Repeating Islands

Libro a Libro reports on the controversy that has ensued in the Dominican literary community after the awarding of the Manuel de Jesus Galván National Prize for the Novel to A la sombra de mi abuelo [2008, In My Grandfather’s Shadow] written by Aida Trujillo Ricart, granddaughter of former dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo (1930-1961) and goddaughter of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. The prize was announced the last week as part of the Literature and Music awards that the Ministry of Culture grants every year. The prizes will be awarded at the end of this month in an event at which the author, who now resides in Spain, will be present.

According to the EFE news agency, leading Dominican intellectuals and even the Minister of Culture have shown opposition to this prize. The novel was criticized for lacking “the literary quality necessary to receive that award.”  Minister of Culture José Rafael Lantigua said that the novel “offends the memory of those who gave their lives so that our country would be free of the trujillista dictatorship, which turned the Dominican Republic into one big hacienda for the dictator and his family.” A member of the jury, Dominican Roberto Marcallé Abreu, defended the jury´s performance and said that the decision was made after two months of “extensive” deliberations.

About A la sombra de mi abuelo, which seems to move between various genres, Trujillo Ricart has insisted that it indeed qualifies as a novel because she is “not a historian.” Marcallé Abreu further explains that “a novel is the sum of all literary genres, it is novel, it is short story, it is history, and it is human condition.” The author insists that the book is not apologetic. “It does not defend the wrongdoing or perversities of the Trujillo regime; it does not defend the blood or the violations. Contrary to what has been transmitted to the public opinion, it is a genuine story of long suffering and a great bitterness.”

For full article (in Spanish), see http://www.libroalibro.org/hogar/2009/06/controversial-premio-literario-a-nieta-de-rafel-trujillo/

For an interview with Aida Trujillo Ricart (in Spanish), see http://www.listin.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=103521

Photo from http://www.hoy.com.do/areito/2008/7/5/95931/Trujillo-recordado-por-nieta-en-bien-y-en-mal