Galicia, Euskal Herria, Catalan Countries
What was the last book you read originally written in Basque or Galician? How many authors would you name currently writing from Galicia or the Basque Country? And direct translators between these languages? If it's clear we have a few things in common, though not all of them good, why don't we have more spaces for exchange between the three cultural systems?
These and other questions have plagued me since the last meeting of Galeusca, the federation of associations of writers in Galician, Basque, and Catalan. After a decade without public activity, this strategic space for activism and intercultural dialogue resumed operations last year in Palma, and this year Santiago has been the city that has given it continuity. There, we discussed the fraternal need to listen to each other and take each other more seriously as related cultural fields, copyright and artificial intelligence, and also the literature of oral tradition. For those of us who attended, it was also a good opportunity to meet Basque and Galician authors firsthand, either in person or recommended by the best influencers they can have: their colleagues in the profession. And amidst so much discovery, I said to myself: "I wish this conversation, direct and without intermediaries, could reach even more people."
Umberto Eco once said that the language of Europe is translation. That's why there are cases of Basque and Galician authors who have easily succeeded with translations of their books into Catalan, such as Manuel Rivas, Suso de Toro, and Bernardo Atxaga, among others. If we look at the opposite path, it's pleasing to see how figures like Rodoreda and Quim Monzó have also become classics read in Basque and Galician. But what lies beyond these writers who made their fortunes especially in the 1980s and 1990s, marked by a period of relative expansion and publishing normality? What authors are we missing if we don't seek them out more proactively?
Just as Galician and Basque literature have eagerly embraced translated works by Irene Solà, Bel Olid, and Pau Vadell, there are many translations from these languages into our own that have been published in recent years. And in both cases, it seems to be about female writers: Eider Rodríguez and Katixa Agirre have generated two small publishing phenomena thanks to translations by Pau Joan Hernández, while in Galician, names such as Marilar Aleixandre, winner of the National Narrative Prize, stand out. Bad women, and representatives of the younger generations of adult and adolescent authors, such as Berta Dávila and María Reimóndez. And then there's Gonzalo Hermo, Míriam Ferradáns, Castillo Suarez, Cesáreo Sánchez Iglesias... The credit belongs to them and to the often heroic army of translators who accompany them: Eduardo Velasco, Dolores Miguel, Pedro Comellas, Manel Rodríguez Castelló, Ainara Munt, Lluís. And I think we owe it to ourselves.
