2015 FILVEN: CHRONICLES
A Walk through its Days, Lives and Words
Day 2. Poetry and Memories
The incessant humming of the FILVEN and its varied and extensive activities slowed down with dust to present a recitation in the poetic zone, located in the amphitheater of the Teresa Carreño Theater, where both collectives and people have the opportunity to take the floor and show the beauty in their struggle as it evolves into poetry. The National Book Center (Cenal) and the Ministry of Culture have always devoted to the provision of spaces promoting the individual’s transformation through words. This is how, in that warm corner of the fair, attendants gathered to honor the late Venezuelan poet Caneo Arguinzones, whose voice fell silent at the end of the last year. Her comrades in the poetic struggle were there, especially those of the poetic collective Las fulanas esas, who, along with pez (fish), Caneo’s nickname, swam comfortably through the rivers of people living in the barrios, trying to sow love for words and their power to reach the possible world we are building now. After the recitation of poems inspired by pez, including one from a poet-friend of hers, a native from Puerto Rico, one of the many destinations where Caneo took her words, dreams and struggle, we had the chance to meet her grandma, honor guest to the recitation, who, still with watery eyes for her lost, told us about her excitement for this homage, as it was a testimony of the way her shy granddaughter reached so many lives during this process of people’s empowerment. That timid child became, out there in the streets, a strong leader who struggled for the collective benefit; but inside, she delicately cared for her affections; therefore, the fire of her warm memory will continue to light our minds. The camphor and the Japanese plum, sown in the Botanical Garden of Caracas, symbols of Caneo and her mother, will surely shelter under their shade much more poetry, as well as the birthday cake that Grandma will share every April 17 among all those who loved pez.
