GonzAlez


 I deliberately chose to write what is called literary

criticism because it was almost imposed on me by social

circumstances. But ever since I've been aware of myself,

I have seen myself as a poet. I regard literary

criticism as a job I must get done and not as a vocation.

I conceive poetry as something essentially revolutionary

because it adds new dimensions and perspectives to the

world we have inherited. In that sense, poetry is

revolutionary. In regard to specific commitments, I

believe that a commitment is something acquired voluntarily,

something which can not be imposed. A commitment is an

effect of the socio-political and economic circumstances

experienced by the poet. Accepting a commitment without

feeling for it becomes an act of hypocrisy, and from this

point of view, it becomes an anti-poetic act.

 When I talk about the Caribbean I mean the basin,

the countries whose immediate limits are the Caribbean

Sea. I am not talking about those regions which are a

little further away although culturally they might have

affinities to some Caribbean countries. I studied the

poetry of Latin American countries, such as Venezuela,

Colombia, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, Honduras, and