Merida Featured Reading - January 2009:  Briceida Cuevas Cob

Briceida Cuevas Cob was born in 1969 in Tepakan, Calkiní, in the province of Campeche on the Yucatán Peninsula. She writes in both Yucatec Maya and Spanish languages.

Briceida is the author of one book of poetry:
U yok´ol auat pek´ ti´ u kuxtal pek (The Lament of The Dog In Its Existence), Casa Internacional del Escritor, (Bacalar,
   Quintana Roo, Mexico) 1995

Her poetry has appeared several anthologies:
Palabras de los Seres Verdaderos, Antologia de Escritores Actuales en Lengues Indigenas de Mexico, Tomo Dos: Poesia (Words of
   the True Peoples: Anthology of Contemporary Mexican Indigenous-Language Writers, Volume 2: Poetry), eds. Carlos Montemayor
   and Donald FrischmannTexas University Press 2005
Je Bix K'iin (Como el sol, "Like the Sun"),  INI (Instituto Nacional Indigenista - now CDI-Comision para del Desarollo de los Pueblas 
   Indigenas de Mexico), Rockefeller Foundation, Letras Mayas Contemporáneas, Tercera Series 1, 1998
Tumbén Ik ´t´anil ich Maya´ T´an (Modern Poetry in the Maya Language), (Valencia, Spain) 1994
Flor y Canto (Flower and Song), the INI and Unesco, (Tabasco, Mexico) 1993. Includes work by five indigenous poets from the south

And one book about the daily life of a Maya woman:
Je Bix K'iin (Como el sol, "Like the Sun"), INI (Instituto Nacional Indigenista - now CDI-Comision para del Desarollo de los Pueblas 
   Indigenas de Mexico) (1998) Rockefeller Foundation, Letras Mayas Contemporaneas, Series 3

Briceida's poetry has been published in several literary magazines and newspapers in Quitana Roo, Campeche, Yucatán and Mexico City.

Ms. Cuevas Cob has been a member of the literary group Génali since 1992.  She participated in the Poetry Workshops in Mayan Tongue at the arts center of Calkiní, coordinated by Waldemar Noh Tzec, from 1992 to 1994. In 1996, Briceida received a scholarship from the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes para Escritores en Lenguas Indígenas (Mexico's National Fund for the Culture and the Arts for Writers in Indigenous Languages).  She is a founding member of the Asociación de Escritores en Lenguas Indígenas (Association of Writers in Indigenous Languages) in Mexico. She currently serves as their secretary for professional education.

In 2002, Briceida Cuevas Cob took part in the Poetry International Festival Rotterdam. She has also had the opportunity to participate in conferences and symposiums on indigenous language and literature in Spain, France, United States and Mexico.  She has given extensive readings worldwide, including Harvard University and a night of contemporary indigenous Mexican poetry at both the Guggenheim Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City.