Aída Cartagena Portalatín

Aída Cartagena Portalatín (born and died in the Dominican Republic; 18 June 1918 – 3 June 1994) was a Spanish-language writer who was an influential part of the Poesía Sorprendida movement. Quotes Interview in Callaloo 23.3 (2000) translated from the original Spanish ...I had the key to what I wanted in literature. I don't write a certain way because other people write that way. I write according to how I think on the day I write. I think that for writers there is a certain level of maturity that cannot be improvised, and I don't see that in newer writers...culture and learning are basic things. There is that aspect that is very demanding. I insist that, although I have had to work very hard on my intellectual formation, I have benefited the most from my relationships with others...everything I've learned, I've learned while getting to know people. I prefer a friendship that enriches me, not hearing about the kids, or about the war, or anything like that. And traveling. I've learned more from traveling than from books. ...I tell you these unimportant details so you can get an idea of the meager resources, of the tenacity one needs, because I don't think a poet is born, the poet is made. People think it's all about writing things like, "I went out early... and the sun came out, and the moon," and so forth, making it up as you go along. But it is not like that. That's why my poetry has been read in so many circles. I broke with traditional poetry with La tierra escrita. It was a scandal. Quotes about Aida Cartagena de Portalatin, the Dominican Republic's most distinguished poet, is often catalogued as an avant garde artist, yet in these poems she reveals her profound adherence to what often has been called a socialist motherhood. Marjorie Agosín, Introduction to These Are Not Sweet Girls: Poetry by Latin American Women (2000) External links Goodreads page Category:Novelists from the Dominican Republic Category:Poets from the Dominican Republic Category:Essayists from the Dominican Republic Category:Women authors from the Dominican Republic Category:1918 births Category:1994 deaths