2020 Casa Award for Cuban Abel González Melo

January 31, 2020

Cuban author Abel González Melo won the Casa de las Américas Prize 2020 in the Theater category for the work "Bayamesa. Réquiem por María Luisa Milanés", a text that demonstrates, among other virtues, «a mature dramaturgy that flows in a clear and profound manner».

The results of the 61st edition of the prestigious competition were announced in the Che Guevara Hall of Casa, in the presence of Abel Prieto Jiménez, president of Casa de las Américas, and Alpidio Alonso, Minister of Culture, among other personalities.

Mercedes Melo, mother of the honoree, read some words signed by her son, who thanked the jury and the Casa team, which «preserving the legacy of Haydée Santamaría and Roberto Fernández Retamar and so many founding masters (…) makes this emblematic Prize possible each year».

The message explains that, at the same time his mother receives the prize, he will be accompanying, «in a geography not so far away», the cast of Teatro Avante, which today premieres Bayamesa».

In the Short Story category, Mexican José Manuel Ríos Guerra won for La literatura es cosa seria, «a set of coherent stories (…) mostly ingenious».

The work Paletó e eu: memórias de meu pai indígena, by Aparecida Vilaça deserved the prize in Brazilian Literature for responding «to some of the most urgent problems of our time».

In the Essay on artistic-literary topics, the text Apalabrarse en la desposesión. Literatura, arte y multitud en el Caribe insular, by Puerto Rican writer Áurea María Sotomayor, won for being, among other reasons, «an urgent, erudite and innovative comparative analysis of Caribbean literatures and art in French, English and Spanish».

On the other hand, Martinique writer Fabienne Kanor was the winner in Caribbean Literature in French and Creole for her work Je ne suis pas un homme qui pleure, a proposal that «addresses primordial questions of contemporary realities, concerning populations from colonization, particularly from the Caribbean».

The Prize for Studies on Indigenous Cultures of America went to Le Maya q'atzij / Nuestra Palabra maya. Poéticas de la resistencia y emancipación desde Iximulew / Guatemala (1960-2012), by K'iche' Maya author Emil' Keme, from Guatemala. The text was recognized as «a critical analysis of the work of ten contemporary Maya writers».

The honorary prizes, which Casa has been awarding for 20 years to relevant books by authors of our America, or on Latin American topics, in the genres of poetry, narrative and essay, went to Ojos de la palabra, by Jorge Boccanera (Argentina); Sumar, by Diamela Eltit (Chile), and Una literatura en los trópicos. Ensayos escogidos, by Silviano Santiago (Brazil), corresponding respectively to the José Lezama Lima Poetry Prize; the José María Arguedas Narrative Prize and the Ezequiel Martínez Estrada Essay Prize.