Carmen Rodríguez

Carmen Rodríguez (born June 19, 1948) is a Chilean-Canadian author, poet, educator, political social activist, and a founding member of Aquelarre Magazine. Along with her husband and daughters, she fled to Canada after the Chilean Coup of 1973 and where she now resides as a political refugee. Rodríguez is known for her unique approach to writing, publishing most of her work in both Spanish and English. The translations of Rodríguez's work are done by her alone, a trend not commonly followed among other multilingual authors. Rodríguez translates her work until "[she feels] that both tips of [her] tongue and [her] two sets of ears were satisfied with the final product.'" Rodríguez's major works are and a body to remember with, a collection of short stories, and Guerra Prolongada/Protracted War, a collection of poems in both English and Spanish

Rodríguez's first publication was a short story submitted for an annual literary competition in Chile in 1972, for which she received an honorable mention. In Canada, Rodríguez has had her works published in Paula magazine, Aquelarre magazine, Capilano Review, Fireweed, Norte-Sur and Prison Journal.

Biography

Chile: 1948–73 Carmen Rodríguez was born and raised in a lower-middle-class family in Valdivia, Chile, where she lived until she was 25. Rodríguez's generation was the first in her family to attend a university. she raised her daughters while going to university. Later on, Rodríguez taught at the University of Chile in Santiago as a professor of English in the Faculty of Philosophy and Education. At the time of the coup, which occurred on September 11, Rodríguez was teaching at the University of Austral in the south of Chile. These events led to her decision to leave Chile with her family. Rodríguez later wrote of the coup: "If justice truly existed, all of those responsible for these crimes against humanity would be tried and prosecuted. But we live in a world where economic interests are valued well above human life, a world where millions starve while a select group prospers". as well as being a founding member of the Aquelarre Collective, a feminist group responsible for the production of Aquelarre Magazine. The purpose of this magazine was to provide a voice to the community of exiled Chileans. In 1997, she published the book and a body to remember with in Vancouver, and in the same year published in Chile the Spanish version of the book De Cuerpo Entero. She has continued teaching as she did when she was in Chile, conducting courses at Langara College, the University College of the Fraser Valley, and, beginning in January 2009, as an adjunct professor of Spanish and writer in residence at the University of British Columbia. Recently, she worked at the Department of Education at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, along with being an Adult Literacy Consultant, working with the First Nations people of Canada. Rodríguez has been a correspondent for Radio Canada International since 1990, discussing cultural, social, political and economic news in Canada on a show entitled "Canadá en las Américas".

Influences Rodríguez has been most influenced by her political exile from Chile and her transition into life in a foreign country. Her flight caused her to reflect on exile, living in different cultures, and speaking different languages. Her bilingualism, and the translation between two languages, has also been a source of both difficulty and inspiration for Rodríguez. Often, her works are composed in Spanish, and then reworked in English, or vice versa, "involving a process of back and forth" between the two languages.

After experimenting with others translating her work, Rodríguez "began the fascinating process of translating them [her]self. It only took a few attempts to realize that [she] had embarked on something that could no longer be called 'translation.'" As she translates from one language to another, she tries to find the appropriate wording and context in English that would correspond to the Spanish.

Aquelarre magazine The Aquelarre magazine, subtitled "a Magazine for Latin American Women/Revista de la Mujer International", was the main project of a group of exiled Chilean feminists in Vancouver who called themselves the Aquelarre Collective. The Collective had a common view of the future with "room for life" and hoped for a future without oppression. Two members, Irene Boisier (Irene Policzer in Canada) and Eugenia Vasquez, both exiled Chileans, were inspired to create the magazine after attending the Fifth Feminist Conference of Latin America and the Caribbean. The common themes of the magazine were "women, feminism and strength" and it was meant to empower women in both Canada and South America. It was produced by volunteers who, like Rodríguez, also often had families and full-time jobs. Much of the time was spent raising funds, in addition to editing and producing content for the magazine.

Rodríguez was instrumental in the magazine's foundation. She helped organize an art exhibit in Vancouver in 1987, attended by many Chilean women, one of whom stayed with Rodríguez. This text explores life in exile, and how "forgetting [a tragic event] is not an option". Rodríguez's book, in both languages, focuses on the experiences of migration and immigration of women, making sure to assess the physical and emotional adjustments that must be made, adding another woman's perspective and experience to the book through each narrative. The book's main characters are all women, and with each story Rodríguez's use of the body, "the fullness of the body, its terrible fragmentation, or the body as a void" is used to express the experiences of the characters. Rodríguez often purposely defragments the voices and bodies of her protagonists to give a sense of urgency.

Guerra Prolongada/Protracted War Guerra Prolongada/Protracted War is a collection of poems composed and translated by Carmen Rodríguez which serves as a historical account of the 1973 Chilean coup. Rodríguez's poetry has been praised for "her insistence on conveying real rather than merely imagined experience". The topics cover the "revolution and the murder of Chilean revolutionaries" as well as "her identity as a woman and lover". Was elected part of the English-language non-fiction jury for the Canadian 2003 Governor General's Literary Awards, by the Canada Council for the Arts

List of works

Fiction

Poetry

Other . Original publication, 1994.