The poetry of the body, the body of poetry

Abstract

Alfredo Fressia is one of those rare figurines, which is not repeated in the package and which, when we find it, must keep all affection and zeal over it, since there will hardly be another one like it. I met him recently, in 2013, on account of the Londrina Literary Festival - Londrix, in which he contemplated us with a beautiful conference entitled "The body in Latin American poetry". Born in Montevideo in 1948, he moved to São Paulo in 1976, due to the dictatorship of Juan Maria Bordaberry, which started 3 years before and whose process would last until 1985. Here, Fressia continued his intellectual and artistic activity, always collaborating to strengthen Pindorama's cultural ties with Latin America, while teaching French at Aliança Cultural. He became a literary critic, being a correspondent for the newspaper El País, in Montevideo, having also published essays on the Spanish poet based in Paraguay, Josefina Pla, and on the Chekhov theater, among others. Still in this line of bringing our country closer to the distant Latin American identity, he translated into Spanish several poets, among them: Ana Cristina César, Carlos Drummond, Donizete Galvão, Cecília Meirelles and Ferreira Gullar. Among his vast poetic production, it is worth mentioning: Un esqueleto azul y otra agonía, 1973; Final key, 1982; Foreign news, 1984; Destination: Rua Aurora, 1986; Forty poems, 1989; Frontera móvil, 1997; El futuro / O futuro, (Portugal), 1998; Fast eternity, 1999; Eclipse, 2003; Senryu o El Árbol de las syllables, 2008; Ciudad de papel, 2009; Homeless Corner, 2010; The memorial of men who loved me, (Mexico), 2012; Poet in Edén, 2012; and Clandestin, 2013, the latter published in France.