How do you write silence?

There is nothing more provocative or powerful in literature than silence. The most powerful words are no words. Don’t you remember what Shakespeare wrote in Othello, “From this time forth I will never speak a word.” It is easy to write silence and perform in plays. You can provoke silence, like in Pinter’s plays.

I’m speaking in another voice, which is absolutely powerful.

On the other hand, how can we write silence in literature? This is something of a higher hierarchy; I would say it is a subversion of the language. It is funny, because as long as I have to speak in other languages, I will be in silence. But the paradox is: this “silence” becomes an extremely powerful tool that can be used against the politics of exile or torture, or diminishing any kind of violence that deprives us of our natural, fine selves. As long as I have to speak in other languages that are not mine, and that I have not chosen, I’m in silence. But I’m speaking in another voice, which is absolutely powerful.

Would it therefore be just to say that your ability to inscribe cultural orientation/disorientation has served — beyond imprinting a writing identity — as a sort of therapeutic catharsis? Given that writing and publishing are two acts in one for your creative life, are you aware that such catharsis may be a public act?

Catharsis? Hmm… to a certain extent.

Publishing being a public act is true, but writing is purely private. I write for myself. Writing is a private act, and publishing is the public element of the natural process of writing. I do have the need to write, it was always there, even long before I went into exile. In high school, I studied French and English, and that opened the door to very important writers. I studied Spanish Literature later on in college, and that solidified my interest for Spanish authors. Writing has been always present in my life, but I would say that going into exile was the catalysis that made clear the role of writing in my life. I always wanted to “do” things like researching literature, being a journalist, etc., although I never thought about using writing to play a role in society. To be a writer was very abstract then.

Writing has been always present in my life, but I would say that going into exile was the catalysis that made clear the role of writing in my life.

Now I see it as a blessing, a gift that we need to share if we can. The act of publishing is a public act. There is nothing wrong with that unless you write secret letters to yourself. I would say that writing and publishing are two different tasks. You don’t write to be published, you write to become better every day in your writing; either because you want to write better poems, or because you have a certain dream of writing something that is bigger than yourself. Whether what you’ve written is being published or not, it is another different task.

Mariela Griffor
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

I used to struggle with my identity; it was very simple when I was in Chile. Families and relatives don’t move from one place to another. My father, for instance, lived in his house from the time when he was 23; he married and raised his children in the same place. The man who shaped my mind most was my grandfather. His father was a landowner in Temuco, in the south of Chile. His property included thousands of acres, from the mountains to the sea. It included the Fundo Santa Celia and a gold mine. But my grandfather wanted to have a different life… My grandmother’s origins, on the contrary, were more modest. Chile is a class society, you belong to the upper class or the lower class, the middle class was completely destroyed under the military dictatorship. We grow up vulnerable to these kinds of changes, but once we’ve chosen our side, we are uncompromising. Catalytic event, lyric or confessional, who cares? It can be both.

It is true, that in the beginning, my poetry was more confessional or cathartic, if you’d like to call it so, but it has evolved to work that consciously mixes emotions, poetic rules, and images. I write for myself. It gives me pleasure and I don’t know if I am good at it, but I would like to get better.