Dominican Republic Participate in the First International Meeting of Ethnic Writers

Dominican Republic Participate in the First International Meeting of Ethnic Writers
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 11/7/2011

With the motto “We have the word’ the First International Meeting of Ethnic Writers took place in Costa Rica with 17 countries represented.

The encounter put forward aspects of each of the cultures represented, displaying the rich mosaic of noteworthy expression from our America.

Representing the Dominican Republic was Mateo Morrison, the Culture Ministry’s Vice Minister of Institutional Development and president of the National Commission for the Year of African Heritage.

The meeting promoted democratic values, free speech and human achievements. Creative connections were also strengthened between regional writers of Indigenous, African and Chinese heritage. The meeting also promoted multicultural inclusion and societies free of racism and discrimination.

The encounter put forward aspects of each of the cultures represented, displaying the rich mosaic of noteworthy expression from our America.

Morrison mentioned the importance of the work of black poet Juan Sanchez Lamouth and related his work to the literature of authors like Aimé Cesaire, Nicolás Guillén, Luis Pales Matos and Manuel del Cabral. He also mentioned the Dominican poet Aida Cartagena Portalatín and her connection with surrealism which led her to make valued contacts with black poets in France. She later visited Africa and wrote about it in her book “The Written Earth.”