Nersys Felipe: 85 springs dedicated to children

August 31, 2020

Today we congratulate the Cuban professor, narrator and poetess Nersys Teresita Felipe Herrera on her birthday, National Literature Prize winner 2011.

The writer was born in Guane, Pinar del Río in 1935, and her childhood experiences, her relationship with her family, the professions she has held and her entire life story are reflected in her books which are undoubtedly a gift full of fantasy and moral teachings for young children.

The memories of her grandfather, her father and her childhood helped her write such beautiful books as Cuentos de Guane and Román Elé which have won the Casa de las Américas Literary Prize and above all the admiration of young Cuban readers of several generations.

In 1980, Cuentos de Guane was among the best sellers in Venezuela, and in 1985, it was adapted, broadcast and awarded under the title "Mi familia" by Radio Moscú.

However, her first calling was that of an actress, inspired by one of her teachers at the convent school where she studied and in which she participated in all the performances.

Between 1949 and 1953, she studied at the Normal School of Teachers, and after graduating she worked three school years teaching first grade and one year teaching third grade. She was also a choral singing teacher at the Provincial School of Art in Pinar del Río. In total she dedicated more than 15 years to teaching.

She later wrote scripts for children's programs at Radio Guamá station in that province, and was founder of the Puppet Theater Group in that territory, she was a puppeteer, as she herself says.

The influence of the author on Cuban children is daily, as many of her poems are included in the reading books of Primary Education, and Cuentos de Guane also integrates, as supplementary reading, the curriculum for third grade of that educational level.

The record of her published texts, and those included in anthologies is endless; besides those already mentioned, Felipe has written: Cuentos de Nato, Maísa and Corazón de Libélula (and other elves and fairies); the poetry collections Para que ellos canten (La Edad de Oro Prize 1974), Música y colores and Prenda, among many others, some of which have been translated into several languages. Specifically Cuentos de Guane, Román Elé and Maísa, have been published in Russia, Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Holland and Spain.

In 2018, Ediciones Loynaz published her book Papaloteando which had a great reception from young readers.

Her poems and stories have appeared in multiple anthologies published in Uruguay, Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and the United States.

Nersys Felipe is a multi-awarded writer; among the many honors she has received can be mentioned: Distinction for National Culture, Ministry of Culture (1983); Distinction The Utility of Virtue, awarded by the José Martí Cultural Society; La Edad de Oro Prize for her poetry collection Para que ellos canten (1974); Distinction for the 100 years of La Edad de Oro, and La Edad de Oro Prize; for her book Música y colores (1975).

Her prolific work in Cuban radio has also brought her many satisfactions and recognitions: First Prize for dramatized script for children at the XXI National Festival of Cuban Radio, for Papobo... y alguien más; Grand Prize for Varied Programs for her dramatized script for children De una viejita te cuento, at the XXIII National Festival of Cuban Radio; Caracol Prize for children's radio script for the dramatized script De una viejita te cuento; Honor Microphone for her excellent and continued work on Radio, awarded by the Cuban Institute of Broadcasting, and she is an Artist of Merit of Cuban Radio.

All her life experiences, her direct contact with children in the classroom and the wisdom that being a mother has given her, facilitated her knowledge of child psychology and its recreational, spiritual and emotional demands, which combined with the natural talent and sensitivity of Nersys Felipe made her the great writer she is today, National Literature Prize winner of 2011.

The awarding decree for this honor reads, in one of its parts: "the profound Martian sap that runs through her work nourishes the author's formative vocation in the aesthetic and ethical fields of the human being."

And certainly the Martian spirit can be appreciated in Nersys Felipe's teachings, teachings full of wonder and goodness, that seek above all the pleasure and entertainment of her readers, seek to move them with stories of humanism and feelings, and awaken their fantasy, imagination, and curiosity, to encourage them to always learn and expand their knowledge. Because they wanted to be the first to congratulate her; the children from the artistic creation project Crearte went ahead and visited Nersys Felipe. Well protected and respecting distance they filled the creator of magical stories with gifts and joy.

"… I am very happy to have you in my life; because if you analyze it they mean that, my life;" said the children's writer, moved by the singular surprise, who stands out as the only person from Pinar del Río who holds the National Literature Prize.

Nersys thanked the drawings and poems that children from several countries sent to the online contest organized to celebrate her birthday; she told them about her books and asked them to read a lot.

"…I am a writer because I was a great reader; and I believe that I know about life because I was a great reader; you learn to live in the lives of others through the characters in novels and in poetry you learn to unravel the things of life; to find their essence."

Surrounded by books and the affection of her fellow Pinar del Río natives lives the Author of Cuentos de Guane and Román Elé; books distinguished with the Casa de las Américas Prize in 1975 and 1976 which are among the best literature written for children and young people in Cuba.

"Always books in my life like children, it's just that they are one and the same thing, because they are written for them, they come together, they merge, I cannot separate them and I hope my eyesight improves so I can write another book someday."

Attached to her homeland, at 85 years old, Nersys, the grandmother that every child would want to have confesses herself to be a happy woman.

"I make my own happiness, I plant a tree or read some poetry or a friend calls me and I tell her to come over and we spend some time together, I joke with my husband and we tell stories from before and I make my own happiness"