The young Rosabel Pi González, from Camagüey, was the winner of the Canto alrededor del Punto National Contest of Gloss, with "Última solicitud de matrimonio a Soledad," a result announced - as part of the Jornada Cucalambeana - at the Catauro de la Décima on 30 June, in Las Ruinas of El Cornito farm.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- The jury, made up of Juan Carlos García Guridi, Yadira Troche Nerey, and Guillermo Castillo Vega, after analyzing the 22 works in competition, unanimously awarded the prize to this text, which glosses verses from the poem Acto de fe, from the book Los Hemisferios Contrarios, by Alexander Aguilar and Carlos Esquivel, winner of the 2017 Cucalambé Prize.
In addition, a first shared mention was awarded to Herencia regresiva and Flores blancas, by Esteban Daniel García López, from Las Tunas; and Nitza Estela Núñez, from Camagüey, respectively. Mayrelis Ruiz Torres, from Mayabeque, and Antonio Luque Álvarez, from Las Tunas were also awarded two mentions for Amor sobre amor, and Amor en cóncavo y convexo, in that order.
Speaking to 26, the 25-year-old winner confessed that this is the first time she has participated in the competition, which she learned about thanks to Linnet Molina, a fellow countrywoman who won last year's contest. Bel, as she is called, is a cardiologist by profession. She says she discovered literature long before Medicine because books have surrounded her since she was a girl and read "compulsively."
"I don't know what I would be without poetry, without literature. It is what helps me to overcome all the processes. I have cultivated narrative, free verse, and other strophic forms; but, from the day my Dominican friend and poet Miguel Contreras introduced me to the octosyllabic rhyme, I fell in love. Then, Alejandro González Bermúdez, director of the Décima House in Camagüey, included me in the Última hoja group. That's how I began to surround myself with rhapsodists and to win a few prizes. Today I know clearly that my mission is to write," she sums up her arrival in the fascinating world of literature.
Bewitched by the literary movement she sees in Las Tunas and proud to have won the battle a little over a year after getting "fully involved" in the event, she considers self-improvement a key tool for a writer. "Everything is invented here, as my teacher Alejandro says. That's why it's important to nourish yourself with references and, also, to read your contemporaries. It's admirable to see the diversity of the different philosophical and language forms that exist," she said.
Since she was a child, according to her grandmother, if the book did not contain consonant poetry, she would put it aside. The tenth lived in her, she just hadn't discovered it. "In Bel's poetry, what cannot be missing is lyricism, I like the poems to have an impact, to transmit something to people. My poetry cannot be forced, it must be born," she added, who also works as a broadcaster.
She says that Última solicitud de matrimonio a Soledad was born one day when she was at home alone, there was no electricity and she came across a fragment written down in her blog of notes from Los Hemisferios Contrarios, one of those that made such an impact on her "that I die in verse", as she likes to say. And that is where the gloss was born. But, she clarifies, "I don't write glosses because I say 'I'm going to gloss so-and-so'. When I read something that impacts me, I keep it to use it one day."
Rosabel does not practice Medicine today because she has devoted herself almost entirely to literature, which makes her happy. With her beautiful voice, quick thinking, and beauty similar to that of a Birama Flower, she walks hand in hand with Alejandro Muñoz, her partner, who by chance also competed for the first time in the Cucalambé Contest of Written Décima, obtaining a mention.
"Obtaining this prize is a great step. I don't like to run, I need the mentions to grow," she said. And, with her hair down, yarey hat on her head, and her gaze lost among books, she leaves the grounds of El Cornito to return in future editions to this land of poetic tradition. For our part, we look forward to seeing you Bel.