English Version | Leti Sala: Life is a Verse

11 Mar 2022
By Ana Murcho

Leti Sala writes poems that tell the world. Vogue asked her to write one: about the female body. This is a conversation where the power of the word, when confronted with the physical, and emotional, changes of a woman, is debated.

Leti Sala writes poems that tell the world. Vogue asked her to write one: about the female body. This is a conversation where the power of the word, when confronted with the physical, and emotional, changes of a woman, is debated.

 

 

“I was trying on a kaftan in the port of Mahón [Menorca, Spain] when I stuck my head through the fitting room curtain to ask the saleswoman for a bigger size, and she replied: good idea, it will come in handy when the belly starts taking up more space. Suddenly my pregnancy was already accessible information for the the rest of the world. It was the first time anyone knew about my condition without me announcing it. When I left the shop, I thought that this lady could also intuit many other things about me: that I don't drink wine, that my period is giving me a break, that I use oil for stretch marks, or that I could soon use my belly as a cup holder." This is how the "venting" of Leticia Sala Bufill (Barcelona, 1989), better known as Leti Sala, published last year in the Spanish edition of Vogue - entitled ¿Ya tenéis nombre? - about her experience while pregnant. The account, written with the candour and lucidity that characterize the artist's work, was a kind of cry for help for all those women who, like her, find themselves in the strange position of being, by force of circumstance, the target of endless questions that very rarely take their mental state or their desires into consideration. Meanwhile Leti became a mother. Cleo was born on August 4. Her life has changed. But it was precisely that testimony that we wanted to remember. With pregnancy the body undergoes a series of changes. It is the sacred womb that delivers a new life into the world and is, at the same time, an almost elastic being that emanates light and magic. Pregnant women are asked countless questions about their bodies, only much of them are not related to their health. Instead, they are focused on more trivial things, like weight — that kaftan a size up... How does Leti see the (true) power of the female body? “I couldn’t agree more with what you’re saying. In fact, I wrote an article for Vogue [mentioned beforehand] about how vulnerable pregnant women are in the face of questions and comments from others. The relationship with my own body has changed since I’ve gone through a pregnancy, a delivery and postpartum. It’s a relationship a lot like teamwork, of understanding and empathy. Somehow, it’s a more infinite relationship than the one before it.” 

Leti assumes that her new role has revolutionized not only her place in the world but also her way of thinking about it. "Becoming a mother has transformed the places I look at, the everyday scenes that catch my attention. And I think that that is huge because it means it has changed the way I process the world. As a result, it has also changed the way I write. There are subjects that I have completely lost interest in while there are others that have suddenly taken hold of me. One of them is doubtlessly motherhood. All of this will be reflected in my third book, which is due to be published in 2023 by Penguin Random House.” For the more distracted, a parenthesis: the writer is not just a success story of “insta-poetry”, that millennial phenomenon that confuses fanatics for pre-fabricated quotes with soulful artists. Her literary career officially began on Instagram, so she continues to share heart-warming poems with her almost one hundred thousand followers and, in parallel, she is strengthening her position as one of the most interesting writers on the current scene. She has already published two books, Scrolling After Sex (2018) and In Real Life (2020), and the third, as she mentioned, will arrive next year. She is also a regular collaborator with Rosalía: she wrote the lyrics for Aute Cuture and Bagdad, two of the singer's hits. At the same time, she is the (occasional) face of a number of brands, such as Mango, who recognize in her a different kind of “model” — one who has a message to pass on. Her latest collaboration with the Spanish company was presented at the beginning of March, and is reflected in a capsule collection, made in conjunction with the American illustrator Torin Ashtun, whose profits will go to the Spanish NGO Mundo Cooperante and its Ser niña es un derecho (Being a girl is a right) initiative.

In a way, Leti is just continuing something she has always wanted to do: help others. She got a law degree, worked at the United Nations headquarters in New York, only to end up changing life. “I decided to study Law because the idea of helping people through an article or a law (which, in the end, are nothing more than words) fascinated me. But once I understood the inner workings of the job, I realized that I was missing something important that I couldn’t find: the emotional side. It’s because of this that I started to lean more towards words that would offer space to an emotional side of life. Without any real plan, I started posting my writing on Instagram, and little by little I started to see that my words struck a chord with other people. And that’s where my career started.” And why poetry? “I always say that I think that poetry is a powerful tool in its ability to quickly communicate deep feelings, without the need for any other tool. But the reason I dove into poetry goes further back. I’ve been writing poetry since I was little, it’s a form of the written word that has always interested me and to which I have turned to in an organic way. But I’m also interested in prose, screenwriting, etc.” All “meaningful chance”, were it not for her story being a modern fairy tale, full of coincidences. How did Leti Sala meet her husband? Through a like. But that's for another conversation, because life moves on.

The fact that she writes in Spanish and English has given her a stage without borders. Or is it that the applause comes because her words come from the soul and resemble what many of us also feel without knowing it? “I do write from where you’re saying most of the time. Whenever I don’t write from there and maybe more from my head, I think it’s equally valuable, I just don’t think it resonates at the same volume.” Her mood board is the size of the world. In her imagination there are no impossibilities. Planes, supermarkets, small dogs with an introverted personality... everything can be lyrical. Leti writes about love and flowers with the same intensity. What inspires her to write? Where does it all start? “I’m inspired by loss and the decaying of things. In a way, flowers and love have that in common: they are beautiful entities which see themselves altered with time, and this fear of loss pushes me to want to capture it through words.” In the beginning it was the verb. In the end it will be whatever we want it to be. Leti's daughter was born, her daily life has changed and the writer continues to embrace the metamorphoses that growth implies and to refine her personality, without fear of labels or criticism from the intelligentsia. She is a beautiful woman, with flair, for whom fashion seems to play an important role. “I find the idea that the intellectual is at odds with beauty or fashion rather archaic and binary. Intellectuality is not always a synonym for profound, in the same way that fashion is not, in any way, a synonym for superficial. Fashion and writing agree on the importance of style, and I find that game very amusing.” Leti dixit

Originally published in The Body Issue, from Vogue Portugal, published march 2022.Full credits and article on the print issue.

Ana Murcho By Ana Murcho

Relacionados


Palavra da Vogue  

Tudo o que aprendi ao namorar com todos os signos do zodíaco

14 Feb 2025

Moda  

Reframe | Editorial de Moda

14 Feb 2025

Entrevistas  

Gracie Abrams em Lisboa: "Foi libertador ser um pouco mais 'barulhenta' nesta fase da minha vida"

13 Feb 2025

Moda   Compras  

Estes são os acessórios indispensáveis para elevar os looks de inverno

13 Feb 2025