Poet León Félix Batista Receives Homage at International Book Fair

Poet León Félix Batista Receives Homage at International Book Fair
Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo, 05/20/2011

The Ministry of Culture and the Board of Directors of the International Book Fair named one of the streets in the fairgrounds of the XIV International Book Fair, Santo Domingo 2011 after Dominican poet León Félix Batista.

Mr. Batista expressed his happiness and appreciation for the initiative undertaken  by the Ministry of Culture. In an emotional speech, he thanked his family, friends, work colleagues and his readers for all the support they have shown him over the years. 

Present at the street-naming ceremony were Minister of Culture, José Rafael Lantigua; Director General of the Book Fair, Alejandro Arvelo; Deputy Culture Ministers, Mateo Morrison, Bernarda Jorge, Pedro Cabrera and Orlando Lora; Director of the National Library, Diógenes Núñez; Directors of Culture, Valentín Amaro, Domingo Guerrero, Yi-yoh Robles and Eleonor Grimaldi.

Alejandro Arvelo gave the main speech at the event in which he congratulated Félix Batista on his day, saying that he “has always been a poet,” and that his body of great work attests to that fact.

Mr. Batista expressed his happiness and appreciation for the initiative undertaken  by the Ministry of Culture. In an emotional speech, he thanked his family, friends, work colleagues and his readers for all the support they have shown him over the years. 

León Félix Batista was director of the publishing house “Cantus Firmus,” in New York, where he lived for 18 years. He studied at Mercy College and at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. He has been the Director of the National Publishing House of the Ministry of Culture of the Dominican Republic since 2004.

Batista has published six books of poetry: El Oscuro Semejante (1989); Negro Eterno (1997); Vicio (1999); Burdel Nirvana (2001, National Poetry Award of the Theater House); Mosaico Fluido (2006, National Poetry Award of Emilio Prud´Homme); and Pseudolibro (2008, National Poetry Award of the University Central of the East); Se borra si es leído, poesía reunida 1989-99 (Santo Domingo, 2000); Crónico (Buenos Aries, 2000); Prosa del que está en la esfera (Buenos Aries, 2006); Inflamable (Uruguay, 2009) and Delirium semen (Mexico, 2010).

Other writers also present at the homage ceremony include Dionisio de Jesús, García Romero and Alexis Gómez Rosa.

Director General of the Book Fair, Alejandro Arvelo; León Félix Batista; el Deputy Minister for Institutional Development, , Mateo Morrison; León Félix Batista’s mother Cristobalina Lugo and his wife Ivelis Pérez; Minister of Culture, José Rafael Lantigua; and Deputy Minister for Creativity and Popular Participation, Bernarda Jorge.