Elena Poniatowska: Lissette Rolón

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Very talkative, charming, and Caribbean, Puerto Rican writer Lissette Rolón, a doctor of literature and teacher, visits me every time she comes to Mexico from her beloved country. Listening to her is a joy. She's always accompanied by a fan of her work, and the first thing she does is cross the Zócalo, which she considers the center of our nation. Cheerful and very communicative, we reminisce together about her homeland and mutual friends, especially the great novelist Rosario Ferré, who left an indelible mark on our literature.

–Lissette, I remember Puerto Rico with a smile, because Rosario Ferré (who unfortunately died very young) welcomed me into her home. Later, I ran into her again at university in Washington, DC, because Rosario studied in the United States. Her father, the governor of Puerto Rico, sent her to Wellesley and Manhattan. She always excelled at American universities, although many Americans make the mistake of considering Puerto Rico just another state in the United States.

Rosario's father, Luis Ferré, was a statehood governor. He wanted stability for Puerto Rico through freedom, but above all, good neighborliness with the United States. He was the first governor to win office wanting Puerto Rico to formally become a state of the United States. So I imagine that for Rosario, her father's policies were a great challenge, because she didn't share that aspiration. She always fought for a free Puerto Rico and that's why she confronted her entire family. She was an outstanding Puerto Rican, very intelligent, very creative, and a fighter, and, in a way, heroic because it's not easy to stand up to paternal authority and choose—as she did—the party that was opposed to her family's.

–But was Puerto Rico already tied to the United States?

–Obviously, Elena. Rosario studied at American universities. She knew a lot about English literature and wanted to specialize in that field. She was at a standstill because she adored her father, who was a prominent politician, and believed that the support of the United States was essential. Rosario, in addition to her own talent, was the most outstanding student at Brown University; she was admitted to Yale, Harvard, and any of the so-called “ Five Sisters ,” the most demanding universities in the United States, because their culture was far above the norm.

–Yes, Lisette and the Mexican writer Jorge Aguilar Mora (who had a polemic with Octavio Paz) had the luxury of marrying her, but their marriage eventually fell apart. I met her at a conference in Puerto Rico on literature written by women in Spanish, and later met her during her stay in Paris with her son, Benny. For me, Rosario was one of the great writers, but she didn't live long enough, and her death pained me greatly because her talent was a source of inspiration and insight into the Caribbean.

–Do you remember Vanessa Vilches, Elena? She told us about the fate of the Latin American writer in the United States…

–I also remember Mayra Santos Febre, who considered herself much more Latin American than gringo, both because of her coloring and her lively and outspoken nature. Rosario Ferré had a cousin, Olga Nolla, with whom she created a magazine, Zona de Carga y Descarga (Loading and Unloading Zone ). It was excellent. The writer Edgardo Rodríguez also visited Mexico, along with other Puerto Rican intellectuals.

–Luis Rafael Sánchez has been one of the most recognized Puerto Ricans outside the island and, of course, he holds a prominent place in Puerto Rico, although he lived in New York for years.

–Yes, I met him in Mexico too. I met the tall José Luis González, who is married to a Mexican woman and author of a wonderful story about a dark night in New York and how dance saves those who live in the skyscrapers.

–Yes, José Luis worked at the Fondo de Cultura Económica. Many Puerto Ricans passed through Mexico and stayed for a long time because Mexico is enchanting. I brought you the book written by a Puerto Rican painter who studied here at UNAM, Rafael Trelles. Each of his texts is accompanied by an image that reflects his talent. He's one of those important writers who have passed through Mexico and created their work in your homeland, Elena. As for me, I retired from the University of Puerto Rico, where I was a professor of comparative literature. Do you remember when you went to Mayagüez and came to my class and gave a lecture that evening?

–Yes, I remember seeing Rosario Ferré there again, but now she was ill, which pained me. Rosario had always been talented, generous, and fragile. At the various conferences we were invited to, Rosario would show up at the literature sessions almost until lunchtime because she had a hard time getting up after a bad night's sleep. I would scare her away by demanding: Why didn't you go to the 10, 11, 12 sessions? Oh, Elenita, you don't know how hard it is for me to get up. It's a triumph; to stand up is a torment I can't overcome .

–From her early years, Rosario Ferré acquired a degenerative disease that prevented her from writing and even speaking. I can tell you that while I was a literature teacher, we were all more or less aware of her physical condition. I'm retired now, so now I'm going to do things I couldn't do when I was a teacher; I want to dedicate myself to the book I didn't write due to lack of time, and Rosario Ferré is on my mind. I'm writing a collection of letters to my mother and my dog. There's also a letter for you; also to relatives who have died or been in prison for their fight to liberate Puerto Rico. They are historical letters that are largely philosophical essays. It's the project I'm working on after so many years of teaching comparative literature in Spanish and grading students.

–Lissette, it is often believed that all Puerto Ricans are irremediably tied to the English language.

–That's a fabrication. In Puerto Rico, 90 percent of the people speak Spanish. Only 10 percent speak English. Puerto Rico is a territory, but it's not a U.S. state. Most Puerto Rican literature from the 19th century to the present is written in Spanish. Our writers, ranging from Miguel de Manuel Alonso in the 19th century; José de Diego; Luis Llorén Torres; Enrique Laguerre; Emilio Laval; José Luis González; Luis Rafael Sánchez; René Márquez, who also wrote drama; Luis Rafael Sánchez, who lived in Mexico and New York; Edgardo Rodríguez Julia; Ana Lidia Vega, a brilliant cousin of Rosario Ferre; Carmen Lugo Filippi; Olga Noya; Mayra Montero; and, of course, Rosario Ferré, made up the group of women writers of the 1970s and were invited to the United States, but we consider that from the 19th to the 20th century, our authors wrote as Latinos. In the 1970s and 1980s, a literature written by Puerto Ricans began to emerge in New York, similar to the movie West Side Story . This literature has been growing in number, but it doesn't exceed 15 percent of what we consider Puerto Rican literature. The vast majority of Puerto Rican prose and poetry written in the United States is in Spanish, and only a small group is written in English, compared to the number of authors on the archipelago. Over time, there are English words that we adapt to Puerto Rican; it's inevitable. Puerto Rico has been a territory of the United States since 1898, so the influence of English on speech is enormous. For example, we say "parking" rather than "parking lot," "sandwich" rather than "embedded, " "hot dog " rather than "hot dog." And you Mexicans do the same. Remember, Elena, that 4 million or more Puerto Ricans live in the United States.