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Meridional. Chilean Journal of Latin American Studies is pleased to invite you to participate in the dossier “Relevance of Latin American Marxism: Thinking from, with, and beyond Michael Löwy’s work”, which consists in our 21st volume, to be published in October 2023. 

“The letter as an instrument of combat of the black people”: Manuel Zapata Olivella and the magazine Letras Nacionales

Authors

  • Denilson Lima Santos Universidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-Brasileira

Abstract

Literature in Latin America allows us to know different ways to reframe life through arts. In these many ways, we find in Manuel Zapata Olivella (1920-2004) the expression of the political-aesthetic position of Afro-descendant culture in Colombia, specifically by the magazine Letras Nacionales. Zapata Olivella founded this magazine in 1965 and he managed it until 1970. In this context, this essay is concerned with discussing the relationship between the aforementioned publication and the dissemination of Afro-Latin American culture through literature and the theoretical-conceptual studies of Sociology of Literature. Thus, we present issues of black Colombian literature as a possibility of knowing the African presence here in the Americas.