From Delivering Soft Drinks in Veracruz to Winning an International Literary Prize in Italy

Every morning, Braulio Elías Pérez Valencia loads crates, drives delivery routes, and distributes beverages to businesses across Papantla, Veracruz. But when his workday ends, the 55-year-old worker sits down to write poetry.

Today, those words written far from traditional literary circles have taken him all the way to Italy.

The Veracruz native won the 18th International Literary Prize “Cosenza-Città Federiciana” in the Best Foreign Poem category thanks to his work I Heard My Name, becoming one of the most inspiring cultural stories to emerge from Mexico in recent weeks.

Originally from Papantla, a city known worldwide for the Voladores ritual and its Totonac heritage, Perez has built a literary career alongside his daily job delivering Boing beverages. For years, he has balanced long working days with writing, developing a poetic voice shaped by memory, identity, and everyday life in Veracruz.

His poem I Heard My Name stood out among entries from several countries and earned him first place in an international competition organized in the Italian city of Cosenza by the Associazione Culturale Club della Poesia.

What has captured the public’s attention is not only the prize itself, but also the story behind its winner.

While many writers build their careers through universities, publishing houses, or cultural institutions, Perez writes between deliveries, work routes, and family responsibilities. That combination of worker and poet has sparked widespread admiration across social media and Mexican news outlets.

I Heard My Name is not the Veracruz poet’s first international recognition. Various media outlets report that this is the third consecutive time he has received distinctions in the competition, consolidating a literary path built largely outside the spotlight.

Yet the achievement came with an unexpected challenge.

Although Perez was invited to receive the award in person during the ceremony scheduled for early June in Calabria, Italy, he does not have the financial resources needed to make the trip.

Faced with that reality, neighbors, friends, customers, and people who learned about his story have begun organizing raffles, sales, and fundraising efforts to help him gather the money required for the journey. The writer himself has turned to community support in hopes of fulfilling his dream of accepting the award in person.

The response has been immediate. Across social media, thousands of users have shared his story as an example of perseverance and proof that talent can emerge far from major cultural centers.

In a country where cultural success stories are often associated with institutions or established figures, Perez represents a different reality: that of people who create art from within everyday life without abandoning the jobs that allow them to support themselves.

As he continues raising funds to travel to Italy, the poet from Papantla has already achieved something that no award can fully measure. He has shown that literature can be born anywhere, even inside the cab of a delivery truck traveling the roads of Veracruz.