Giannina Braschi
Encyclopedia
Giannina Braschi is a Puerto Rican writer. She is credited with writing the first Spanglish
Spanglish
.Spanglish refers to the blend of Spanish and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live. The Hispanic population of the United States and the British population in Argentina use varieties of...

 novel YO-YO BOING! (1998) and the poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams (Yale, 1994), which chronicles the Latin American immigrant's experiences in the United States. "For decades, Dominican and Puerto Rican authors have carried out a linguistic revolution," noted The Boston Globe, and "Giannina Braschi, especially in her novel YO-YO BOING!, testify to it." Her work has been described as a "synergetic fusion that marks in a determinant fashion the lived experiences of U. S. Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...

s." Written in three languages, English, Spanglish, and Spanish, Braschi's work captures the cultural experience of nearly 50 million Hispanic Americans and also seeks to explore the three political options of Puerto Rico: Nation, Colony, or Statehood.

Literary Influences

In the 1970s, Giannina Braschi was a student of literature in Madrid, Rome, Paris, and London, before she settled in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. She obtained a PhD in Hispanic Literatures (State University of New York, Stony Brook, 1980) and has taught at Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

, City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...

, and Colgate University
Colgate University
Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York, USA. The school was founded in 1819 as a Baptist seminary and later became non-denominational. It is named for the Colgate family who greatly contributed to the university's endowment in the 19th century.Colgate has 52...

, where she served as a Distinguished Chair of Creative Writing (1997). She was a foreign correspondent for Grazie magazine (2001–2002).

As an adolescent in San Juan, Giannina Braschi ranked first place in the US Tennis Association's national tournament in Puerto Rico, becoming the youngest female tennis player to win the Women's Division (1966) on the island. Her father Euripides ("Pilo") Braschi was also a tennis champion. She was also a founding member of the San Juan Children's Choir
San Juan Children's Choir
The San Juan Children's Choir is a children's choir from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The group was founded in 1966 by its director, Evy Lucío Córdova, whose founding members included Gloria Tristani, who went on to become the first Hispanic member of the Federal Communications Commission, and Giannina...

 ("Coro de niños de San Juan") under music director Evy Lucio and a fashion model during her teen years.

In the 1980s Braschi's early writings were scholarly in nature and focused on the titans of the Spanish Golden Age
Spanish Golden Age
The Spanish Golden Age is a period of flourishing in arts and literature in Spain, coinciding with the political rise and decline of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty. El Siglo de Oro does not imply precise dates and is usually considered to have lasted longer than an actual century...

, as well as the vanguard poets of Latin America and Spain. She published a book on the Romantic poet Gustavo Adolfo Becquer
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Gustavo Adolfo Domínguez Bastida, better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, was a Spanish post-romanticist writer of poetry and short stories, now considered one of the most important figures in Spanish literature. He adopted the alias of Bécquer as his brother Valeriano Bécquer, a painter, had...

 and essays on Cervantes
Cervantes
-People:*Alfonso J. Cervantes , mayor of St. Louis, Missouri*Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 16th-century man of letters*Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban composer*Jorge Cervantes, a world-renowned expert on indoor, outdoor, and greenhouse cannabis cultivation...

, Garcilaso, César Vallejo
César Vallejo
César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza was a Peruvian poet. Although he published only three books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century in any language. Thomas Merton called him "the greatest universal poet since Dante"...

, Juan Ramon Jimenez
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. One of Jiménez's most important contributions to modern poetry was his advocacy of the French concept of "pure poetry."-Biography:Jiménez was born in Moguer, near Huelva, in...

, and Garcia Lorca. She later became obsessed with the dramatic and philosophical works of French, German, Polish, Irish, and Russian authors. Though categorized as novels, her later works are experimental in style and format, and celebratory of foreign influences. In the 50th anniversary edition of Evergreen Review
Evergreen Review
Evergreen Review is a U.S.-based literary magazine founded by Barney Rosset, publisher of Grove Press. It existed in print from 1957 through 1973, and was re-launched online in 1998...

, Braschi notes that she considers herself "more French than Beckett, Picasso, and Gertrude Stein" and believes that she is the "granddaughter of Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne, France, not far from the border of Brittany; he was of Breton descent on his mother's side....

 and Antonin Artaud
Antonin Artaud
Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, more well-known as Antonin Artaud was a French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director...

, bastard child of Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...

 and James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

, half-sister to Heiner Müller
Heiner Müller
Heiner Müller was a German dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. Described as "the theatre's greatest living poet" since Samuel Beckett, Müller is arguably the most important German dramatist of the 20th century after Bertolt Brecht...

, kissing cousin of Tadeus Kantor, and lover of Witkiewicz".

Pivotal Works

In the 1980s, Giannina Braschi burst onto the downtown Nuyorican
Nuyorican
Nuyorican is a portmanteau of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Rican diaspora located in or around New York State especially the New York City metropolitan area, or of their descendants...

 poetry scene with performances of rhythmic intensity, humorous gusto, and anti-imperialistic politics. Her prose poems were written, recited, and published entirely in Spanish during this period. Her first collection of Spanish prose poetry
Prose poetry
Prose poetry is poetry written in prose instead of using verse but preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery and emotional effects.-Characteristics:Prose poetry can be considered either primarily poetry or prose, or a separate genre altogether...

, Asalto al tiempo, debuted in Barcelona in 1980 and was followed by La Comedia profana in 1985 and El imperio de los sueños in 1988. New York is the site and subject of much of her work. In a climatic episode of "Pastoral or the Inquisition of Memories", shepherds invade 5th Avenue on the Puerto Rican Day Parade
Puerto Rican Day Parade
The Puerto Rican Day Parade takes place annually along Fifth Avenue in New York City, on the second Sunday in June, in honor of the nearly 4 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico and all people of Puerto Rican birth or heritage residing in the mainland U.S...

 and take over the City of New York; the shepherds ring the bells of St. Patrick's Cathedral
St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
The Cathedral of St. Patrick is a decorated Neo-Gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral church in the United States...

 and seize the observation deck of the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...

.

Poet and feminist scholar Alicia Ostriker
Alicia Ostriker
Alicia Suskin Ostriker is an American poet and scholar who writes Jewish feminist poetry.Alicia is married to the noted astronomer Jeremiah Ostriker who taught at Princeton University...

 has praised Braschi's work, which features gender role-playing and transvestism
Transvestism
Transvestism is the practice of cross-dressing, which is wearing clothing traditionally associated with the opposite sex. Transvestite refers to a person who cross-dresses; however, the word often has additional connotations. -History:Although the word transvestism was coined as late as the 1910s,...

, for having "sheer erotic energy that defies definition and dogma." "Those three award winning books were published together as the inaugural volume of the Yale Library of Literature in Translation." (Braschi 1998: Yo-Yo Boing!: 13)

In the 1990s, Giannina Braschi began writing dramatic dialogues in English, Spanish, and Spanglish
Spanglish
.Spanglish refers to the blend of Spanish and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live. The Hispanic population of the United States and the British population in Argentina use varieties of...

. Her bilingual experimental novel YO-YO BOING! (AmazonCrossing) is experimental in format and radical in its defiance of English-only laws, ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....

 campaigns, and the corporate imposition of sameness.

In 2011 Giannina Braschi debuted "United States of Banana,” her first work written entirely in English; it is a post 9-11 dramatic novel about the powers of the world shifting. "United States of Banana,” takes as a springboard the collapse of the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...

, the event which displaced her from the Battery Park neighborhood that became known as the Ground Zero
Ground zero
The term ground zero describes the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation...

 vicinity. Braschi writes about the death of the businessman, the end of democracy, and the delusion that all men are created equal. “Revolutionary in subject and form, “United States of Banana” is a beautifully written declaration of personal independence,” declared Barney Rosset of "The Evergreen Review.”

Translations

In 2011 AmazonCrossing for World Literature in Translation released all of Braschi's works under three separate English titles: "Empire of Dreams," "Yo-Yo Boing!" and "United States of Banana". Excerpts of Braschi's work have appeared in Swedish, French, Italian, and Serbian translations. Her collected poetry was translated into English by Tess O'Dwyer, who won the Columbia University Translation Center Award in 1991 for her rendition of "Empire of Dreams", which inaugurated the Yale Library of World Literature in Translation in 1994. Literary journals that have published Tess O'Dwyer's translations include: The Best of Review: Art and Literature of the Americas, Agni, Ars Interpres
Ars Interpres
Ars Interpres is an online and in-print international literary journal, originating in Stockholm. It publishes primarily contemporary English language poetry and English translations of modern Scandinavian and European poetry, as well as articles on poetic translation and other related materials...

, Dickinson Review, Callaloo, Artful Dodge, Evergreen Review
Evergreen Review
Evergreen Review is a U.S.-based literary magazine founded by Barney Rosset, publisher of Grove Press. It existed in print from 1957 through 1973, and was re-launched online in 1998...

, Prose Poem, and Poet Magazine. A number of critics have commented on Braschi's texts, including Jean Franco
Jean Franco
Jean Franco is a British-born academic and literary critic known for her pioneering work on Latin American literature. Educated at Manchester and London, she has taught at London, Essex , and Stanford, and is currently professor emerita at Columbia University.-Research:Jean Franco's research is...

, David William Foster, Julia Carroll, Kristian Van Haesendonck, Francine Masiello, Ilan Stavans
Ilan Stavans
Ilan Stavans is a Mexican-American, essayist, lexicographer, cultural commentator, translator, short-story author, TV personality, and teacher known for his insights into American, Hispanic, and Jewish cultures.- Life :Ilan Stavans was born in Mexico to a middle-class Jewish family from the Pale...

, Julio Ortega, Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes
Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes
Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes is a gay Puerto Rican author, scholar, and performer. He is better known as Larry La Fountain. He has received several awards for his creative writing and scholarship as well as for his work with Latino and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students...

, Laura Loustau, Daniela Daniele, Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé, María Mercedes Carrión, Cristina Garrigos, Francisco José Ramos, Dennis Nurkse, and Doris Sommer.

Titles

  • United States of Banana," AmazonCrossing, 2011.
  • Yo-Yo Boing," AmazonCrossing, 2011.
  • Empire of Dreams," AmazonCrossing, 2011.
  • Asalto al tiempo, Ambitos Literarios, Barcelona, 1980.
  • La poesía de Becquer, Costa Amic, Mexico City, 1982.
  • La comedia profana, Anthropos Editorial del hombre, Barcelona, 1985.
  • Libro de payasos y bufones, Grafica Uno, Giorgio Upiglio, Milan, 1987.
  • El imperio de los sueños, Anthropos Editorial del hombre, Barcelona, 1988.
  • Empire of Dreams (English translation by Tess O'Dwyer), Yale University Press, New Haven/London, 1994.
  • Yo-Yo Boing!, Latin American Literary Review, Pittsburgh, 1998.
  • El imperio de los suenos, Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, 2000.

Awards/honors

  • Danforth Scholarship
  • El Diario La Prensa
    El Diario La Prensa
    El Diario la Prensa is the largest and oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper in New York City, and the oldest Spanish-language daily in the United States. Published by ImpreMedia, the paper covers local, national and international news with an emphasis on Latin America, as well as human-interest...

    's Outstanding Women of 1998
  • Ford Foundation
    Ford Foundation
    The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....

     Fellowship
  • National Endowment for the Arts
    National Endowment for the Arts
    The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

     Fellowship
  • New York Foundation for the Arts
    New York Foundation for the Arts
    The New York Foundation for the Arts was created in conjunction the in 1971. The organization gives grants to individual artists and writers and developing arts organizations with a mission to '.'-NYFA's Programs:...

     Fellowship
  • Peter S. Reed Foundation/InterAmericas
  • PEN American Center
    PEN American Center
    PEN American Center , founded in 1922 and based in New York City, works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. The Center has a membership of 3,300 writers, editors, and translators...

    's Open Book Award
    PEN/Open Book
    PEN/Open Book is a program intended to foster racial and ethnic diversity within the literary and publishing communities, and works to establish access for diverse literary groups to the publishing industry...

  • Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena/grant

See also

  • List of Latin American writers
  • List of Famous Puerto Ricans
  • Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States
  • Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico
    Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico
    Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico came about as a result of various economic and political changes in the mid-19th century Europe; among those factors were the social-economic changes which came about in Europe as a result of the Second Industrial Revolution, political discontent and widespread...

  • Yoyo Boing
  • Puerto Rican Day Parade
    Puerto Rican Day Parade
    The Puerto Rican Day Parade takes place annually along Fifth Avenue in New York City, on the second Sunday in June, in honor of the nearly 4 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico and all people of Puerto Rican birth or heritage residing in the mainland U.S...

  • Postmodern
  • Pastoral
    Pastoral
    The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...

  • Nuyorican Movement
    Nuyorican Movement
    The Nuyorican Movement is a cultural and intellectual movement involving poets, writers, musicians and artists who are Puerto Rican or of Puerto Rican descent, who live in or near New York City, and either call themselves or are known as Nuyoricans...

  • McOndo
    McOndo
    McOndo is a Latin American literary movement that breaks from the dominant Magical Realism mode of narration, and counters it with the strong, ideologic associations of the cultural and narrative languages of the mass communications media, and with the modernity of urban living; the experience of...

  • Spanglish
    Spanglish
    .Spanglish refers to the blend of Spanish and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live. The Hispanic population of the United States and the British population in Argentina use varieties of...

  • List of Puerto Rican writers
  • Puerto Rican literature


External links




  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ58UuLwsJs, television program in Spanish, "Celebrities desde Nueva York," con Alfonso Diaz, featuring Giannina Braschi (on the collapse of the American Empire on September 11), November 2011.


  • "Ground Zero," by Giannina Braschi, featured in Evergreen Review, edited by Barney Rosset.

  • "El futuro del idioma Español", Oppenheimer Presenta #276, on Youtube(featuring Director of La Real Academia Espanola Victor, Garcia de la Concha, and author Giannina Braschi).

  • http://www.evergreenreview.com/112/a_la_vieille/a_la_vieille_1.html
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