Yolanda U. Trapp
There is a roaring avalanche of extraordinary writers. To name a few I will start with 5 Nobel Prizes:
Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957):
This famous Chilean Poet was born in Vicu–a, Chile in 1889. From a very young age, she showed herself capable of composing verses. In her youth, she wrote several articles for the Newspapers of her province. From 1912 until 1921 she worked as a Spanish teacher and during the 1920’s she traveled to Mexico, Europe and other South American countries, evaluating their systems of education and as a representative from her country. Her first poetic work,
Sonnets of Death
, came out in 1915. In 1922, her best collection of poems,
Desolation
, appeared. The literacy world considers her a very important poet in the circle of Lyrical Poetry. In her poetry are shown a love for children and maternity (even though she never married) and a compassion for the frustrated and misfortunate. Due to her Lyricism in poetry, they granted her the Nobel Prize in 1945. Her poetry is famous for its musicality and emotional, almost mystical spiritualism. Others:
Tala—Lagar.
Miguel Angel Asturias (1899-1974):
Born in Guatemala. He was fascinated with the Indian legends. He learned from them that reality is a mix of realism and imagination. In his novels he experimented with the language, with the “automatic” form of surrealism’s writing and the representation of thoughts and dreams. He protested against the North American bananas Companies and against the United States intervention in his country in 1954. His books: “
Mr. President, Weekend in Guatemala, The Green Pope
, and others. Nobel Prize: 1967.
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973):
His real name was Neftal’ Ricardo Reyes. Born in Parral, Chile, he grew in the pioneer town of Temuco, briefly encountering Gabriela Mistral, who taught there for a time. In 1920 he went to Santiago to study, and the following year published his first collection of poetry,
La Canción de la Fiesta
(The Feast Song). His father did not approve his tendence as a poet, apparently to avoid his father’s disapproval, he restyled himself “
Pablo Neruda”
, choosing a working-class first name and surname that recalled the nationalistic Czech historical novelist Jan Neruda (1834-1891). A second collection (
Twighlight book
, 1923) brought him critical recognition, but Neruda’s first mayor publication was
Veinte Poemas de Amor y Una Canción Desesperada
(Twenty love poems and a song of despair), 1924 in Santiago. From 1927 to 1943 Neruda lived abroad, serving as a diplomat in Colombo, Rangoon, Batavia, Singapore, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, and Mexico City.
In Madrid, Neruda came into contact with pre-civil war politics and with some of the most important poets of the Spanish “Generation of 27”, like Federico Garc’a Lorca, Rafael Alberti, and Miguel Hernández. He joined the Communist Party of Chile after World War II, was prosecuted as a subversive, and began an exile that took him to Russia, Eastern Europe, and China.
Already the most renowed Latin American poet of his time, he returned to Chile in 1952. Through this period (1954-1964) enacted his identification with the democratic individual in surprisingly accessible poems. Neruda’s later love poems, were dedicated to his third wife Matilde Urrutia, returning Neruda to the image-rich affection of
Veinte Poemas De Amor
. (One Hundred Love Sonnets, 1959).
While he was living in Paris serving as the Chilean ambassador to France, he became ill and returned to Chile where he died two weeks after the Cia-backed coup in 1973, and toppled the democracy.
His famous
Canto General
(General Song) was written in the context of the vistas, flora, and human customs of the Latin America continent (including the Araucanian Indian tradition of Southern Chile). Nobel Prize: 1971.
Gabriel Garc’a Márquez (1927- ) (my favorite writer). (The Magic Reality):
Born in Aracataca, Colombia (1927, a small town on the Caribbean coast, influenced greatly by North American banana interests). Lived with grandparents during first eight years of life which were his most memorable years. In many occasions he said: “that nothing interesting happened to him during the time after his grandparents died when he was only eight years old.” “That everything he knows occurred to him before that age.” His grandmother was a great storyteller whose anecdotes/accounts served as impetus for many of Garc’a Márquez writings.
He became a journalist upon completion of his education. Later served as foreign correspondent in Rome and Paris. His most famous work “
Cien A–os de Soledad
” was written in 1967. Part of the “Boom” in Latin America Literature, he brings light onto the concerns and predicaments of his country. In 1982 he received the Nobel Prize for literature.
Octavio Paz (1914-):
Is Mexico’s foremost man of letters of the Twentieth Century. His most famous prose work,
El Laberino De La Soledad
(The Labyrinth of Solitude, 1961), explored the complexities of the Mexican psyche. In the 1930’s he fought on the side of The Spanish Republic. As a diplomat in the 1950’s, he represented Mexico in several countries. His essential themes of his essays and poems are solitude, time, love, communication and nature. He writes about the attitudes and character of the Mexican people but with a deep concern about the destiny of the whole human beings. He thinks that it is possible to reestablish the dialogue between people through the poetry and love.
His best poems are:
A La Orilla Del Mundo
(On The Edge of The World, 1942),
La Estación Violenta
(The Violent Season, 1958),
Blanco
(White, 1967). He uses a very complex metaphorical language. Paz won the 1990 Nobel Prize in literature.
Other biographies from the suggested writers are available in the list at the end of the Unit.
Although I chose the most important Nobel Prize writers from the Latin Americas, I would like to introduce a short biography of a very young writer considered as one of the best New Age novelists of this time. She is one of the most highly praised and widely read writers of fiction to come out of Latin America in this Century.
Her name: Isabel Allende, the reason why I chose to introduce her in this unit is very personal and also because I believe that sooner or later she will also win a Nobel Prize. The personal reasons are explained at the end of the unit. It is a sort of homage to somebody I met in person and for that reason she became part of my life.
Isabel Allende (Chile 1938-):
She is one of the novelists who always appears in the list of the best contemporary Latin American writers. Her novels are:
La Casa De Los Esp’ritus
(The House of The Spirits, 1982),
De Amor y De Sombra
(Of Love and Shadows, 1984),
Eva Luna
(1987) and
The Stories of Eva Luna
(1990).
Her last book:
Paula
was written in memorial of her daughter as a powerful autobiography whose straight forward acceptance of the magical and spiritual worlds appear before our eyes unforgettable, were memories, amazing anecdotes of youthful years come alive as symbols of a general reform the society needs, if life will be better for all of us as human beings.