Ana Filomena Amaral: Words of Fire

One of the Buddhist teachings in my life’s toolbox goes, “Take all in with a strong back and a soft front, for life is harsh and you want to be gentle.” A contemporary adaption to this mantra is coined by Brené Brown, an American researcher professor on vulnerability and compassion, adding “a wild heart” to the credo. The trio: hard back, soft front and wild heart, could be one description that encapsulates the qi of our guest this month.

Ana Filomena Amaral, an award-winning author and translator, delves into some of the grimmest sufferings on earth and builds refuge in her fictional world. Founder of a celebrated literary festival in Portugal, she believes “fire is lethal but vital, so is literature.” I feel compelled to share with you this conversation we had with the protean writer, about her life’s work and how she tries to put it to good use.

Lens of Passion: Thank you so much for accepting this interview, Ana. I am so excited about enquiring into your career and passion. Let’s jump right in it: How many books have you written so far; and for those translated into English, what are they about?
Ana Filomena Amaral: Thank you! I feel very excited about doing this too. I have 15 books published in Portuguese and 2 of them are translated into English. Chasing Walls is about all the walls that still exist and harm mankind. One of the most talked about walls in the media is the Western Sahara Wall (2700km long and 16 times longer than the Berlin Wall). The Sahrawi people were expelled from there by the Moroccan government so that they could exploit the resources: oil, fish, minerals. Sometimes it’s a curse when a country is very rich in soil and subsoil because everyone hunts after them. In this tragedy, the Sahrawis lost their country for 45 years and they are still at war with Morocco.

The book starts with the Berlin wall falling, then it moves onto North Korea, Belfast in Northern Ireland, Western Sahara, Israel, Mexico, and it stops in Brazil at the slums in Rio de Janeiro, where a wall was built to prevent the tourists from seeing the real misery. The story I create meant to pose a strong question: How should we commit ourselves to changing the world?

When we’re young, we have ambition to change the world into a better one; when we grow up we usually forget because we get busy. I think we have to remember that we can still do something for people, for everyone. We can’t say “I cannot change anything.” No one can say this because everyone can and must be committed to changing the world. If not “the world”, at least we can do something for our own family, neighborhood, our village. If we can do this, our passage through life is accomplished. This is the message I want to convey with my writing.

My other book that is translated to English, Vaulted Home: Those Who Cheated Death, is a story of mankind from prehistory times to the 20^th century. The story is told by a woman, a feminist voice. She is the main protagonist who embodies all the periods in which the narrative is conceived and interacts with the main male characters according to their roles in world history. Then we have the more intimate side of the story, which is the building of mankind’s house, the house of being human, with all the philosophical thoughts and feelings. The seven chapters in which the work is divided are an analogy and reference to the biblical seven days of creation.

In my opinion, women are banished from history books. When you read a majority of these books, it seems like men made history only by themselves and women did not exist. I want to express my comment on this. We’re still fighting for gender equality and this is my own personal struggle as well. Men and women should really look at this together. Women are usually the first and easy target to be disposed. This could be worldwide but at least in Portugal, domestic violence against women has increased. The pandemic is generating a very deep social crisis and the first cell to show this crisis is within a family. When jobs are lost, routines are shaken, all negative psychological reactions turn into violence. We know from history, in catastrophes, the most vulnerable are women and children. We are seeing this again through this pandemic.

As for the books I’m currently writing, AFRI, is about Africa, about its soil and people who are robbed and exploited. It is a continent where our greed has done so bad. This story is a fable, only children and animals speak with each other.

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How has this pandemic influenced your framework?
I am grateful this pandemic has strengthened my resilience. I think this will not be the only one, we will have many more environmental crises and more frequently as well. COVID woke us up as a species to the wrong direction we are heading in. We must become better people in all senses to carry on. The life paradigm that we prosecute in this world must be changed. We cannot live by killing, we must live by giving life, by caring, by protecting and above all by respecting what surrounds us.

What if a regular person feels that world peace and solutions are in the hands of politicians, governments and powerful people?
All of us must embrace active citizenship. We can associate ourselves with organizations and movements. 23 years ago, I founded a community culture and empowerment collective, Arte Via Cooperativa, with four other women. We are all volunteers and we organized the Words of Fire literary festival, an event dedicated to thinkers and also the victims of the 2017 wildfires in Portugal. I am concerned to say that it has been hard to recruit younger people who are motivated to take over the torch. It would be great if every young person can volunteer at whatever causes matter to them and take care of something in this world.

My message for young people is this: Please don’t focus on taking and receiving. The first gesture should be giving. You can’t imagine how much more I have received because I give first. The main principle that runs and rules our lives should be this: We always receive from life much more than what we give so please give and reciprocate. We should not wait for governments and politicians, we have to do our part, especially in the difficult moment we are going through now, not only because of the pandemic but also the environmental threats we face everyday.

Tell us about your favorite character from all the characters you created in your literature world and why.
It would be the main character of my trilogy, Our Mother. Her name is Armina, a descendant from Armenian survivors of the genocide. I’ve lived through her in these 3 books and I’m in love with her. There was a point when I wanted turn this trilogy to a tetralogy but I thought, I’d better leave them and start another story.

Can you share a gist of the trilogy?  
The first title, The Director, focuses on the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, adapting it to the current reality – the destruction of the oceans, the genocide of Armenians, corruption at the highest level and the predatory greed, the situation of Syrian refugees, with the active enquiry of what humanity truly wants for the future.

In the second book, Ice, Armina and Gil leave with a group of scientists for the Arctic. This book is inspired by Inuit traditions and culture and it is dedicated to them. The story unfolds with the expedition team and the crisis they run into. The polar bear, an endangered species, is one of the protagonists of this novel. The narrative is permeated by mythological references, such as the title itself, Gelos (“Ice” in English), name of the Greek god of laughter.

The third volume, Deserts, is coming out this year. We follow Armina and Maria’s volunteering adventure in a refugee camp in the desert. During the crossing, they get to know other characters and experience the problems of desertification, another consequence of global warming. This novel is inspired by the traditions and culture of the Imazighen people, commonly known as Berbers and their relentless fight for place in the world.

In 2021, we have about 70 million people dislocated from their countries – 70 millions refugees, 7 times the size of Portugal!  I wish to build a country for these refugees and the utopia is situated in a desert. The story aims to talk about how everyone can help to rebuild a better world for people who are less fortunate.

In my neighborhood, there are Syrian refugees living just a few kilometers from my house. They are right here, possibly not far from many others either. My husband started a protest to raise awareness about one refugee’s loss of home, then the politicians responded. We can all do something to help.

As someone who has played the role of an author, a translator, a university lecturer, mother, daughter, wife, what do you think are the two biggest challenges mankind faces?
Indifference. This is one of our biggest challenges and sins. Second one is destruction of our mother, the place that welcomed us and gave us everything and now we’re paying back with destruction because of greed.

Do you consider writing a cure, a therapy for pain in your human experience?
More than a therapy. It’s a cry, an alert, a call for change. I hope that those who read my books can start enquiring and trying to help others.

What is your passion? Which element has been conducive to your passion?
My passion is living with passion. I write with passion, I raise my children with passion, I speak with passion, at least that’s what people say. Passion is my inner essence. When I suffer deeply, people look at my eyes and they notice the sparkles are missing. Last night, I woke up and thought about this interview. I asked myself, “What does writing mean to me?” I think, I feed my body with oxygen and I feed my soul with writing.

Motherhood and my passion go very well together. When I hit creativity blocks, raising children always refuels me. Children have the same nature as creators.  

What do you think is the role of passion in one’s life?
Passion is a way to connect yourself with a kind of transcendental divinity. If one loses that connection, in my view, one is not living but only surviving. In the modern-day capitalistic setting, I would go far to say if money takes over one’s passion, one is already dead. We are not what we have, but what we are! When I was interviewed by the national TV few months ago, I said the real question for me and this cohort of human beings is “To be but not to have?”

If we don’t have so much, we’re already saving our planet.

According to the many we interviewed on Lens of Passion, we seem to thrive in passion. It is what gives us the spark, the innocence, the intuition and determination we all had when we were little and unprogrammed. As much as passion may feed the soul, it does not always or at all pay the bills. Passion versus profit – how has it played out for you?
I remember, often, I always did things because I wanted to do them, and then they brought me income! Passion must go first, sometimes it brings some money…if it’s enough, it is enough. I’ve had to count every penny and feel grateful for that regardless. I was always very ambitious but not for materialistic things. The most important root of behavior must be the original blessing, which is passion. I also control desires to create the biggest room for passion, especially when it is not necessarily a lucrative endeavor.

That resonates with the minimalist approach and the recalibration of how much do we actually need to be happy makes a lot of sense. Has there been any inconvenience, sacrifice, compromise you’ve had to make for your passion?
I can’t talk about sacrifices because when you live in passion, you don’t feel the “sacrifice”. But I do suffer. I suffer a lot when write. I cry, I laugh, I love, I’m living the story very deeply. I feel like I live a dual life with the children and husband in the house while I also live the lives of the characters in my books. Every word is a piece of me. For example, now I’m feeling a cold inside of me when I am writing the fable so I stopped writing. Something is frozen, I don’t feel my words so I am waiting for the thaw.

Creation is suffering. Giving birth is suffering. Raising children can be suffering. When my daughter fell from a horse last week, I suffered. But, sometimes I suffer with joy. It can be a paradox, I know, but it’s really like that.

Your literary, academic and political careers have a lot to do with being resistance and brave. What is your greatest fear?
That I don’t have inspirations to write anymore…however, I am sad to say that as long as we have so much suffering in the world, I will continue to feel the pain and mission to write. I hope that someday I can write about positive things when there is no more threats to human rights, when we are happy and free. Maybe, in the days of my grandchildren.

Who is your favorite writer?
My idol is Fernando Pessoa, a genius who wrote under many heteronyms. When I feel down, I can see faces and things on the floor and in the clouds. I saw the face of his on the tiles of the floor once. I then went to read his books and one part defrosted my writer’s block. His message for me was along the line of, “We Portuguese were discovering the whole world, but we were forgetting Portugal.”

What about your hero, someone who inspires you.
It has to be Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo. She was Portugal’s Prime Minister in the 80s for 100 days. Her government did not agree with her vision and kicked her out. Maria dedicated her life to others and she is a huge inspiration for my active citizenship. Sadly she is quite forgotten in our history and country.
 
If you were the richest person in the world, what would you do?
So clearly, I know. I would erase famine off the face of earth. The injustice. And I know exactly how I would do that.

We have too many foundations in the world, why is there so much poverty still? Is the strategy working? Where is the money going? To which pockets? We know the answer.

Any advice to for those struggling between traditional and self-publishing, and for the ones who are finding their paths to matter in this life?
Publishing is one of the most profitable marketplaces in the world. The UK and US do that very well, not in Portugal though. We can now sell everything, the best and the worst thing, right? It’s the matter of marketing. Every known author has a marketing powerhouse behind them.  

The only thing I can tell writers and passionate people is never give up. You know, I started in 1989 and it was difficult to find good publishers. Through challenges I have generated this shield in myself that doesn’t allow me to give up. When I almost gave up once, I saw Fernando Pessoa in my dream. I was climbing a cliff and my heart was exploding when I saw him. He said, “Never give up, you’ll get there,” and from that time onwards, I thought no one and nothing was ever going to stop me from writing.

If you don’t get it done by the traditional way, please go other ways. If you believe your message should be heard and read, do anything to get published. I’m not so keen about this world of technology but there are many ways to publish digitally these days. There are so many more opportunities now to make writers visible. Never give up writing because….we artists must be resilient.

How do you define success?
It is knowing that my books are being read by thousands and millions of people – not because of fame and wealth, but the possibility that more people can feel and act upon my messages, on freedom, kindness and passion.

Money and fame don’t associate with me. I question how we came to 21^st century and work 8 hours per day, 5 days a week. The Portuguese word for “work” traces back to a roman torture instrument: tripalium. What kind of evolution is this? Where is our time for playing with children, being with friends, for thinking, creating or just contemplating, or just doing nothing? It is a shame if we grow old and are left with a lot of cars and houses only. The questions at the edge of death are very difficult: What have I done? What I am leaving to this world? Who is going to remember me? Am I more than an owner and possessor?

Who are you and what is your purpose?
I am a human being in construction. That is what i really would like to be. My purpose, is to write, and with my books, I hope life will not forget us.

What an inspiring chat we had, Ana. Thank you so much. Please stay safe and I look forward to visiting you in Portugal again!
Absolutely, my pleasure. Please take care.

Say hi to Ana and begin your friendship:
anafilomenaamaral@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/anafilomena.amaral