News
Stanford Undergrad Publishes Book of Short Stories in Spanish
Alicia Robinson (BA 2012) is the author of a recent book entitled Por esto hay tanto silencio, published in August 2009 by Magnaterra Press in Guatemala.
Although at an early age Alicia travelled extensively in Latin America, she has spent most of her life in Guatemala. Alicia moved there in 1998, two years after the Peace Accords were signed, when her mother began working with the UN peacekeeping mission, MINUGUA. Alicia was exposed to different social realities, peoples, cultures and ideologies that accompany many developing countries which have gone through armed conflict. While attending high school in Lake Atitlan, Alicia was exposed to Latin American literature through her courses with Professor Francisco Guzmán, a well-known Sololá artist and writer. This inspired her to create her own stories. Alicia is now a student at Stanford University majoring in International Relations and Arabic, and aspires to a career in international law.
The best description about this book is found in the last story, Por eso hay tanto silencio, which is the title of this collection. The author’s concerns in the face of poverty, social inequality, discrimination and exploitation are transferred to prose to give voice to that which is often silenced. The themes, angles and perspectives are quite varied and have been divided by themes that go from the innocence of children to the bitter corruption that contributes to this social, political and economic silence. The challenge is to submerge oneself in these short stories and discover the roots of our own silence.
Gerardo Guinea, National Prize Winner for Literature in 2009, and Carolina Escobar Sarti, a well-known poet and columnist, presented the book with Alicia in Guatemala in August. Copies can also be purchased at the Stanford Bookstore in the section on Stanford New Authors. Illustrations by Canadian artist Claudia Tremblay, a resident of Guatemala.
7.oct.2009
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7.oct.2009