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 Entertainment | Books | May 2006 
Literature is Ideal Way to Know Hispanics
 Jerry Johnston - Deseret Morning News
During the recent visit of Mexico's president, Vicente Fox, Gov. Huntsman kept repeating his "three points of cooperation" as if retelling the story of the three bears. Huntsman stressed: education, economics and culture.
As an "aficionado" of the arts, the "cultural bear" is the one that caught my eye.
And as a writer, the part of culture that interests me most is the written word.
Because of the language barrier, when many Utahns imagine cultural exchanges with Mexico, in their minds they see whirling dancers, hear spirited music and imagine vivid, colorful paintings. The language arts — poetry, literature, drama, comedy, film — never enter the picture.
But as a newspaper hack with typing skills and an audience, I urge the governor to make literature a big part of the cultural exchange.
The performing arts are a gateway to a nation's spirit.
But the language arts get you into a nation's heart.
Mexicans are already better at taking the measure of Americans through our words. They have no aversion to reading subtitles in the theater. They attend American movies in droves. They buy translations of books on the New York Times best-seller list by the thousands. They know more about us than we know about them.
Reading the literature of a foreign country can be like seeing a new color for the very first time.
It brightens the color wheel of our lives.
Americans don't have to go to Mars to explore a new world. All they have to do is pick up a short story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez or read a poem by Cesar Vallejo.
In the past, scholars have said when literature is translated, what gets lost in translation is the literature. But that's not so true anymore. Translators are becoming artists themselves. I've done enough translating to know the buckets of tears and blood it takes to do it well. One Mexican translator compares it to giving birth to cactus. And great translators — like Helen Lane, Gregory "El Magnifico" Rabassa and W.S. Merwin — are worth their weight in rubies.
In the United States, we've been spoiled. In the arts, all roads lead to America because the market here is rich. Most everything of worth produced in other languages ends up in English. And that, I think, has made us a bit lazy. We get self-satisfied. As with cars and other goods, we figure if it's not American-made, it's not for us.
But novels and plays are not automobiles. They are more valuable and more durable. They not only embellish our lives, but can change our lives for the better.
And so, as Gov. Huntsman and others begin cobbling together cultural exchanges with Mexico, I urge him to make sure there are some wonderful books written by Utahns going south, and some great works of literature by Mexicans coming north.
In fact, Utahns may want to begin "training" for that exchange by watching a video or two with subtitles, or reading a book written by a Mexican author.
It sounds like homework, I know.
But trust me. It feels more like pulling back a curtain and throwing open a window.
Email: jerjohn@desnews.com |
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