Colombia's Ospina says Spanish language owes much to LatAm

Havana, Nov 25 (EFE).- Prize-winning Colombian author William Ospina kicked off the Semana de Autor (Author Week) literary event in this capital, giving a talk in which he argued that the Spanish language owes a great deal to Latin America.

Ospina, special guest at this gathering organized by Cuba's Casa de las Americas cultural center, said in his talk Tuesday that the Spanish spoken today in the Iberian Peninsula is not the same as that of five centuries ago and that the influence of Latin America is plainly evident.

Speaking to a crowd of writers and academics, Ospina pointed especially to the influence of modernist poets such as Nicaragua's Ruben Dario on Spain's Generation of '27 literary movement.

"There's not a single poet from the Generation of '27 in Spain - Vicente Aleixandre, Jorge Guillen, Federico Garcia Lorca - who didn't say he discovered poetry by reading Ruben Dario, who was mainly responsible for galvanizing and inspiring the discovery and rebirth of poetry," Ospina said.

The winner of Colombia's National Literature Prize in 2005 said, moreover, that the integration of Latin America will not be achieved until "the infinity of its nuances and the subtle wealth of its differences" are considered.

"It's essential that we abandon the harmful concepts of underdevelopment and of the third world that sought to make development a pre-determined, (externally imposed) path," Ospina added.

According to the Colombian poet and novelist, Latin America is "the first great product of globalization," which emerged from "the discoveries, (was) engendered by the first advances of mercantilism, inheritors of the languages, religions and institutions of Europe."

The 55-year-old Ospina is scheduled to give a reading of his poetry this week in Havana, to join a panel of Cuban intellectuals who will discuss his fiction and on Friday to present "El pais de la canela" (Cinnamon Country), winner of the 2009 Romulo Gallegos International Novel Prize.

Published in 2008, that acclaimed work is the second novel in the author's trilogy on Spanish conquistador and poet Juan de Castellanos, a project that began with "Ursua" and will conclude with "La serpiente sin ojos" (The Eyeless Serpent).

Semana del Autor is an initiative that involves welcoming one author each year to the island to participate in a debate on his or her literary production. Last year, the guest of honor was Mexico's Sergio Pitol.