Network of Cultural Centres, a home for literature

Fourth edition of the Festival Centroamérica Cuenta, 2016

The 2018 edition could not be held in Managua due to the socio-political crisis then affecting Nicaragua, and so the festival had to be transferred to neighbouring Costa Rica, where in San José we were also assisted by the Cultural Centre of Spain. In May 2019, we again travelled beyond our borders, fulfilling our commitment to reschedule the sixth edition of Cuenta. In this adventure we were accompanied by a group of Spanish writers, including Ray Loriga, Juan José Armas, Edurne Portela, Alfonso Armada, Alfonso Mateo-Sagasta and, once again, Berna González Harbour, who with Luisgé Martín and José Ovejero are regulars at our festival. As well as round table discussions, the Festival featured a wealth of open, relaxed conversations during which Central American writers had the opportunity to exchange ideas and opinions with authors from other parts of the world. These contacts have been maintained beyond the festival and have resulted in many instances of multicultural exchange and creation. In the CCSN premises in the Costa Rican capital, San José, we organised a special selection of our programme, with book presentations and discussions, as well as special activities for children, aimed at sharing cultural manifestations and highlighting the cultural riches of the indigenous peoples of Central America, thus fulfilling one of the goals of the Network of Cultural Centres, that of fostering exchange among cultural agents.

Training experience

One of the main aims of Centroamérica Cuenta is to support authors, journalists, editors, illustrators and students by offering skills-development workshops. Year after year, these workshops have updated knowledge, enhanced understanding and enabled the exchange of experiences. During the six editions of the Festival, it has expanded into different areas, incorporating ever more workshops into the programme. In this, the Festival has a shared interest with CCSN, which provides instruction in cultural management and in the cultural sector in general. Thus, Ángel de la Calle, Berna González and Juan Bolea have shared their knowledge of comics, cultural journalism and crime writing. Other skills-strengthening activities include talks, symposia, seminars and public lectures, all free of charge, and organised with the invaluable support of the Network of Cultural Centres of Spain. As we have made clear at different times and in different places, Centroamérica Cuenta is a festival that will last. It has solid foundations as the basis to continue promoting Central American art and literature, reflecting our identity and reality in the Isthmus, hand in hand with valuable allies such as AECID, and making our region known here and elsewhere.

Writer, journalist and politician from Nicaragua. President and founder of the Centroamérica Cuenta Festival, which has been held in Nicaragua since 2012. In 2017, he became the first Central American to receive the Cervantes Award.

Luz Arcas Abok (Dance)

José Manuel Ondó Mangué, dancer from Equatorial Guinea, in Abok, directed by Luz Arcas

Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Cultural Centre of Spain

First part of the project. May and June

It is the first day of the workshop and almost no students have come. In the work plan that I have prepared there are dance classes, both in technique and interpretation, dramatic art, set design, lights, production, all the fundamental disciplines when it comes to tackling a choreographic creation. “All projects fail in Guinea” the ex-pats tell me, “It is an apathetic country”. But I think, “It’s not apathy, the fact is that our projects bore them deeply. It’s a historical weariness”. I decide to set aside my project and just observe. I meet Delmati, a well-known choreographer in the country who has taught many dancers. I talk to him, I explain my project, I ask for help. The next day, more than 30 dancers come to class. “What are you doing here?”, I ask them. “Delmati told us to come”, they answer. We start to work. After football, dance is what most interests young people in Equatorial Guinea. The boys are much more numerous and dance better. But, if the future is not very promising for the country’s less privileged classes, for girls it is almost nonexistent. Many become pregnant before finishing school, and that is the immediate end of any possible career for them. Few women can take anything very seriously except marriage and motherhood. Students arrive when they can, one to two hours late. Sometimes they don’t arrive. Sometimes this is because the family house has been destroyed by a tropical storm, other times because a relative has died, or because they have had malaria or were unable to raise the money to come to class. Each day, fewer girls come. Their parents forbid them to come for fear of pregnancies and because they are needed to work in the home or to look after younger siblings. Some boys dream of being professional dancers. There is a huge amount of talent, coupled with a dangerous mythology of success, imported from neoliberal cultures. The dancers are self-taught, they have created hybrid styles between the traditional dances of their ethnicities, which they probably learned from their grandparents and other relatives, and the African-American (and Afro-European) culture of urban dance. Pre-colonial features coexist with the outcomes of migration and with the post-colonial identity. Every boy and girl is committed, body and soul. We create a highly choral dance form, in which we develop many ideas with which they can identify, related to the collective body, to the cultural group. Unlike us, and although the moral influence of the West is strong, they remain tribal: they form part of large families and those who have died remain in the family mind. It is as if they were always there, present,