El Dorado - A Brief History
In May 1997, it organized a poetry reading at the National Library of Canada, a building that is located on Wellington Street Ottawa, the same street that houses the Parliament of Canada, the Supreme Court of Justice and the Central Bank of Canada among others notable in this northern country. That reading was a kind of meeting between Chilean writers, Canadian and other nationalities as part of Canadian society.
After this reading, which was attended by writers such as Asoka Weerasinghe, Jorge Etcheverry, Daniel Nadezhdin, John O'Neill, Arturo Lazo and others, several participants and other attendees reading we went to follow a very interesting conversation to a Latin American restaurant that had begun to operate to some time in Ottawa. A long time ago I came with the idea of \u200b\u200bstarting a reading of texts in Castilian for this language authors living in the city of Ottawa, nearby cities and some further afield. Before that, in the early 90's or late 80's he had proposed some friends to organize a literary discussion group in English league and thus was born the window, a group where great literary discussions unfolded, with enough flavor and metaphysical burden. This worked for some time at home and look Nieves Fuentes and somehow it was a little precursor of El Dorado.
existed in the city a poetry reading circuit that operated for several years, authors who wrote in Castilian (mostly Chileans at the time) were invited to these lectures, where obviously we had to read our articles in one of the official languages . That night before we retire to our homes Jorge Etcheverry I proposed to start a reading at the same venue where we had dinner, among other guests were with us too Arturo Lazo. After receiving an affirmative response, immediately talked with the owner of this establishment and we said yes, he accepted a reading literature in his restaurant. The last Friday of June 1997 conducted the first reading of El Dorado (name proposed by J. Etcheverry) in La Isla Bonita, which at that time worked at the Somerset Street Chinatown Ottawa. The first special guest for this reading was John O'Neill, a Cuban-Canadian poet who in the past had collaborated with the Chilean exiles in time was needed English-English interpretation, when the Chileans would visit a political representative or any meeting with Canadian parliamentarians.
Exactly one year earlier had founded the literary magazine Alter Vox whose main goal was also the idea of \u200b\u200bpublishing authors in English in Canada.
In the fourteen years of El Dorado had to make an itinerant character because the restaurants or cafes where he has worked have been variants of the market itself. The first year of running in La Isla Bonita, then briefly in restaurants Picante's and Allegro, later, and perhaps the best time (for good or best time we refer to periods of high call for a poetry reading) of El Dorado, Gusti was in the restaurant in Preston Street in Little Italy. Later, in another time it was worked pretty good coffee at the famous folk of Rasputin's Ottawa, where she played in the beginning artists as famous as Lorena McKennitt, and several other Canadian Folk world. In the past three years, apart from special appearances in some local universities and cultural centers, El Dorado for very short periods has worked in several other establishments in the city.
One of the particularities of El Dorado during the whole operation is that it has completely dispensed aid (monetary) that some cultural offices of various levels of government in Canada to offer the arts, whether by a healthy kind of neglect of our hand, or the fact of not wanting to be subject to decisions by people who simply may not understand the existence of alternative literary or artistic groups. During
its operation in El Dorado have read no less than one hundred and sixty special guests and more than 1600 readers in the open mic. They have also played a very respectable number of artists and bands of varied musical styles, including classical music. We also presented to filmmakers and historians and literary symposia and international known as Boreal.
In this anthology we wanted to have as many participants as possible within those who have been special guests to the readings, but as in many anthologies, sometimes not all writers want to participate and others simply are untraceable. The Forty-nine participants in this volume include two poets who are no longer with us but they were true Eldoradianos during his days as poets, we are referring to John O'Neill and Maureen Glaude. This book
participating poets as far away as Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Peru, USA, El Salvador and those living in Canada but who came from the aforementioned countries plus Argentina, Bolivia, Sri Lanka, Italy , Poland, Jamaica and Haiti over the Anglophone and Francophone Canadian poets.
Now let the texts of writers grouped in this book reflect what has been heard and seen in El Dorado for the past fourteen years. Hope that reading these pages bring the literary taste that you taste and makes us believe that literature is justified.
Luciano Díaz Porras
March 2011
An anthology at the crossroads
This anthology of El Dorado is produced in Canada in the context of an ethno-linguistic and culturally diverse society, in large part the result of immigration, but with two or more three founding peoples. One might suppose that here there may be missing intercultural bodies at all levels, especially in the national capital, Ottawa. In fact, they are not, but this multiculturalism does not tend to include more sophisticated demonstrations along with other more accessible to the general public, such as gastronomy, folklore and fashion, to a lesser extent film and plastic. In general these cultural products are given in the institutional framework of libraries and universities and the good offices of the embassies or consulates eager to spread the culture of their countries. If ever there was a section in the ministry intended to multiculturalism literary heritage, funding was not given to literary per se, or its authors. The merit of the projects that the works should be candidates to represent their communities and contribute to their integration to the Canadian community. Thus, such institutional support was given to literature implicitly considered as second class, as opposed to more official funding-federal, provincial and local, to the arts and literature, emphasizing the merits as it 'literary' works to give grants or scholarships. Minor was and is still the funding or support for instances which in fact promote, but not programmatically, the multicultural literature. But here, El Dorado has to recognize that while there has never enjoyed any funding or support at the level of cultural institutions, in fact it has never been an impediment to the implementation of its activities fifteen years of dissemination, preservation and creation of literacy not only in the Castilian language, but in other languages \u200b\u200bthat generate literature in the cultural mosaic. Testimony to this is the variety of authors who make up this anthology, which in turn have been invited to read his work during these years. Then, this anthology and editorial and community effort behind, is partly to fill a need (inter) cultural always present but never in the limelight.
Moreover, this anthology is part of Chilean production in exile in Canada. The authors of the initiative, its nuclear managers and others who at various times have been our committee have been Chilean authors, mainly poets. In its 35 years, the Chilean Literature in Canada has given rise to literary workshops, magazines and publishers, as well as literary events of Chilean literature per se or in Castilian literature produced in the country, mostly Hispanic. Chilean literature provided two elements to the emerging literature in English in the country. The first is the organization. Chilean authors at different levels of development and various literary trends, took to literature as a weapon of resistance against the dictatorship abroad in the country of origin, and so instances generated editorial, creative and not-so-diffusion only Chilean literature on several occasions had the support of the community. The second element is that these authors were perceived as part of a national literature and to schedule events and make their publications operating criteria that guided his work partly to Chile, the Chilean diaspora basically start where the events held in Canada were recorded and announced and published authors whose media. The intent of linking with the literature 'inside' is a constant of entities managed by Chilean literature. We also tend to apply from the model of the rock as the setting for reading and musical performance, to way to anthologies, published in our journals, as craft, or invite authors to read, usually by invitation or promise made creative work. Results of these two strands is this anthology, with its multiple voices representing the multifaceted Canadian literature, and literature of different countries, languages \u200b\u200band generations, whose voices are displayed in their diversity, solidifying their slogan from Mao, "to flourish thousand flowers. " Jorge Etcheverry
Arcaya
March 2011
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