This post is by Barbara Dash, Rare Materials Section in consultation with Eva Reyes Cisnero, Mexico, Central America & Caribbean Section
In Matanzas, Cuba in 1985, poet Alfredo Zaldívar and poet and artist Rolando Estévez Jordán opened a space for writers and artists to meet. The group began making flyers to advertise their events and soon turned their attention to creating books by hand. The new venture took its name from its location in the Plaza de la Vigía, or Watchtower Square, by the Bay of Matanzas. Joined by generations of volunteers, Ediciones Vigía (Watchtower Editions) has provided inspiration through times of hardship. Its symbol, an oil lamp, appears on each of its publications.
Today the collective is recognized internationally for its creative repurposing of found and donated materials and for its interactive works of book art. Its works feature Cuban and non-Cuban writers and poets, including Afro-Cuban ethnic and cultural history, dance, music and art, and Spanish-language translations of favorite international poets. Its output includes series for children and serial publications for children and adults.
Books from Ediciones Vigía began arriving at the Library of Congress in the 1990s. Almost all the early books had cords for hanging, in the tradition of literatura de cordel. For the cords, Vigía artists used jute, hemp, string or colored yarn. They decorated some books with sand, gravel, twigs or leaves from the Vigía building’s surroundings. Often the paper is made from bagasse, a byproduct of sugar cane, and collages may include fabric and colored paper cutouts or appliqué, along with hand painting.
Books are sometimes accompanied by handmade bookmarks or other ephemera. Some have interior pop-up illustrations, or folded banners or puzzle pieces inserted into handmade envelopes affixed to interior pages. Some are broadsheets or banners. There is a large construction of Emily Dickinson’s house, with tree, sky and moon, housing a bilingual selection of her poems. One book of poems was issued with a cigar in a cigar box.
Recent works by Ediciones Vigía’s principal designer, Rolando Estévez, were featured in the Collecting Memories Exhibition in the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building.
In about 2014, Estévez founded his own press, El Fortín. He visited the Library of Congress in May 2018 with two items. One, a black wedding gown adorned with poems by Cuban and American women, is described in Rolando Estévez and the Making of Otra Piel and featured in the Collecting Memories Exhibition. Another, Aldimú para Marilyn Monroe, “is a tribute to the American actress, which is equal parts dress and canvas for Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal’s poem “Oración” (Prayer) for Marilyn Monroe.”
Estévez passed away on January 17, 2023 in Matanzas, the city he sometimes referred to by an old name, Bellamar, or Beautiful Sea. The gown of poems and the tribute to Marilyn Monroe are in the custody of the Latin American, Caribbean and European Division (LACE).
El tac-tac de la chancleta izquierda. Israel Domínguez; Gladys Mederos; Rolando Estévez (banner, Ediciones Vigía, 2012) (right).
Read more
The University of Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology offers and online of overview of their collection of Vigía books.
Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera explores Ediciones Vigía Collection with chief Georgette Dorn. View the webcast, read the Poet Laureate’s poem response, and learn more about the collection.
To learn more about Cordel Literature see: Self-Publishing from Brazil’s Margins.
Comments
I have been to Ediciones Vigia in Mantanzas and have one of their books. Cuban creativity and resourcefulness knows no bounds. If only the U.S. would stop being hostile, Cuba could continue to support artists and musicians and dancers and the world woud be a happier place for all of us.