Isla Negra, the winning book of the 2024 Mazatlán Literature Prize, was presented Friday night at Casa Haas, with the participation of its author, poet Elsa Cross.
On behalf of the Instituto Municipal de Cultura, Turismo y Arte de Mazatlán, an institution that promotes and grants this distinction within the framework of the cultural program of Carnaval Internacional de Mazatlán, maestro Enrique Vega Ayala thanked the State Government, the Municipal Government of Mazatlán, CULTURA and to the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, which contributed the 100 thousand pesos that the award-winning writer will receive.
At the table of honor were Dr. Iván Tostado Ramírez, Vice Chancellor of the Southern Regional Unit of Sinaloa; Eve Gil, Cultural Journalist and member of the jury; Braulio Peralta, Cultural Journalist and member of the jury and the Mazatlecan writer Juan José Rodríguez, Coordinator of the jury of the Mazatlán Prize for Literature, and of course, award-winning author Elsa Cross, winner of the Mazatlán Prize for Literature. The presence of Carolina Ruelas, Queen-elect of the Mazatlán International Carnaval 2024, and Siu Ling Cotero, who will be crowned Queen of the Floral Games, also stood out.
Isla Negra is the fifth poetry book awarded in the history of the Mazatlán Literature Prize.
In this regard, Juan José Rodríguez said that it was very good that poetry and women have returned to the Mazatlán Literature Prize.
Elsa Cross’s poetry, her legacy and also the Mazatlán Prize for Literature and the city are ennobled with this opportunity for literature and poetry to touch our city, our environment. That Carnaval is present in this award reaffirms our identity and our way of continuing to be Sinaloans, Mazatlecans, but above all, sensitive human beings in a world full of totally robotic automations or trapped in an electronic organism, an algorithm. Now poetry, like in ancient Greece, can save us, whether Troy falls or the best of impossible worlds is born, said Juan José Rodríguez.
Dr. Iván Tostado Ramírez, representing UAS, expressed that books have been the main means of transmitting knowledge and wisdom and that the promotion of culture and literature has always been one of the fundamental missions of the highest house of studies. and even more so now that we are working on an educational model based on humanism and it is extremely satisfying to continue being part of this important national literature award awarded within the framework of the celebration of Carnaval Internacional de Mazatlán.
The UAS official thanked the General Director of the Instituto de Cultura, Raúl Rico González, for the invitation, reaffirmed the commitment to Sinaloan society to contribute to the training of future generations and congratulated maestra Elsa Cross.
Braulio Peralta described that poetry is neither explained nor analyzed, it is only perceived by those who listen to it. When referring to the author, he said that it is impossible to write about a book by Elsa Cross without paddling through the past of her work that makes an unfathomable wave, pieces of synthesis about what we forget about yesterday that she turns into the present, because words cannot be as the heart appears, but the understanding of a spiritual experience that, for example in Baniano, enchants us the poet who meditates for herself and with her the prayers to the world to find an axis where the universe is stillness, peace and plenitude. It is not an escape, it is the encounter with oneself.
Peralta emphasized that in Elsa Cross’s poetry she feels that she has crossed paths with her poetic reasoning after learning about her experience with yoga and meditation. Braulio Peralta described Elsa Cross as a poet gifted by what is called Shaktipat in Sanskrit, that touch of energy to awaken sleeping spirits.
He emphasized that “Isla Negra” is a pretext to celebrate the wise and profound poetry of Elsa Cross, a poetry that has passed silently for decades without the screams of egomania or entertainment culture, with the humility of bare feet, serene, stepping stronag in art where beings illuminated by the gift of letters are discovered. “Isla Negra” is a reference book that envelops us in her obsessions with the profane and divine rites of the inner search.
Elsa Cross is unique in Mexican poetry because her philosophical research has taken her to other worlds where the search for light is the center of her gaze, he stated.
Eve Gil spoke about the general work of Elsa Cross and highlighted that her poetry is a perpetual rediscovery of language and a constant opening of eyes to parallel realities, opening them ever larger to the effect of beauty that signs create when they meet. each one withits each.
Elsa Cross thanked the Mazatlán City Council, the University and the extraordinary hospitality of this city, and said: “More than talking, I would like to share with you some of the poems in this book, and I am going to begin by reading two poems by female figures. Bacchante and Sibyl, which are consecrated to the God Apollo and the God Dionysus”, at the end of reading her poems, Elsa Cross signed books and spent time with those who approached her.
