/ARTS WEEKLY/LITERATURE-MEXICO: New Refuge for Persecuted Writers

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Feb 11 2003 (IPS) - Mexico will open its second refuge for foreign writers and artists in the city of Puebla, near the capital, continuing the country’s tradition of providing safe haven for the persecuted.

The house, to open its doors in April, will join the existing refuge in Mexico City in receiving authors and artists from other countries as well as serving as a cultural centre.

Mexico serves as an example for operating these safe havens, which have not had such successful experiences in other Latin American countries, says Phillipe Olle-Laprune, the French-born director of the Mexico City site.

The notion of offering sanctuary to foreign intellectuals and writers who suffer persecution arose from an initiative of the International Parliament of Writers (IPW), which maintains such homes in 30 countries.

With support from local authorities and the IPW, the refugees receive room and board and economic aid so that they can continue working, while also participating in cultural programmes organised by the host country.

The refuge house in the Mexican capital, which has three separate apartments, was home to Serbian writer Vladimir Aresenijevic from 1999 to 2000, and Kosovar poet Xhevdet Bajraj from 1999 to 2001. Since 2001, Burmese painter and caricaturist Min Kyaw Khiang has been living there.

IPW has provided support for these three artists and to the other beneficiaries of the programme elsewhere because they have been persecuted by the authorities in their countries of origin due to their ideas and activities.

The Puebla location is a recently restored 17th-century construction near the city’s main cathedral.

The world network of refuges now comprises 30 cities, including Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Vienna, Venice and the Spanish cities of Barcelona, Granada, Malaga and Seville.

These refuges have taken in writers from Algeria, Burma (Myanmar), Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Serbia, Sierra Leone and Vietnam.

Olle-Laprune announced that two new foreign writers will soon arrive in Mexico as refugees, but he did not reveal their names.

The agreement signed by IPW and Mexico states that the host country may not publicise information about the refugee nor the arrival date, unless the party in question wants the data made public.

The IPW was founded in November 1993 when 60 writers from various countries gathered in Strasbourg, France, to create an association to support their persecuted colleagues around the world.

Supporters of this ongoing effort include internationally famous writers like Portugal’s José Saramago, Mexico’s Carlos Fuentes, Colombia’s Alvaro Mutis and India’s Salman Rushdie.

With the new safehouse in Puebla, Mexico continues its tradition of providing a place for those in need, says Olle-Laprune.

Throughout decades, the country has taken in foreigners who have fled dictatorships and war.

The Puebla house will also hold a bookstore, a small cafeteria and a hall for conferences, exhibitions and literature classes, mirroring the cultural activities already hosted by the Mexico City refuge.