Every writer aspires, in addition to winning prizes, to belong to a canon, a literary movement in which to be grouped like a school of fish in a river. In Latin America, there have been important groups of authors, among the most famous being modernist writers and members of the Boom, who have appeared in numerous collections and anthologies. Gathering writers into volumes that make sense seems like an arduous task, like fishing with a line.

The Spaniard Ignacio López-Calvo often undertakes this kind of literary adventure, as in 2002 when he published a pair of anthologies on Tusan authors (descendants of Chinese and Peruvians) and Chinese authors: Hojas sobre las raíces: antología literaria de autores Tusanes peruanos, with the participation of Rodrigo P. Campos, and Lachinoamérica: Antología de autores sinolatinoamericanos, in which he traveled the coasts of Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Panama, Argentina and Chile, among other countries, in search of authors of Chinese ancestry.

In 2024, together with Koichi Hagimoto, he came up with a third anthology, this time of Latin American Nikkei authors, bringing together more than 50 authors from five countries. “Our main motivation was always to disseminate Latin American Nikkei literature, since sometimes these are texts that are difficult to obtain and our colleagues and graduate students need them for their classes,” says López-Calvo by email, in the midst of more academic work. The idea was to make this kind of author known to a wider public, mixing those already established, such as the Peruvian poet José Watanabe, with other current writers such as the Brazilian Ivan Nisida or the Argentine María Claudia Otsubo.

First contact

The Spanish critic says that the first Nikkei author he met was the Peruvian Doris Moromisato, back in 2011, when he interviewed her for “The Affinity of the Eye: Writing Nikkei in Peru.” “It was a pleasant experience because, in addition to her kindness, she gave me two books and gave me the phone number and email of other Nikkei authors. At first, my favorite authors were José Watanabe and Augusto Higa, who continue to be role models for me.”

Aptly, it was Moromisato who presented in Peru the book of more than 500 pages edited by the Peruvian-Japanese Association, in whose ceremony she read a text by the Argentine-American Anna Kazumi Stahl with the phrase “what are you?”, in which she speaks of discrimination and polyphony. The Peruvian poet Juan Carlos de la Fuente read a text by the Chilean poet Ariel Takeda, who reflects on the Nikkei community to which he had access.

Being Nikkei is based on identifying who one is, on approaching one's essence, from which stories, reflections and narratives emerge. At the event, Japanese author Koichi Hagimoto commented that this has been one of the most significant projects in which he has participated, highlighting that these authors are a bridge between the cultures of Japan and Latin America. “Being Nikkei implies the possibility of constantly making and remaking oneself, always rejecting fixed definitions or simple categorization.”

Polyphonic book

In the introduction to the book, the anthologists ask: What is Nikkei literature? The short answer is: “a collection of literary works written by Japanese immigrants and their descendants,” but what it contains is the historical process of migration, the formation of communities (the Nikkei with the largest numbers are those of Brazil, Peru and Argentina) and the narrative of many authors who “describe their complicated relationship with the notion of homeland” while seeking a sense of national belonging through their diasporic voices.

In multiple times and spaces, “Nikkei literature reveals a continuous process of reconfiguration and reimagining,” they point out in this bilingual volume (Spanish and Portuguese) that, in addition to being a compilation of various authors, reviews the Japanese migration processes in five countries (Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brazil and Mexico). The biographies of those included in the anthology show authors who move through various genres, from poetry to short stories and chronicles, among other hybrid genres and various artistic and professional activities.

Peruvian Kazuko Kikushima is a psychologist and her compatriot Eliana Otta is a visual artist, as is Brazilian Talita Nozomi. Her compatriot Tereza Yamashita is a designer and illustrator, while Argentines Juan Carlos Higa and Agustina Rabaini are journalists and art critics, respectively. Also Argentine Malena Higashi is dedicated to the tea ceremony, while Peruvians Miguel Ángel Vallejo Sameshima and Cesar Yamaguchi are dedicated to playwriting and scripts for comics, manga and visual novels.

Unique experiences

Their lives certainly speak as much about these writers as their works. Peruvian cultural manager Nicolás Matayoshi has been deputy mayor of the province of Huancayo. Peruvian novelist Augusto Higa was a dekasegi in the 1990s. Mexican Kingo Nonaka was a combat doctor during the revolution. Brazilian Júlio Miyazawa is an accountant and environmentalist, while his compatriot Francisco Handa works as a Buddhist monk. Their lives are certainly unique, and so are their destinies.

Peruvian poet Daniel Nakasone has lived in Canada since 2013. Argentinean Virginia Higa lives in Stockholm, where she teaches Spanish and works as a literary translator. Brazilian André Kondo has lived in Australia and Peruvian historian Fernando Iwasaki lives in a remote village in Seville. These are lives that seem made to be written, although many of their books are full of memory and a sinuous imagination, among which are fantastic and children's books together with free-style poems and classical structures.

For Ignacio López-Calvo, there is a strong presence of autoethnographic and autobiographical elements among Nikkei authors from Latin America. “This can sometimes be seen in the use of words in Nihongo or Uchinanchú to explain aspects of Japanese culture to the reader or in references to key cultural objects and practices of Japanese culture.” He points out that their literature is still recent and is in full emergence. “In my opinion, it has more to do with the rest of Latin American literature than with Japanese literature.”

The book and the literary

Although they are Nikkei authors, their literature addresses other topics and López-Calvo makes it clear that “the fact that a Latin American author has a Japanese surname does not automatically make him an expert in Japanese culture and literature, as some critics seem to think.” The book reflects, precisely, that there is no static and fixed Nikkei identity, but rather many and multiple identities in evolution. “I think that we can speak of Nikkei literature as a unifying label.”

The anthologists’ goal of going “beyond” haiku has led them through an ocean of writings that do not aim at the “national” but at the diasporic, and that “continue to be a minority literature even in their own countries.” The aim of this book is to add a few drops of Nikkei to the literary offering both in Latin America and in other latitudes. “My colleague Koichi Hagimoto and I would love for this book to have much more international distribution. For that same reason, our next project is going to be to translate it into English and Japanese.”

To spread the diverse and heterogeneous (in ethnicity and gender) Nikkei literature, it is necessary to make its authors known and encourage them to continue writing. “We are aware that there is a lack of representatives from countries such as Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, among other countries, due to space limitations,” says the academic. The good news is that there is more and more interest in Latin American authors of Asian origin, whether they are of Japanese, Chinese or Korean origin, which can be an encouragement for companies like this one and for others that hope to reach a successful conclusion.

© 2024 Javier García Wong-Kit