sponsors of “this wonderful meeting forced by the love of the Venezuelan people and the poetry of Venezuela, land of freedom and popular democracy in Latin America.”
Rondón stressed that this is a country example of character, independence and dignity, “in the face of the disgrace of the so-called Western civilization, of civilized and cultured Europe that has oppressed all continents and tried to uselessly isolate a political and poetic revolution like the Bolivarian Revolution.”
He said he felt doubly happy to be stepping on this glorious land of Simón Bolívar and of so many fundamental poets of Latin America like Venezuelan Gustavo Pereira.
The Minister for Culture Ernesto Villegas said that the Celarg Rómulo Gallegos house is open to all and since its inauguration by Commander Hugo Chávez and then President Nicolás Maduro, it has developed a central line of decolonization.
He pointed out that this should never be confused “with a phobia or rejection of the culture of European brothers, specifically the Spanish” and concluded with the reading of a poem by Fernando Macarro (Marcos Ana) “My house and my heart,” which he said, is very similar to the Celarg.
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