Nancy at the Cervantes Institute in Paris. Photo taken from Prensa Latina

Havana, June 9 (RHC)-- Cuban poet Nancy Morejón and her Spanish counterpart José Antonio Mesa Toré met Friday with French high school students at the Cervantes Institute in Paris.

The Cuban creator described to the young attendees the richness and diversity of the Spanish language, which in the Caribbean takes a dimension of its own thanks to the contribution of diverse cultures and Antillean traditions in which there is even a strong presence of African components.

He stressed the importance of cultural exchanges within the American continent, and between Spanish-speaking countries and the Iberian Peninsula, and in the same vein Mesa Toré said that mutual influences from one side of the Atlantic to the other strengthen the treasure of a common language.

Both poets declared the deep influence in their works of the so-called Generation of '27, highlighting among its members Federico García Lorca, to whom Morejón added the universal Nicolás Guillén, representative of "mulatto" poetry, and Martinique's Aimé Césaire, ideologist of the concept of "negritude".

Photo taken from PL

At the end of the conversation, the 2001 National Literature Prize winner expressed to Prensa Latina her satisfaction for "the sincere dialogue and the empathy established among the participants", and also declared that she felt "very comfortable, with young people attentive and interested in poetry".

The students were able to enjoy the verses of the Cuban creator both in Spanish and French, as she brought them some translated compositions from her new bilingual edition "El tiempo de la iguana" (The Time of the Iguana).

Those who prevented Nancy Morejón's presence in the activities of the 40th edition of the "Marché de la Poésie", which is taking place this week in Paris, did not count on the wide support that the Cuban intellectual awakens in France in areas ranging from culture or education to politics.