Latin America in the Palestinian Magazine Al-Karmel

The Arabic magazine al-Karmel operated as the cultural, intellectual, and literary arm of the Palestinian Revolution.[i] Published by the General Union of Palestinian Journalists and Writers and edited by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish and the Syrian-Kurdish writer Salim Barakat, al-Karmel focused on the relationship between politics and literature, as well as on the engagement of writers with the revolutionary causes of the moment. In search of aesthetic models, al-Karmel turned towards Latin America, where the Boom writers appeared to have resolved the question of commitment in literature. In this paper, I present and discuss the inclusion of Latin American writers and intellectuals in al-Karmel. Which Latin American writers do we find on the pages of al-Karmel and who were they translated and interviewed by? I examine how, through literary translation, the exchange of ideas, and the creation of networks of intellectuals that appeared on the pages of al-Karmel, the struggles and political conflicts that were taking place in both the Arab world and Latin America intersected and dialogued.