Q&A - Trino Cruz: "Poetry is a form of challenge"

Trino Cruz represented Gibraltar at the Patras World Poetry Festival some days ago. He sees the experience as an international cultural dialogue at all levels. Because poetry, for him, "has always had the potential of pushing boundaries, of allowing us to see things in a different light." He talks about Patras, literature and the spiritual dimension of poetry in this interview with Eyleen Gomez.

Q. At the Patras World Poetry Festival, you represented Gibraltar among 72 poets from 23 countries. What did it mean to you to represent Gibraltar, and how was Gibraltar/you received by the other poets?

A. My own experience is that there is much interest in what we have to say and that we are always welcome wherever we participate. It is therefore important that we seek opportunities to be actively involved in this international cultural dialogue at all levels. We have a collective voice which is worth sharing.

Q. The theme of this year’s festival was Revolution Begins with Words. What does that phrase mean to you, and do you still believe poetry has the power to change the way people think about borders, identity, and politics?

A. Poetry has always had the potential of pushing boundaries, of allowing us to see things in a different light.

Poetry is a form of challenge, of opening our entangled present and asking ourselves the questions we otherwise tend to ignore when we are too busy dealing with our everyday lives!

As I see it, the revolution which poetry promotes, and fosters, is one of opening communication channels and contributing to developing and enriching our common space.

It arises almost unnoticed from our own life experience, and unfolds behind the scenes so to speak, embracing memory and with its keen eye on the future, as it tries to deal with the complex and unsettling present.

There is also a spiritual dimension to poetry which is mostly ignored and I think is one of its fundamental drivers, since poetry inevitably arises from deep within us.

Q. Your own work is influenced by the cultures around the Strait. Did you find similar ideas of mixed identity and migration in the work of poets you met in Patras?

A. Patras itself has many things in common with Gibraltar, it has evolved over many centuries as a maritime crossroads with a rich social history.

I also find that there is much in common between poets wherever they may come from. We all seem to have a heightened awareness of our rich and dynamic identities.

As a poet, as with other creative individuals, there is an ongoing dialogue and feedback process shaping our individual and collective identities which never stands still; our identities are always on the move.

In Gibraltar we are very fortunate to naturally being a part of multiple cultural spaces in addition to having our own local scene. Although in reality, there are no boundaries when we are talking about culture other than those which we may seek to impose on ourselves.

Q. Was there a particular poet, reading, or conversation during the festival that stayed with you? And why did it?

A. During the 4 days of the festival, I had countless conversations with poets, the public, and students.

I have discovered the work of a significant number of poets, mostly from across Europe, who I did not previously know, and this is certainly a precious gift which I have brought back to Gibraltar with me.

I certainly feel very close to contemporary Greek poetry which is extremely rich and diverse.

Q. After taking Gibraltar’s poetry onto an international stage like Patras, are you optimistic about where Gibraltarian literature, poetry in particular, is heading?

A. These are exciting times for our country and culture, and our literature in all its forms has a key role to play, proposing new perspectives, offering valuable insight, incessantly probing and questioning.

It is nowadays frequent for Gibraltarian artists and writers to participate in cultural events internationally. This is phenomenal!

There is clearly no endgame or particular horizon in poetry; we are merely following in the footsteps of those who came before us, keeping that deep memory flowing into the future.

We must therefore strive to be heard, and we must learn to listen better to what others have to say.

I personally have this year participated in cultural events in Qatar, Safi (Morocco), various places in Andalucia (Cadiz, Sevilla and Granada) and now in Patras (Greece), and I will be at the Tangier Book Fair this October participating in a round table.

The cultural momentum which results from our activity collectively is a sign of our health as a creative community. Being a part of this rich global cultural exchange is essential for us.

Q. What is next for you?

A. Participating in this festival has been inspiring and motivating and will no doubt lead to new ideas and projects arising in the future.

I am currently working on a number of exciting projects. I have been kindly invited by Luis Ruiz of GBC to continue with our exciting collaboration for the second season of the GBC series The Strait Never Sleeps. The sea, and our relationship with it at every level, continues to be a central driver in my writing.

On another front, from my ongoing work involving my family archive, diverse threads are weaving into a fascinating regional history which serves to shed new light on our regional story and our relationship with our environment.

The social, cultural and commercial interweave and do not allow for simplifications, instead they push us to seek to better understand the past as we inevitably move forwards. As part of this I am planning to continue to dip into several regional archives (Gibraltar, Tangier, La Línea etc).

Later this month, I will be participating in an interesting round table at the Tangier Book Fair, which will be centred around the past, present and future of the Teatro Cervantes of that city (inaugurated in 1913), in which my great grandparents and grandparents were involved.

This theatre has navigated from the early twentieth century to the present with incredible resilience and resourcefulness.

Four years ago the Spanish state, which owned the theatre, gifted it to Morocco who have restored the theatre and are planning to re-inaugurate it very soon.

It is interesting to speculate about what it may become in the future!