December Breeze

"I recommend this book to you very, very much. It’s just been translated into English. It’s by Marvel Moreno (1939-1995), a writer who wasn’t allowed to get known because she lived in a society that forbade women to be intellectuals and to be in the public arena. This book has had a long struggle to get read. People are reading it now and they’re recognizing its value. It’s a huge, big novel, like a Dostoyevsky or a Tolstoy, that wants to tell everything, that wants to tell the world. It’s the story of several women in Barranquilla, which is a big port on the Caribbean coast. It’s a very small society, of people who think they are almost from the nobility. They’re very conservative. It’s set in the 1950 and 60s and tells the story of women there. It’s a very brave novel, because in those days—and even nowadays, even in my time—we were told that women do not have sexual desires, and that if you happen to have such desire then you do not talk about it and you do not show it. This book talks about women desiring and women being sexual creatures and women living their sexuality, sometimes in a liberating way, but sometimes also being abused by men. It makes for a very painful but, unfortunately, realistic portrayal of the lives of women in those days. It’s a long novel, but it’s a novel you devour. You want the day to finish so you can get home and read. It’s that kind of novel. She has great prose. She’s a big writer. Like Tolstoy, you feel you’re reading a classic because it’s so elaborate. It’s the story of Barranquilla, but from the point of view of women. That’s what’s amazing about it. We know the history told by men. She’s telling it from the point of view of women and it’s a very different story. She’s very critical. No, they’re not on the syllabus but there are teachers, from a younger generation, who are saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to read them. It’s not on the syllabus but we’re going to read them because I want you to read these books.’ For the past three years, I’ve been working on a project with the Ministry of Culture in Colombia, which is called ‘Biblioteca de Escritoras Colombianas’ (‘Colombian women writers’ library’). We publish books by great Colombian female writers, books you cannot read because they are forgotten. I didn’t need to publish Marvel Moreno in this collection because she’s read nowadays. You can find her books in bookshops. Soledad Acosta de Samper I did have to publish in that collection, because her book is out there, but difficult to find. We were hoping to tell teachers, ‘She exists. She’s good. Read her.’ Oh no, not at all. I don’t enjoy writing. I enjoy when I finish writing. It’s like running a marathon—I’ve run a half marathon—I enjoy it when I’m finished and when they give me my medal. I enjoy my books when they’re out there, when I can say ‘Oof I’ve finished, I don’t have to deal with this book anymore.’ I also enjoy planning a book. But the actual working on it every day and trying to get the sentences out? It’s a long and difficult process for me."