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• Arts and Culture
• Literature
• 10 / 27 / 2007

Thirty years ago, Luis Rogelio Nogueras (1944-1985) nicknamed as Wichy el Rojo published his first book. The date marks the birth of a poet, who from the very beginning wrote for the reader in a way as if he were all time expecting to hear his reaction. His is a Cuban poet through and through.

In the prologue to his book of poems "Hay muchos modos de jugar" recently edited by Letras Cubanas publishing house, Guillermo Rodríguez Rivera wrote: "In the early days of the Cuban revolution, national poets were linked to each other through the common interest of understanding the Hispanic American man as much as César Vallejos legacy". Obviously, Luis Rogelio Nogueras is among those who has benefited from such a treasure.

Childhood, family, death, love, sexuality, universal interest in poetry and much more orbit around Nogueras literary work, a landmark in the middle of the world convulsive situation. Hes one of the most outstanding Latin American writers in the 20th century, whose work is directly connected with the social, economic and political battles that made history in Cuba.

The array of heroes he presents in his novels, who come to denounce social problems give a different swift to the traditional way of storytelling: Wichys literary approach also wonders whether translating Mayakovski is not "a sort of transferring to another language the noise of the factories and the cheers of the crowds".

Likewise his verses describe the criminal air raid and bombing of a poor rural town during the Viet Nam war and according to Guillermo Rodríguez Rivera, "the author is an expert in economizing at most the chemical mud into which violence has turned human life":

"El pueblo estaba junto al río.
Y después ya no hubo río, ni pueblo, ni nada...
Solo unas manchas en la tierra,
Como de cal, pero azules"

Rogelio has a daring, defiant rather heretic language that has been properly presented in cinema, free from vulgarism and wrapped into a tender and enjoyable human sexuality "a too pure or too precocious idea on sex and love" that should be faced "completely naked", according to what the authors warning.

Luis Rogelio Nogueras died young thus leaving many things in stock to say. His many credits account for David Award for Poetry 1967, UNEAC Novel Contest 1977. His friends and admirers compare his talent to that of Silvio Rodríguez or Víctor Casaus. Aged 40 he died, and at a distance of thirty years of his first appearance in print we still thirst for his writing.

Source: Cubarte