In the last two decades, while Latin America has seen attempts to regulate intellectual practices through “modernizing” discourses, the European poet Lulzim Tafa has offered through his poetry a profound testimony of Albania’s history and the suffering of its people, mirroring the experiences of Paraguay over the past two centuries. As Mustafa Kemal Atatürk stated, “If a nation lacks art and artists, it cannot possess a full life.” Tafa’s work is distinguished by its unique focus on economic and social themes, its defense of cultural values, and its outspoken opposition to dictatorship. Drawing on his personal experience of life under repression in the Balkans, his verses stand as a powerful testimony to political oppression. In recognition, the President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi, awarded him the Presidential Medal of Merit on October 5, 2018, affirming his status as one of Europe’s most distinguished poets and a vital cultural voice for Kosovo and the broader Eurasian region.