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Augusto Higa: “Writing is realizing yourself”

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Augusto Higa, winner of the 2012 “José Watanabe Varas” National Prize for Literary Creation convened by the Peruvian-Japanese Association, talks to us about his next novel, his favorite books and his literary vocation.

What are you writing?

Augusto Higa won the “José Watanabe Varas” Prize from the APJ for his collection of short stories Okinawa exists.

This year I plan to publish two books. I always have projects, novels, research. For example, a work on Ribeyro.

What are the books you plan to publish about?

One of them is Gaijin , a short novel. It's more or less along the lines of Katzuo Nakamatsu's Enlightenment. It is the story of a Japanese man who comes from the north. There is the atmosphere of war. There I examine the contradictions that any immigrant who arrives in a strange country has. Let's say, internal racism. It is a racism that comes from both sides. In national society, the Japanese migrant was like the Chinese migrant and the blacks. They are discriminated against, but at the same time the Japanese, Chinese and blacks themselves discriminate against society. And within that environment that was created in Peru there are personalities like that of a Fujimori, a totally hermetic, inexpressive type. Those types of personalities are what I want to develop, they are typical of a defensive culture.

The entire history of Japanese immigration has been a constant evolution. The Japanese language was lost, the Japanese religion was lost, the Japanese schools were lost, many of the customs were lost, but at the same time you are gaining in Peruvianization, you are gaining another language, another religion, other customs. You assimilate better, but you always have foreigner characteristics. That's pretty much the area I try to focus on.

And the second book?

It is a novel about terrorism.

Katzuo Nakamatsu's Enlightenment received very good reviews, it was considered one of the best novels of 2008. Were you surprised by the reception it received?

It was a surprising thing. I sent her to two or three contests and she lost all of them. I published it with great trepidation, and for me it was a surprise. The critical and public reaction was very favorable, the edition was even finished. It was well received within what a national writer can sell here in Peru, which is not much, because people don't read.

What are you reading?

A book (set) in the time of (Pablo) Escobar, The noise of things falling , by Juan Gabriel Vásquez. Very good novel. Another one I'm reading is a great novel by Cormac McCarthy called Suttree . McCarthy is probably one of the best American prose writers and novelists. This job must have easily taken him about ten years because of the characteristics, because of the way he writes. It is a very careful job.

What book has marked you the most?

I have a lot. Rulfo, García Márquez, Borges, who are classics. Faulkner, formidable. Ribeyro. When Vargas Llosa comes out he dazzles. When I finished school, Vargas Llosa appeared, it was a revolution.

Any work that particularly influenced your literary vocation?

Probably about Ribeyro. I need to read new authors like Murakami, because they give you an idea of ​​how writing is happening at this time, what the trends are and what problems they are facing.

What do you like about Japanese literature?

Murakami is a great author. Kenzaburo Oe. And among the classics, Tanizaki. Kobo Abe, who wrote a novel called The Woman in the Sand.

What books would you recommend to a young person?

It is difficult, because it depends on the characteristics of each one. I have had, for example, literature students but they did not like academic literature, rather they liked easy literature.

But a young man who does like to read?

Latin American literature. In the time of Vargas Llosa, of Ribeyro, Peruvian and Latin American writers were educated with Spanish, English, North American or French literature. Starting in the 60s, we were nourished by Latin American literature. It's a tremendous variation. Like the rockers who were fed by rock in English, but suddenly rock in Spanish began to be created, Latin American rock, which influences you more. We must study Latin American authors, from the classics to the most recent. And you can't stop reading Carver, Cormac McCarthy.

Do you have a writing schedule? Or do you only do it when you feel like it?

No, you have to write permanently. I am already in the terminal stage. My learning stage is already over. I read these types of novels ( The Sound of Things Falling and Suttree ) because they enrich me. They allow me to be in contact with other literatures, other problems, and therefore enrich your imagination and your possibilities to create. Since I am in a terminal stage, I set work schedules for myself. For example, right now when I'm on vacation, all morning, until 1, 2 in the afternoon, I'm writing, correcting.

What does writing mean to you?

It is an imperative, a catharsis, a necessity. It is realizing yourself, it is finding yourself, it is having the satisfaction of doing what you like to do. I suppose it must be the same satisfaction that the plastic artist, the rocker, the lawyer, the economist, the driver have, if they do their job well, if they do well what they want to do. It's a way to expand your world.

He can't imagine not writing.

No no. There are some writers who point out that they are more readers than writers. This is the case of Borges. He explained that he was a better reader than a writer. As for reading, I have a variety of books to read, from philosophy, history... Two days ago I was browsing Plato's Dialogues , it is extraordinary. In Phaedo , for example, he explains the soul to you, and we are talking about a writing from 400 BC. C. I have also been browsing Thomas More's Utopia . But unfortunately I have to concentrate my reading for the things I'm doing, I can't read as much as I did during my learning period. For example, I can't read all of Cormac McCarthy anymore, just two or three (books). I have only read two or three of Murakami's. I can't read everything anymore.

Any author or book you always come back to?

Kakfa, Faulkner, Borges. I have a book that I always return to: On the tragic feeling of life , by Unamuno. It is a book about theology, philosophy, religion. Unamuno was an existentialist philosopher. He tells you about his very particular way of feeling Christianity, it opens up a whole field for you. It has reflections on love, on the immortality of the soul. All these problems interest me and I always return to that book.

Are you a believer?

I am a Christian, Catholic, but not practicing in the sense that I do not go to mass, I do not confess. I haven't developed that mechanic. But I do study the Bible. The Bible is another great book to which we must always return. Curiously, in the books I have written there is always influence from the Bible.

Which of your books do you feel most fond of?

The House of Albaceleste . It was written in the eighties and they are the most creative stories I have written. That's why I have a lot of love for them. They meant a lot in the years of conflict, famine, and inflation. For me it was very isolating to dedicate myself to that. In the eighties I wrote three things: La Casa de Albaceleste, Final del Porvenir and a thesis on Ribeyro with which I graduated in Literature.

Do you feel more comfortable in the story or the novel?

Right now in the short novel. I can no longer write books of 200, 300 pages. For me it is already a lot, it is a very hard work. I've stuck to short novels. It has to be short because I work a lot on prose, a sentence is very difficult for me because I am consulting dictionaries, I have six or seven.

Nobody writes to make money in Peru.

It's a little difficult to post here. What you're going to earn for publishing doesn't even cost the coffee. Very difficult. Anyway, the thing is like this. You don't earn much, but it's fun. Or at least you're not resentful. I don't know who told me the other day that the joy, the happiness of creators is more permanent than that of professionals who are not dedicated to creation. “You are happier,” they told me.

* * *

OKINAWA EXISTS

Augusto Higa won the “José Watanabe Varas” National Prize for Literary Creation, organized by the Peruvian-Japanese Association. The jury made up of writers Marco Martos, Hildebrando Pérez and Carlos Calderón unanimously agreed to award the highest award to Higa for the book of short stories Okinawa Exists. Below, we publish an excerpt from one of the stories:

The book Okinawa Exists was published in July 2013 (Co-edition of APJ and Grupo Editorial Mesa Redonda).

“At six in the morning, obaachan Miyagui opened her eyes. He had had a dream blocked. Still in his lethargy, he observed that the walls and chairs danced unrealistically. He waited a moment. He felt a grip of cold in his belly, as always. And without knowing why, he could not stop his omen: that day, without fail, urgently, death would come. Minutes passed to recover. So at seventy-six years old, lost in delirium, she entered everyday life. He made the bed. He changed his clothes. In the bathroom, suspended in the moment, she wet her face and brushed her teeth. Still sighing, in the mirror he saw a flock of morning birds. Once again in the bedroom, behind the window facing the street, the inevitable rain of crabs descended. The obaachan Miyagui did not say anything, nor did she think anything, scrupulous and punctual, she heard noises in the back room: her grandchildren were having breakfast, they were leaving for school. The rest, the next few hours, was an exact repetition of the previous days. Without objections, mechanical and ritual, his son Yochan drew the curtains of the business, a grocery store on the corner of Huancavelica and Angaraes.

After the frugal breakfast, obaachan Miyagui took her place, a corner behind the counter, sitting on a bench. With his eyes suspended on the door, his face stern and motionless, he watched the morning customers enter. Workers in shirt sleeves. Rijosa housewives. Obfuscated pedestrians. They were the residents of the neighborhood, yes, there they were, playful and peaceful, in search of milk, butter, and cigarettes. Yochan and his wife, the beautiful Fusako, a kind Nisei with a quick smile, attended. In waves, in turns, people entered and left; You could hear the hum of words, the crunch of coins on glass, the dull ladles on bags of sugar. Around nine o'clock the driver Ródenas appeared, drank a soda, approached the obaachan, and asked out of the blue:

–Who is the president of Peru, grandmother?

She answered murmuringly:

–Leguia!

The driver laughed. The stupid old lady, he said, lives in seclusion in another world. Yochan shortcut: he is with his gods, in paradise. They celebrated. They laughed. They chatted. The morning went down smoothly, calmly, without harshness. The obaachan Miyagui remained impassive, observing the street, the movement of vehicles, the colorful passers-by, the noise on the corner. It was then that a yellow light emerged, seahorses appeared, incredible danced in the air, sprinkled a fine grain of dust, then disappeared from his gaze. The smell of seafood remained. Expiration of the fugitive. What does not return and is not repeated. The obaachan Miyagui smiled, as if shaking herself from drowsiness, perhaps from unreality. However, she shed a couple of tears, she who had never cried. Nostalgia? Maybe. Sadness? It's possible. Was he saying goodbye to the world? No. In any case, at that moment of her lethargy, in the distance, as if surprised by the time and distance, she heard her daughter-in-law Fusako, who needed her for lunch. So he did. He returned to the dining room packed with merchandise. He took the soup. Paused. He ate the vegetables. Without haste, he ate the rice. He drank the tea on the table. Later, Michan, the youngest daughter, would arrive to take over the store. Obaachan Miyagui felt exempt from responsibilities. Then she went to her bedroom, put on a nightgown, and took a nap. He dreamed.

* This article is published thanks to the agreement between the Peruvian Japanese Association (APJ) and the Discover Nikkei Project. Article originally published in Kaikan magazine No. 74, and adapted for Discover Nikkei.

© 2013 Asociación Peruano Japonesa; © 2013 Fotos: APJ / Álvaro Uematsu

Augusto Higa Oshiro authors Japan literature Okinawa Prefecture Peru writers
About the Authors

Enrique Higa is a Peruvian Sansei (third generation, or grandchild of Japanese immigrants), journalist and Lima-based correspondent for the International Press, a Spanish-language weekly published in Japan. He is the coeditor of the Japanese Peruvian Association (APJ) magazine, Kaikan.

Updated July 2024


The Japanese Peruvian Association (Asociación Peruano Japonesa, APJ) is a nonprofit organization that brings together and represents Japanese citizens who live in Peru and their descendants, as well as their institutions.

Updated May 2009

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