WEBVTT

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Some of you in the audience
know a great deal about Rosario

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Ferré, and some of you I would
speculate know very little.

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So I'm going to give a
long introduction with lots

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of facts and titles for those of
you who don't know who she is.

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We have in our presence
a major literary figure,

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not only in Latin America,
but internationally.

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And I want us to recognize
that as she reads.

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Rosario Ferré was born
in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

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She graduated from
Manhattanville College

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as an English major,
obtained her master's degree

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in Spanish and Latin American
literature from the University

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of Puerto Rico, and her
PhD from the University

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of Maryland in 1987.

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So she really is
Doctora Profesora Ferré,

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Doctor Professor Ferré.

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She began writing in 1970
when she edited and published

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a literary magazine
called Zona de Carga y

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Descarga in Puerto Rico.

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This magazine published the
works of young Puerto Rican

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writers many of whom
later became well-known

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in the literary
landscape of the island.

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In 1976, she published her first
book of short stories Papeles

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de Pandora in Mexico.

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That same year she
received a prize

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at the Ateneo Puertorriqueno
in Casa de las Americas

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in Cuba for her short stories.

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In 1978, she published "El
Medio Pollito, a book of fables.

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And in 1981, La Muneca
Pizarro and La Cola

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and Los Cuentos de Juan Bobo,
both children's stories.

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From 1977 to 1980, she wrote
a column of literary criticism

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in the Puerto Rican
paper "El Mundo".

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In 1982, she published a book
of feminist essays Sitio a Eros

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in Mexico, re-edited in an
expanded version in 1985.

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In 1984, she published her first
book of poems, Fabulas de La

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Garza De Sangrada.

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Her novel, Maldito Amor was
published in 1985 and has been

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re-edited many times by
editorialist Panamericana

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in Argentina and
Huracán in Puerto Rico.

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In 1987, she published
El Acomodador--

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Una Lectura Fantastica
de Felisberto Hernandez,

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a book of literary criticism.

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Ferré did a version of
Maldito Amor in English,

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and it was published as Sweet
Diamond Dist in January 1989

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by Valentine Books.

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It was reprinted by
Dutton Plume in 1986.

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The Chicago Tribune in 1989
said of Sweet Diamond Dust,

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"Ferre shows off a
linguistic talent as well

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as her inventiveness by giving
us her own English version

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of the book.

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And so we have the pleasure
of another paradox,

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a mature writer, a fine debut."

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A book of literary essays,
El Arbol y sus Sombras

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was published in 1989.

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Her book of essays El
Coloquio de las Perras"

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was published by Editorial
Cultura in Puerto Rico in 1991.

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A book of short stories,
The Youngest Doll,

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an English version
of Papeles de Pandora

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was published in
1991 by University

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of Nebraska Press, which is
available out in the lobby

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for sale.

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And then her critical book on
Julio Cortazar short stories,

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El Romantico en su Observatorio
was published in 1992.

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Same year she published
Las dos Venecias,

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a book of poems and short
stories as well as Memorias de

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Ponce, a biography of
her father Luis Ferré.

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In 1992, she received
the Liberatur Prix

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in Frankfurt Germany for
her novel Kristallzucker,

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a translation of
Sweet Diamond Dust

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into German that was
published in Switzerland.

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Her children's stories have also
been translated into German.

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Her anthology of poems,
Antologia Personal

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was published in 1994.

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And in 1997, she published
her children's short stories

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in Puerto Rico.

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Her novel The House on
the Lagoon, arguably

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her best known work, was
published by Farrar Strauss

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and Giroux in New
York in September 1995

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and was selected as one
of the five finalists

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for the National Book
Award in the United States.

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The New York book review in 1995
said the following of The House

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on the Lagoon.

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"She's a wicked satirist
of the sheltered milieu

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she fled to become a writer.

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As she explains elsewhere in
an essay called "On Destiny,

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Language, and Translation",
she derives her satiric verve

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from the traditional
irreverence and wit

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of her country's poor from their
unforgiving social judgment.

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In this new novel 1995,
she refines and exaggerates

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that mocking spirit
into something arch,

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surreal, and devastating."

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And the Chicago Tribune in the
same year said of the novel,

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"Maintaining her balance
with all the delicate power

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of a dancer on point,
Rosario Ferré here elegantly

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manipulates a daunting complex
of themes into a narrative that

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is both coherent
and provocative."

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This novel also received
the Critics' Choice Award

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and was selected for the Book
of the Month Club in 1995.

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The Spanish version of the novel
was published in '97 in Spain

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and in Germany and
the Netherlands

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and in France and in Greece.

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Her new novel
Eccentric Neighborhoods

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was just published by
Farrar Strauss Giroux

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and is also available
in the lobby.

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We are honored to have
you speak to us tonight,

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and I'm glad that
we have rallied

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so many people to
hear you, and we hope

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you will come back many times.

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It is my pleasure to
welcome Rosario Ferré.

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[APPLAUSE]

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