Students at San Francisco State University recited their poems alongside Spanish poet Elvira Perpinyà, who showcased poetry from her new book “Di-Versos y me regalaron sonrisas,” at an event organized by the department of modern languages and literature and the Spanish program in honor of Latinx Heritage Month on Thursday.
The event was organized by professor Ana Luengo, coordinator of the Spanish program at SFSU, who published a book through the same editorial as Perpinyà in Barcelona, establishing a connection all the way from Spain.
“It just so happened that Elvira Perpinyà, a poet I hold in high regard from Barcelona, came to visit California and I thought, ‘‘I have to bring these two things together,’” Luengo said.
Every semester, the Spanish program organizes a cultural event to create a sense of community among the students of the program and invite people from outside the department.
“I try to bring in artists, academics, people from outside San Francisco, or outside the university, so that they interact with the students so that there is commentary, so that everyone can broaden their horizons,” Luengo said.
The event began with the works of various students of the Spanish program. Each student had the opportunity to present their art before an audience that gathered in Room 473 of the Humanities Building.
Perpinyà said she was impressed with the students’ poetry.
“It’s people with a conscience, as in, their poetry isn’t trivial,” Perpinyà said. “It’s poetry that transmits something, that says something.”
Liliana Torpey, a student at SFSU pursuing a master’s degree in creative writing, shared her first poem written in Spanish, “La muerte nueva.” In her poem, Torpey mentioned the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the U.S. and the “deportations to places of El Salvador” and the “violence in this current period of history.” She drew inspiration from Chilean poet Raúl Zurita and his poem “La vida nueva.”
“It was really beautiful,” Torpey said. “I’m in the department for creative writing in English, so it’s not common for me to be at an event where everyone is speaking Spanish, where we’re listening to poetry in Spanish. So, it’s really nice to be in a community that’s interested in art and literature in Spanish.”
Through events like these, the student community gets the opportunity to engage with writers from diverse parts of the world, facilitating an exchange of ideas and experiences.
“I like that this community is present at the university and that writers in other languages come to read their works to us,” Torpey said.
Spanish professor Michael Hammer attended the event and took great pride in his students and their talent.
“The students of our program have lots of talent… and the guest [Perpinyà] was phenomenal,” Hammer said. “I wasn’t familiar with her poetry before. It’s the first time I’m hearing her poems, but I’ve already bought her book because I liked it so much.”
Hammer said that these types of department events are an opportunity to get in contact with authors like Perpinyà and that it’s always good to live new experiences.
“This is an opportunity to be together, to share the space, share these poems,” Hammer said. “It’s part of the university experience to attend these kinds of events and open new windows to the world.”
Benito Beltrán, who graduated as an undergraduate from SFSU with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and is now pursuing his master’s degree in the same field, described poetry as an art form that does not have an age or barriers.
“[I want to] demonstrate what I can do and what I have within me,” Beltrán said. “It’s a language that obviously isn’t our first language; we were colonized, but it’s something we’ve learned and loved.”
This event was not only a space for poetry but also a platform for students to share their vulnerability with people in the audience.
Cristina Sobolev, a student of Luengo pursuing a master’s degree in Spanish, noted that the space felt safe to freely express herself.
“Everyone was really open, they let their vulnerability show, they showed respect to all the classmates and the silence of being there in the moment,” Sobolev said.
Sobolev shared her poem “La dama blanca,” in which she expressed what it meant to be vulnerable when stereotypes about Colombia, her country of origin, cast her in a harmful image. That is where she drew inspiration to write it.
“[I want to] show them that we aren’t what they think,” Sobolev said.
Being present is also an idea Perpinyà shares, noting that, nowadays, new generations are falling into a tendency of isolation.
“This is what’s happening now, right here, people are conversing, interchanging, it’s all very rich,” Perpinyà said. “It’s what fulfills us, really, talking to one another, looking into each other’s eyes, seeing ourselves. This is all very important.”
Luengo said participating in this type of activity becomes a way to contribute, to speak up and remember that community exists and there are people who care.
“With everything that’s going on, it’s a moment for the community to show itself; personally, physically, it’s vital in order to get through this situation,” Luengo said. “I fear that every time it will be more complicated, but it’s a form of resistance.”
