“I paid a price for being a woman and writing about women’s issues”
“I have a clear awareness of the extremely important role of women in history, in the world, and that we still do not occupy the place that belongs to us”
HAVANA TIMES – Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli (Managua, 1948) says she’s paid the price of “scandal” for writing about feminine sexuality and women’s “things,” since her earliest days as a poet in the seventies. She recognizes, however, that writing odes to the erotic has now become more normal.
“To me, who began to write poetry a bit by motu propio [on her own volition], being a woman and writing about women’s things meant having people condemn my erotic poetry as scandalous,” the poet stated. Gioconda Belli made these remarks during an interview with the EFE news agency, while attending the Centroamerica Cuenta festival in Panama.
Belli, who defines herself as a feminist and part of the movement, believes there’s been an “advance” in women’s rights, and a greater acceptance of literature that deals with feminine sexuality. Still, she pointed out, there’s “a long way left to go” and equity has yet to be achieved.
“I have a clear awareness of the extremely important role of women in history, in the world, and that we still don’t occupy the place that corresponds to us. We’re (still) suffering from inequalities, minimization, and invisibility,” she affirmed.
Her road as a poet began in Nicaragua’s La
