By Luis Felipe Palacios
MANAGUA – “Perdon y Olvido” (Pardoned and Forgotten) is the title of a new anthology of short stories by the Nicaraguan writer and former Vice President Sergio Ramirez in which the author recounts his experiences as a university student, during the repression of the Somoza dictatorship and as a witness of the Sandinista revolution.
In the work, Ramirez starts his stories in 1960, 49 years ago, when he entered college in the northwestern city of Leon, new territory for someone born in the small village of Masatepe in southeastern Nicaragua.
“This is an anthology that covers my entire career as a storyteller and begins with stories of adolescence, the first of them written in 1960 called ‘El Estudiante’ (The Student),” the author of more than 30 books, including eight novels, told Efe.
His new anthology also includes some unpublished tales, he said.
Ramirez, who was Nicaraguan vice president during the first Sandinista government from 1979-1990, says that the short stories in his new anthology are “related to the reality” of Nicaragua that passed before his eyes “for half a century.”
“The harsh reality hit me when I arrived in the city of Leon as a law student, seeing students who had to go back to their villages as failures because they and their parents had no means of support, and ended up selling their high-school graduation rings and schoolbooks,” Ramirez said.
The work also includes topics of cultural alienation as in “Charles Atlas Tambien Muere” (Charles Atlas Also Dies), the repression of the 1937-1979 Somoza dictatorship, sports, movies, and stories like “Catalina y Catalina,” and “Tropeles y Tropelias” (Mobs and Outrages), which are “pen portraits of the dictator and of dictators in general,” Ramirez said.
The name of the work, “Perdon y Olvido,” refers to one of the 32 stories in this anthology, and which previously appeared in the collection “Catalina y Catalina,” Ramirez said.
The title “can also be read as ‘What is going on in the country – is it really a case of being pardoned and forgotten?’” Ramirez said.
The story “El Centerfielder” in this anthology combines a story from Ramirez’s youth about his love of baseball – a childhood passion – with the repression of the Somoza dictatorship.
Among previously unpublished stories in this work the writer mentioned “La Puerta Falsa” (The False Door), “Adan y Eva” (Adam and Eve), and “Bendito Escondido” (Blessed in Hiding).
The writer said that he ceded his rights of author for the work to the Leteo publishing house so that with proceeds from book sales it can publish the work of a young Nicaraguan writer.
Ramirez will present his new anthology of short stories Aug. 19 at the American University of Managua.
The author has also written “Castigo Divino” (Divine Punishment), “Sombras Nada Mas” (Just Shadows), “Catalina y Catalina,” “Mentiras Verdaderas” (True Lies), “Cuentos” (Stories), “Adios Muchachos” (Goodbye, Guys) “Cuentos Completos” (Complete Stories), “Mil y Una Muertes” (A Thousand and One Deaths) “¿Te Dio Miedo la Sangre?” (Did the Blood Scare You?) and “Reino Animal” (Animal Kingdom).
He also wrote “Un Baile de Mascaras” (Bal Masque), “Margarita, Esta Linda la Mar” (Margarita, the Sea is Beautiful), which won the Alfaguara Novel Prize in 1998, and “El Cielo Llora por Mi,” (The Sky Cries for Me), among others.
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