Giannina Braschi (born February 5, 1953) is a Puerto Rican poet, novelist,

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, and scholar. Her notable works include '' Empire of Dreams'' (1988), '' Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998) ''and

United States of Banana ''United States of Banana'' (2011) is a postmodern allegorical novel by the Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi. It is a cross-genre work that blends experimental theatre, prose poetry, short story, and political philosophy with a manifesto on ...

'' (2011). Braschi writes cross-genre literature and political philosophy in Spanish,

Spanglish Spanglish (a portmanteau of the words "Spanish" and "English") is any language variety (such as a contact dialect, hybrid language, pidgin, or creole language) that results from conversationally combining Spanish and English. The term is m ...

, and English. Her work is a hybrid of poetry,

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a tradi ...

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

, memoire, manifesto, and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

. Her writings explore the enculturation journey of Hispanic immigrants, and dramatize the three main political options of Puerto Rico: independence, colony, and state.

Early life

Giannina Braschi was born to an upper-class family of Italian ancestry in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In her teen years, she was a founding member of the

San Juan Children's Choir The San Juan Children's Choir (''Coro de Niños de San Juan'' in Spanish) is a children's choir from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The group was founded in 1966 by its director, Evy Lucío Córdova. The Choir usually accepts participants from the age of 6 ...

, a fashion model, and a tennis champion. Her father Euripides ("Pilo") Braschi was also a tennis champion. In the 1970s, Braschi studied literature and philosophy in Madrid, Rome, Rouen, and London, before she settled in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She credited her start in poetry to the older Spanish poets who mentored her when she lived in Madrid: Claudio Rodríguez, Carlos Bousoño, Vicente Alexandre, and Blas de Otero.

Academic career

With a PhD in Hispanic Literatures from

State University of New York, Stony Brook Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system ...

(1980), Braschi was a professor at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pro ...

, and

Colgate University Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theolog ...

. Braschi has received awards and fellowships from institutions including

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

, Danforth Scholarship,

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

, Rutgers University, and PEN, among others. She published a book on the poetry of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer and essays on

Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...

, Garcilaso,

César Vallejo César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza (March 16, 1892 – April 15, 1938) was a Peruvian poet, writer, playwright, and journalist. Although he published only two books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators ...

, Juan Ramon Jimenez and

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

Literary career

Braschi's work is situated in the Latino

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretica ...

, a "burgeoning body of work that testifies to Latino writers’ abiding interest in the avant-garde as a means for engaging ideas of material, social relevance". Her writings are also placed within the fields of Postcolonial,

Postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...

, and

Nuyorican Nuyorican is a portmanteau of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, or of their descendants (especially those raised or currently living in the N ...

literatures, as well as Latino political philosophy. Braschi is considered a "revolutionary voice" in contemporary Latin American literature".

Spanish: ''El Imperio de los sueños''

In the 1980s, Braschi wrote dramatic poetry in Spanish prose in New York City. Her postmodern poetry titles were published in Barcelona, Spain, including: ''Asalto al tiempo'' (Assault on Time, 1980), ''La Comedia profana'' (Profane Comedy, 1985), and ''El Imperio de los sueños'' ('' Empire of Dreams'', 1988). She was part of the Nuyorican movement. New York City is the site and subject of much of her poetry. In a climactic episode of Braschi's ''Empire of Dreams'', "

Pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depict ...

or the Inquisition of Memories", shepherds invade

5th Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

during the

Puerto Rican Day Parade The Puerto Rican Day Parade (also known as the National Puerto Rican Day Parade) takes place annually in the United States along Fifth Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City. The parade is held on the second Sunday in June, in hon ...

and take over the City of New York; the shepherds ring the bells of St. Patrick's Cathedral, and seize the observation deck of the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from " Empire State", the nickname of the ...

. Immigrant characters play the role of other characters, swapping names, genders, personal histories, and identities.

Alicia Ostriker Alicia Suskin Ostriker (born November 11, 1937) is an American poet and scholar who writes Jewish feminist poetry.Powell C.S. (1994) ''Profile: Jeremiah and Alicia Ostriker – A Marriage of Science and Art'', Scientific American 271(3), 28-3 ...

situates her gender-bending and genre-blending poetry as having a "sheer erotic energy that defies definition and dogma."

Spanglish: ''Yo-Yo Boing! ''

She published the first full-length

novel '' Yo-Yo Boing!'' in 1998. ''Yo-Yo Boing!'' explores "the lived experiences of urban life for Hispanics, as in the case with New York City, and her principal interest is in representing how individuals move in and out of different cultural coordinates, including one so crucial as language." The book was written in an era of renewed calls for English-only laws,

ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...

campaigns, and corporate censorship. "For decades, Dominican and Puerto Rican authors have carried out a linguistic revolution", noted ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', "and Giannina Braschi, especially in her novel ''Yo-Yo Boing!'', testify to it".

English: ''United States of Banana''

Braschi published the geopolitical comic-tragedy ''

'', her first book written entirely in English, in 2011.Sheeran, Amy, and Amanda M. Smith. "A Graphic Revolution: Talking Poetry & Politics with Giannina Braschi." ''Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures''. 2.2 (2018): United States of 3-4. It is a

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...

cross-genre work that opens with the collapse of the World Trade Center on

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

. The work is a scathing critique of 21st-century

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...

and the

global war on terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...

. Subjects include

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...

, mass incarceration, financial terrorism, colonial debt structures, and "power imbalances within the Americas." The work is celebratory of foreign influences. Braschi stated in ''

Evergreen Review ''The Evergreen Review'' is a U.S.-based literary magazine. Its publisher is John Oakes and its editor-in-chief is Dale Peck. The ''Evergreen Review'' was founded by Barney Rosset, publisher of Grove Press. It existed in print from 1957 until ...

'' that she considered herself "more French than Beckett,

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

", and identifies as the "granddaughter of

Alfred Jarry Alfred Jarry (; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play ''Ubu Roi'' (1896). He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics. Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, ...

and

Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...

, bastard child of

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and Tragicomedy, tr ...

and

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

, half-sister to Heiner Müller, kissing cousin of Tadeusz Kantor, and lover of Witkiewicz".

Adaptations and translations

Giannina Braschi's texts have been adapted and applied to popular culture and fields such as television comedy, chamber music, comic books, industrial design, and ecological urban planning.

Michael Zansky Michael Zansky (born 1947, in the Bronx, New York) is an American artist working in installation art, sculpture, painting and photography. Early life Michael Zansky was born in 1947 in the Tremont section the Bronx, into the family of Louis Zan ...

has used Braschi's texts in his paintings and Michael Somoroff has created short films with her works. There is a theater play by Juan Pablo Felix and a graphic novel by

Joakim Lindengren Joakim Lindengren (born March 28, 1962) is a Swedish cartoonist, illustrator and artist. Career Lindengren studied fine arts at Västerås Konstskola and Konstfack in Stockholm. He made his comic album debut in the early 1980s. He has been p ...

. Puerto Rican composer Gabriel Bouche Caro has composed chamber music works with her poems. There is a namesake Giannina chair designed by American industrial designer Ian Stell. Her books have been translated into English by Tess O'Dwyer, into Spanish by Manuel Broncano, and into Swedish by Helena Eriksson and Hannah Nordenhok.

Political activism

Braschi is an advocate for Puerto Rican independence. She declared the independence of Puerto Rico in

and stated in the press that "

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

is not an option — it is a human right." In the 1990s, she protested the United States Navy's bombing exercises in

Vieques Vieques (; ), officially Isla de Vieques, is an island and municipality of Puerto Rico, in the northeastern Caribbean, part of an island grouping sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands. Vieques is part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, ...

, along with politicians Rubén Berríos and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., singers Danny Rivera and Willie Colón, and fellow authors Ana Lydia Vega and Rigoberta Menchú. Braschi spoke on a panel on "The New Censorship" at the

PEN A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity wh ...

2012 World Voices Festival where she offered "a critique of 21st century capitalism in which hecondemned corporate censorship and control." In July 2019, Braschi led early marches outside

La Fortaleza La Fortaleza (lit., "The Fortress" ) is the official residence of the governor of Puerto Rico. It was built between 1533 and 1540 to defend the harbor of San Juan. The structure is also known as Palacio de Santa Catalina (Saint Catherine's Palac ...

in Old San Juan to demand the resignation of Puerto Rican Governor

Ricardo Rossello Ricardo is the Spanish and Portuguese cognate of the name Richard. It derived from Proto-Germanic ''*rīks'' 'king, ruler' + ''*harduz'' 'hard, brave'. It may be a given name, or a surname. People Given name *Ricardo de Araújo Pereira, Portugu ...

, and joined massive protests, with singers

Bad Bunny Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio (born March 10, 1994), known professionally as Bad Bunny, is a Puerto Rican rapper and singer. His musical style is defined as Latin trap and reggaeton. He rose to prominence in 2016 with his song "Diles", w ...

Residente René Pérez Joglar (born February 23, 1978), known professionally as Residente (often stylized as Resīdɛntə), is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as one of the founders of the alternative rap band Calle 13. ...

, and

Ricky Martin Enrique Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), known professionally as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for his musical versatility, with his Ricky Martin albums discography, discography spanning ...

, that led to the Governor's resignation.

Books

*'' Urbanismo ecológico en América Latina'. Mohsen Mostafavi,'' Gareth Doherty, Marina Correia, Ana Maria Duran Calisto, and Luis Valenzuela (eds.). Editorial Gustavo Gili/Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2019. . *''Two Crowns of The Egg,'' with Michael Somoroff,

Donald Kuspit Donald Kuspit (born March 26, 1935) is an American art critic and poet, known for his practice of psychoanalytic art criticism. He has published on the subjects of avant-garde aesthetics, postmodernism, modern art, and conceptual art. Educatio ...

. *'' Estados Unidos de Banana,'' with Manuel Broncano, AmazonCrossing, Madrid, ''2015. '' *''

,'' AmazonCrossing, Seattle, 2011. * '' Yo-Yo Boing!,'' AmazonCrossing, Seattle, 2011. * '' Empire of Dreams,'' AmazonCrossing, Seattle, 2011. * '' El imperio de los sueños'', Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, 2000. * ''Yo-Yo Boing!'', Latin American Literary Review, Pittsburgh, 1998. * '' Empire of Dreams'' (English translation by Tess O'Dwyer; Introduction by

), Yale University Press, New Haven/London, 1994. * '' El imperio de los sueños'', Anthropos Editorial del hombre, Barcelona, 1988. * ''Libro de payasos y bufones'', Grafica Uno, Giorgio Upiglio, Milan, 1987. * ''La comedia profana'', Anthropos Editorial del hombre, Barcelona, 1985. * ''Asalto al tiempo'', Ambitos Literarios, Barcelona, 1980.

Scholarly works

* ''"Breve tratado del poeta artista"'', ''Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos,'' No. 433-36, 1986 (an essay on the poetry of

). * ''"La gravedad de la armonía en ‘Soledades galerías y otros pomas’ de Machado,"'' ''Plural,'' 1983 (an essay on the poetry of

Antonio Machado Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz (26 July 1875 – 22 February 1939), known as Antonio Machado, was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation ...

). * ''"La poesía de Bécquer: El tiempo de los objetos o los espacios de la luz"'', ''Costa Amic,'' Mexico City, 1982 (a scholarly book on the poetry of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer). * ''"La Metamorfosis del ingenio en la Égloga III de Garcilaso,"'' ''Revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos,'' 1979 (an essay on Garcilaso's third

eclogue An eclogue is a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject. Poems in the genre are sometimes also called bucolics. Overview The form of the word ''eclogue'' in contemporary English developed from Middle English , which came from Latin , wh ...

). * ''"Cinco personajes fugaces en el camino de

Don Quijote Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

"'', ''Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos,'' No. 328, 1977 (an essay on

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of West ...

Awards and honors

* Danforth Scholarship *

El Diario La Prensa ''El Diario Nueva York'' is the largest and the oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper 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- ...

's Outstanding Women of 1998 *

Fellowship *

Fellowship * Peter S. Reed Foundation/InterAmericas *

PEN American Center PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922 and headquartered in New York City, is a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression in the United States and worldwide through the advancement of liter ...

's Open Book Award * Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña/grant * Enrique Anderson Imbert, 2022

References

External links

Library
of Congress, National Book Festival, Giannina Braschi.

The Evergreen Review:"United States of Banana" Reviewed by Cristina Garrigos and Daniela Daniele (2011)

WAPA TV, "Escritora puertorriqueña que poco a poco se ha abierto paso en Estados Unidos" by Normando Valentín, December 2011. # , television program in Spanish, "Celebrities desde Nueva York," con Alfonso Diaz, (Giannina Braschi on the collapse of the American Empire on September 11), November 2011.

"What to Read Now: Mixed-Genre Literature,"

World Literature Today ''World Literature Today'' is an American magazine of international literature and culture, published at the University of Oklahoma. The stated goal of the magazine is to publish international essays, poetry, fiction, interviews, and book revie ...

, September–October 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Braschi, Giannina 1953 births Living people 20th-century Puerto Rican poets 20th-century Puerto Rican women writers 21st-century Puerto Rican poets 21st-century Puerto Rican women writers Continental philosophers Epic poets Hispanic and Latino American novelists Hispanic and Latino American poets Hispanic and Latino American writers National Endowment for the Arts Fellows Novelists from New York (state) People from San Juan, Puerto Rico Postmodern feminists Postmodern writers Puerto Rican female tennis players Puerto Rican feminists Puerto Rican independence activists Puerto Rican novelists Puerto Rican people of Italian descent Puerto Rican poets Puerto Rican women short story writers Puerto Rican women writers Weird fiction writers Women satirists

Early life

Academic career

Literary career

Spanish: ''El Imperio de los sueños''

Spanglish: ''Yo-Yo Boing! ''

English: ''United States of Banana''

Adaptations and translations

Political activism

Books

Scholarly works

Awards and honors

See also

References

Further reading

External links