Mexican poet and Nobel laureate Octavio Paz says poetry makes real “the unspoken, the spirit, the soul,” and Tijuana is proudly continuing that tradition with a national poetry prize. The 28th Premío Nacional de Poesia Tijuana is open and accepting entries now.
In this border city of nearly 2 million people, Tijuana has its own rhythm, its own music and its own poetry.
Poet Sofía Favela Magro sits in the Tijuana bookstore Libros, Cafe y Jazz, just two blocks west of Avenida Revolución in downtown Tijuana, and reads one of her poems from her unfinished book "La Historia de Ella" or "The Story of Her."
Sometida a mi civilización.
Reducida al salvajismo puro.
Abierta a la naturaleza bárbara.
Subjugated by my civilization.
Reduced to pure savagery.
Open to untamed nature.
For Favela, Tijuana is a special place to write.
“Waging a sort of war through their words. You can hear the emotional intensity, whether it’s about love or a political grievance, but there is always emotion in the words people write here,” Favela said.
Samantha Luna, Director of the Instituto Municipal de Arte y Cultura de Tijuana, or IMAC, reads one of her favorite poems called "Gato" by Sara Uribe.
Solo en las fotografías,
Hay un hombre que me mira desde su silla, desde su mano
inmóvil, que escribe sin escribir en una vieja máquina de nombres rotos.
Only in the photographs,
there is a man who looks at me from his chair, from his motionless hand
writing without writing on an old machine of broken names.
Since 1998, the Tijuana IMAC has sponsored the national poetry prize, commonly referred to as the Premío Tijuana.
“El año pasado fueron 120 trabajos, 120 trabajos, de los cuales 101 completaron como todo lo que se requiere dentro de la de la convocatoria. Este año esperamos el doble,” Luna said.
“Last year, we received 120 submissions, of which 101 met all the requirements outlined in the call for entries. This year, we expect double that number,” Luna said.
Poets can submit their book of poems with no less than 60 pages and no more than 120. Poets have until until Sept. 11 to submit. The book must be in Spanish and the poet must either be a Mexican citizen living in Mexico or a legal resident of Mexico for at least five years.
The winner will have their book published by IMAC, and receive a prize of 90,000 pesos, or about $5,000.
Claudia Berrueto won the Premío Tijuana in 2008 for her book "Polvo Doméstico" or "Domestic Dust." Today, she is a professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila. Berrueto said winning helped launch her career.
“Oh, it was very exciting because it was my first prize in poetry. And I needed to believe in my writing,” Berrueto said.
Tijuana is known for being rough and tumble, but it's also uniquely beautiful and poetic in so many ways. IMAC director, Luna, says poetry shows people another side of this city.
“La poesía es una de las vías y una de las mejores maneras de poder, dejar testimonio de todo esto que estamos viviendo en los tiempos presentes.”
“Poetry is one of the avenues, one of the best ways, to bear witness to everything we are experiencing in these times,” Luna said.
The winner of the Premío Tijuana will be announced Nov. 12.
