Manifesto No. 3 “Cosmos Archipelago” Trasdemar Review of Insular Literatures

From our magazine, we embrace the challenge of connecting all the archipelagos around the world in order to face the uncertainty of climate crisis and the collapse of the system, thus offering the first signs of the islands’ rebirth.
Vítor Teves (Ponta Delgada, Azores) Sem título, acrílico sobre papel, 2021

In his poem “Sweden”, included in the book El omnibus pintado con cerezas (1971), Canarian author Rafael Arozarena wrote: These are the early hours of the world. Fifty years ago, the writer spoke about forests with ancient tears and modern glass. From the origin of time, literature has been one of the most essential representations of the human experience; that is why now, in times of pandemic and a global crisis, we need to turn to writing and its varied expressions and languages to hope for a society with more dignity and justice. On the first anniversary of Revista Trasdemar, we keep on building a space for the appreciation of insularity, the right to free expression and the value of literary exchanges, thus fostering new
international ways of life.


Millions of islands on the planet are inhabited by millions of people, representing merely ten per cent of the earth´s surface. However, all those islands, whether maritime or fluvial, natural or artificial, have shared a common horizon in the transformation of cultures; a horizon of expectancy and watchfulness in order to promote a new human vision. From mythology to colonial chronicles, in fiction as well as in poetry, in the creative expressions of all time, islands as a whole have achieved a particular dimension, one to be endlessly explored. It follows that the Cosmos Archipelago is reached through the cosmopolitan path of a universal borderless atmosphere. From our magazine, we embrace the challenge of connecting all the archipelagos around the world in order to face the uncertainty of climate crisis and the collapse of the system, thus offering the first signs of the islands’ rebirth.


In Keeping a Rendezvous (1992), British author John Berger, recalls his trip to the Finnish isles and talks about the need to have a different approach, about the feeling that everything is water and will eventually disappear, that city centres are losing their historic initiative. For centuries, periphery was considered the place where the past ended; nowadays, the island experience, the contemplation of tides and their eternity, confirm the idea that beauty
stemmed from suffering and constant changes. An ecological defense of the planet is based on the indisputable solidarity springing from the similarity of the islands. We are a sea of identities open to otherness. Our literatures provide the crossbreeding for the future.

This year marks the first centenary of Cuban poet Cintio Vitier´s birth (Cayo Hueso, 1921). In one of his lectures in Havana, between October 9 and December 13, 1957, he tackled the trend of thought of Maria Zambrano, universal Andalusian philosopher who, even before her own birth, found a vital link between the magical and mysterious imagery of poetry and the island experience. Through the dialogue between island and continental cultures, by connecting and mixing up our narratives, from the shared migrations and the appreciation of the voices of diversity, Cosmos Archipelago will see itself in the reflections of a mirror which has been shattered by the dramatic history of the world.

Confronting the chaos in the system and the power, rejecting to repeat the failure of a defunct civilization, archipelagos welcome the new day from their lighthouses.


Our special thanks to the author Cristi Cruz for the translation

Deja un comentario