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Friday, October 17th 2008 [ versión español ]
“La belleza de la poesía está en lo vivo,
en la célula que está generando energía
para nosotros”.
Carmen A. Vega
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Dr. Carmen Amaralis Vega Olivencia dedicated a copy of her book “Vida y magia: entornos y sortilegios”. |
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¿Are magic and chemistry the essential sciences through which we are able to comprehend the Universe and life? This past Thursday, October 9th, writers, chemists, poets and students came together for a conference, held in the amphitheater of the Stefani building, whose purpose was to try and answer this very question. The book, “Life and Magic: Nature and Spells,” by the poet, Doctor Carmen Amaralis Vega Olivencia, was presented at the conference.
Doctor Vega, who is a professor in the Chemistry Department at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM), revealed that the idea for compiling her novel came from Doctor María Luisa Lázaro, Director of “Editorial Escarcha azul” (Blue Frost Editorial), who happened to see a presentation that Vega gave in Venezuela about her experience on sabbatical in Japan.
“It intrigued her, my life experiences, and she asked that I put these experiences in writing for a book with her company since, as she put it, I tell my experiences with a little bit of magic and convert the everyday into an interesting story,” explained Vega.
Nevertheless, the author expressed that the book’s essential purpose is to leave a trail that delights the reader and provides the possibility of converting the everyday into magic.
“I’m convinced that happiness is an internal decision, personal and voluntary, that the manner in which we live and react to what life offers us is unique. We decide the way in which an experience or event affects us; how we remember it, and how we feel about it,” commented Vega.
“Life and Magic: Nature and Spells,” is a book full of stories about various life experiences, sentiments, and events of humans and nature. “Everything I do is influenced by what I know and understand, scientifically. I can’t take off my lab coat to put on a poet’s clothes, I believe that my skin has both genes and it’s impossible to separate the two.”
Other writings of the versatile author can be found on the web page, www.carmen-amaralis.com. Her works are known in and outside of Puerto Rico, for example, her collection of poems Ojos tatuados, was presented at a conference in Mexico.
“I believe that anyone who reads “Life and Magic: Nature and Spells,” if they take anything away from it, would be to start taking control of your own life, and the magical spells you posses and to better value that which, until this moment, didn’t appear special or magical.”
Novelist, Doctor Miriam González Hernández, was in charge of the presentation of the book, De la prosa autobiográfica a la prosa poética: La vida y la magia de Carmen Amaralis Vega Olivencia (From Autobiographical prose to poetic prose: The Life and Magic of Carmen Amaralis Vega Olivencia). González remarked that Vega’s poetry emerges through vibrant images that go beyond the verse and flirt with the prose.
“I’m fascinated reading about her experiences, her prose converted into poetry, at first glance appears simple and plain, but after you go deeper, multiple hidden messages, from smiles to afflictions, can be discovered. That leaves me with two things to mention: first, I encourage readers to relish “Life and Magic: Nature and Spells, and second, I insist that Carmen continue to bestow us with her exquisite literary works,” said González.
The presentation, outside of opening remarks from Chancellor Jorge Iván Vélez Arocho, noted the presence of Doctor Francis Patron, Director of the Chemistry Department. At the conference, student Nélida Torres paid tribute to the poet by singing Olas y arenas (waves and sands), by composer Silvia Rexach. In closing, Vega delighted the public with the telling of a few of her experiences in relation with her natural magic.
The author conversing with colleagues from the Chemistry Department. In order from left to right: doctors Rodolfo Romañach, Vega Olivencia, and Francis Patron, accompanied by Lourdes Sofía Romañach.
Dr. Miriam González Hernández (to the left) was in charge of organizing the book’s presentation.
Two students who participated in the event check out the book.
Photographs by Alessandra Otero Ramos / UPRM Press
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