The literary morning that was experienced last Saturday in Yaiza was hand in hand with the book 'Burnt Earth', presented in a conversational format with the participation of the author of the novel, Nieves Rodríguez Rivera. An event convened by the City Council and 'Ediciones Remotas', which brought together the biologist and writer, Ana Carrasco, the director of publications of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, María José Alonso and the editor Rubén Acosta, who officiated as moderator in the main hall of the Casa de la Cultura Benito Pérez Armas.
It was not, of course, about going into details of the plot of the novel and promoting its reading with brushstrokes on its process of literary creation and opinions about the core that inspired the novel based on the fact that "no author should justify his work", Nieves Rodríguez made it clear, who describes her narrative as "a way to understand the suffering of the people of Lanzarote again".
She emphasized that there were six years of fire and lava, six years of non-stop anguish to which she gives literary form in the historical context of those terrible episodes of 1700 through the protagonism of women, represented in the character of María Hernández, and the volcanic landscape of the Island. "The woman as a strong being and not a victim", she specified.
The people of Lanzarote were imprisoned on their own Island, people were doomed to leave their villages in search of less damaged territories, but without being able to emigrate even to Gran Canaria, there was no other option than to stay in the "granary" of Spain.
In the colloquium, very enriched with opinions and concerns of the speakers and the public, the "disaffection" of the people of Lanzarote for the landscape resulting from the eruptions emerged, perhaps a product of that immense pain transmitted from generation to generation. Some of those present told anecdotes of parents and grandparents with the common core of dialogues of their stories such as "what am I going to look at?", "that landscape is pure destruction" or "I'm tired of seeing it".
However, the novel values the landscape, a volcanic soil of more than 10 million years old, as it also values and gives visibility to Canarian writers and cultural managers such as the author of the novel herself and the two women who participated in the discussion table.
Evidently, Nieves Rodríguez had to investigate to write this novel in the historical framework in which she places her story, but she prefers to avoid the label of historical novel and leans more towards a documented fiction story. The novel is more literature than history and the elements that feed it are to be discovered for those who have not read it.
'Burnt Earth' is on the street with the support of the Ediciones Remotas label and the collaboration of the Yaiza City Council, represented in the presentation by the mayor Óscar Noda and the councilors Daniel Medina, Águeda Cedrés and Karina Centeno.
