Grieving
Ramon Garcia Guerra
This reminds me of the infamous decision of the jury president in 1967 who denied the Nobel Prize in Literature to Jorge Luis Borges.
Critique
It so happens that 28 years ago I had a conversation with a famous Russian filmmaker who admired the film «Strawberry and Chocolate.» I asked him what he thought of Perugorria’s performance. He looked at me strangely. He took a few seconds to answer, but when he did, I had no doubt that he knew what he was saying. «You are mistaken, for the quality of his performance, the lead actor is Vladimir Cruz, not Jorge Perugorria.» Someone had told me before how difficult it was for the film director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (Titón) to get the best out of Perugorria for this film.
I confess that if I were guided by the affection and respect I feel for Pichi (People of the Neighborhood), I would regret and erase everything I said in the previous paragraph.
But knowing that Pichi accepted the award from Miguel Barnet makes me regain my step and go back on the attack, to say that the award he receives is stained with betrayal, hypocrisy, mediocrity, and servility. When he was young, Barnet was the messenger of Don Fernando Ortiz; but that alone was enough for him to climb the walls of power and reach the highest tower of the castle. To do what he does best, but now up there in the heights. He has written verses that do not quite reach poetry. But the merit of Miguel Barnet is to have invented reggaeton in 1966; only then it was called «testimonial novel».
Akerunoticias 