Documents for "Latin American Literature: Biographies":

• Agustini, Delmira c.1886-1914, Uruguayan poet. Essentially a poet of ideas, Agustini combined deep spiritual and erotic yearnings in bold and expressive imagery. She abandoned traditional forms in her strongly...

• Alegría, Ciro 1909-67, Peruvian novelist. Imprisoned several times for his political activities, Alegría was exiled to Chile in 1934. He gained fame with his novel La serpiente de oro (1935, tr. The Golden...

• Allende, Isabel 1942-, Chilean novelist. Since the 1973 coup that deposed her uncle, President Salvador Allende Gossens, Isabel Allende, who is among the most notable contemporary Chilean writers, has lived abroad, for many of those years in California. Her fiction is distinguished by its fusion of traditional...

• Altamirano, Ignacio Manuel 1834-93, Mexican novelist and poet. Altamirano came from a poor family of indigenous descent, and after gaining his formal education he joined Benito Juárez in the struggle against Maximilian....

• Alves, Antônio de Castro 1847-71, Brazilian poet. A disciple of Victor Hugo, he came to fame with Espumas flutuantes [tossing spume] (1871). Despite a wild bohemian lifestyle, he was intensely nationalist and socially conscious....

• Amado, Jorge 1912-2001, Brazilian novelist. Amado's works deal largely with the poor urban black and mulatto communities of Bahia. His early novels, such as The Violent Land (1942, tr. 1945), are marked by grim and violent realism. His later works, such as Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon (1958, tr. 1962), Doña Flor and Her Two Husbands (1966, tr. 1969), Tent of Miracles (1969, tr. 1971), and Tieta, the Goat Girl (1977, tr. 1979), frequently have a comic element and stress folkloric and popular themes related to Afro-Brazilian culture. Alive with vibrant characters, his novels often reflect his left-wing...

• Arguedas, Alcides 1879-1946, Bolivian writer and diplomat. His essays and novels, which have social and moralizing tendencies, are a reaction against the romantic idealization of the Native American. His best-known...

• Assis, Joaquim Maria Machado de see Machado de Assis, Joaquim Maria.

• Asturias, Miguel Ángel 1899-1974, Guatemalan novelist, poet, and diplomat. Living in Paris in the 1920s, Asturias was influenced by Romain Rolland, Valéry, and the surrealists. As a result of his opposition to...

• Azuela, Mariano 1873-1952, Mexican novelist. Azuela began his medical practice in 1899, writing short stories and novels in his spare time. In 1915 he joined Francisco Villa's revolutionary forces as a surgeon...

• Barrios, Eduardo 1884-1963, Chilean novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. He was director of libraries and minister of education in Chile. As a writer he was interested in the inner workings of his...

• Bilac, Olavo 1865-1918, Brazilian poet, journalist, and critic. He was the chief poet of the Brazilian group related to the French Parnassians. His writings have an enameled elegance as well as sensual richness...

• Blanco Fombona, Rufino 1874-1944, Venezuelan poet, essayist, and novelist, one of the leaders of modernismo. Active in Venezuelan political affairs, he was several times imprisoned. He lived in exile in France and Spain for a quarter of a century and contributed much toward spreading the knowledge of...

• Blest Gana, Alberto 1830-1920, Chilean novelist. He is considered the principal 19th-century Spanish American realist. Although as a diplomat he spent much of his life abroad, his novels, both social and historical,...

• Borges, Jorge Luis 1899-1986, Argentine poet, critic, and short-story writer, b. Buenos Aires. Borges has been widely hailed as the foremost contemporary Spanish-American writer. He was educated in Switzerland and...

• Cabral de Melo Neto, João 1920-99, Brazilian poet and dramatist. Raised on his family's sugarcane plantation, he entered the foreign service in 1945 and retired in 1990. Eschewing both free verse and traditional lyric...

• Carpentier, Alejo 1904-80, Cuban novelist and musicologist. As a political exile in Paris between 1928 and 1939, Carpentier was strongly influenced by Antonin Artaud, Jacques Prévert, and the surrealists...

• Casal, Julián del 1863-93, Cuban poet, b. Havana. A friend of Rubén Darío, Casal became a leader in modernismo. He was greatly influenced by the French Parnassians. Afflicted with a painful form of...

• Castro Alves, Antônio de see Alves, Antônio de Castro.

• Chocano, José Santos 1875-1934, Peruvian poet and one of the leaders of modernismo. During a life of Latin-American wandering, Chocano was closely linked both to brutal dictatorships and idealist revolutionaries. His...

• Cortázar, Julio 1914-84, Argentine novelist, poet, essayist, and short-story writer, b. Brussels. Moving permanently to France in 1951, Cortázar gradually gained recognition as one of the century's major...

• Cruz, Juana Inés de la see Juana Inés de la Cruz.

• Cuadra, Pablo Antonio 1912-2002, Nicaraguan poet, b. Managua. Early in life, Cuadra became a member of the Vanguard literary movement and edited (1929) its journal. Influenced by Rubén Darío and preoccupied with the identity of Nicaragua and its people as well as of Latin America as a whole, he often treated these themes in his poetry, e.g., Poemas nicaraguenses [Nicaraguan poems] (1933). Active politically, Cuadra broke with the Somoza dictatorship in the 1940s, adopted liberation theology, and became a vocal supporter of Nicaragua's poor and oppressed...

• Cunha, Euclides da 1866-1909, Brazilian writer. After his military service, Cunha became a civil engineer and a journalist. He wrote several historical works but is remembered for only one book, Os sertões (1902, tr. Rebellion in the Backlands, 1944), an account of a rebellion against the Brazilian government led by a religious fanatic, Antônio Conselheiro, in 1896-97. The book is a pessimistic narrative, embellished with lengthy...

• Díaz Mirón, Salvador 1853-1928, Mexican poet. Díaz Mirón's life abounded with revolutionary plots, political quarrels, duels, and vigorous journalistic debates. His early post-romantic poetry was written under the...

• Darío, Rubén 1867-1916, Nicaraguan poet, originally named Félix Rubén García Sarmiento. A child prodigy, he gained a thorough knowledge of Spanish and French cultures through reading; it was then widened...

• Dias, Antônio Gonçalves 1823-64, Brazilian poet and dramatist. A leading writer of the romantic school, he is noted for his strong nativist feeling and his glorification of the indigenous people of Brazil. His nostalgic...

• Donoso, José 1924-96, Chilean novelist and short-story writer, b. Santiago. He attended Princeton Univ. and taught there and at the Univ. of Iowa (1965-67). Donoso moved to Mexico City, later lived in Spain...

• Dorfman, Ariel 1942-, Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, and journalist, b. Argentina. Dorfman's family moved to the United States shortly after his birth, settling in Chile in 1954. He attended and was...

• Echeverría, Esteban 1805-51, Argentine romantic poet, prose writer, and revolutionary propagandist. After five years in Europe he introduced romanticism in Argentina in his poem Elvira (1832). Although he excelled as a prose writer, it was as a poet that he deeply influenced later writers, particularly through his poetic depiction of the South American landscape. His most...

• Eguren, José María 1882-1942, Peruvian poet. Originally devoted to modernismo , Eguren avoided its excesses and wrote terse, musical, and sometimes obscure poems. His strange images, symbols, and dreamlike visions were...

• Fernández de Lizardi, José Joaquín 1776-1827, Mexican journalist, novelist, and dramatist, known by his pseudonym El Pensador Mexicano. His early liberalism, revealed in satiric poetry, put him at odds with the censors. His most...

• Fuentes, Carlos 1928-, Mexican writer, editor, and diplomat. He was head of the department of cultural relations in Mexico's ministry of foreign affairs (1956-59) and Mexican ambassador to France (1975-77). Much...

• Güiraldes, Ricardo 1886-1927, Argentine writer. He spent his boyhood on a ranch where he learned the ways of the gauchos, later traveling to Europe. In his novels and short stories he applied postmodernist...

• Gallegos, Rómulo 1884-1969, Venezuelan novelist and statesman. Gallegos lived in Spain in voluntary exile from the Venezuelan dictatorship from 1931 until 1935. He returned to his country and was appointed...

• García Icazbalceta, Joaquín 1824-94, Mexican philologist, bibliographer, and historian. He edited the works of many early Mexican writers, compiled the Bibliografía mexicana del siglo XVI (1880), wrote the masterly biography...

• García Márquez, Gabriel 1928-, Colombian novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, b. Aracataca. Widely considered the greatest living Latin American master of narrative, García Márquez won the Nobel Prize in...

• Gonçalves Dias, Antônio see Dias, Antônio Gonçalves.

• González Martínez, Enrique 1871-1952, Mexican poet, physician, and diplomat. His early poetry, written during the 17 years of his medical practice, showed the influence of the modernist Rubén Darío and the French...

• González Prada, Manuel 1848-1918, Peruvian writer and political reformer, b. Lima. One of the most brilliant figures in Spanish American letters, he was a master of satire and invective. With apostolic zeal he took up...

• Guillén, Nicolás 1904-89, Cuban poet. A leading exponent of poesia negra —an Afro-Antillean genre developed in the Caribbean—Guillén writes poetry charged with intense racial and political feelings....

• Gutiérrez Nájera, Manuel 1859-95, Mexican poet and journalist. One of the precursors of modernismo , he founded the literary periodical Revista Azul. His elegant poetry, edited after his death, is delicately musical and wistful; it reflects the influence of Bécquer and of the French symbolists and shows the transition from romanticism to...

• Guzmán, Martín Luis 1887-1977, Mexican novelist and journalist. Guzmán worked as a journalist during the Mexican revolution, in which he joined the forces of Pancho Villa. He recorded his impressions of the war years...

• Heredia, José María 1803-39, Cuban journalist and poet. He is considered the most lyrical of the poets writing during the period of the wars of independence. Although Heredia's poetry is classic in form, it is imbued...

• Hernández, José 1834-86, Argentine poet, journalist, and soldier. Hernández lived in the pampas as a child. He was the author of the national classic of gaucho literature, Martín Fierro (1872), and...

• Herrera y Reissig, Julio 1875-1910, Uruguayan poet. He belonged to a family prominent in public affairs but withdrew along with his bohemian followers to an attic known as the Tower of the Panoramas. He became the...

• Huidobro, Vicente 1893-1948, Chilean poet, founder of the aesthetic movement known as creacionismo, which emphasized the value of the poet as verbal magician, exploring the deepest sources of poetic creation. He lived...

• Ibarbourou, Juana de 1895-1979, Uruguayan poet also called Juana de América. One of the most popular poets of Spanish America, she caused a sensation with the exuberant and lilting sensuality of her lyrics in Aguas...

• Icaza, Jorge 1906-78, Ecuadorian novelist. Icaza wrote in harsh, realistic terms against the exploitation of the Native American. His novel En las calles [in the streets] won him acclaim in 1935. Among his other...

• Icazbalceta, Joaquín García see García Icazbalceta, Joaquín.

• Isaacs, Jorge 1837-95, Colombian novelist. The son of a prosperous Englishman and a creole, Isaacs witnessed the ruin and premature death of his parents and the despoilment of his estate by civil war. He fled...

• Juana Inés de la Cruz 1651-95, Mexican poet. She is considered the greatest lyric poet of the colonial period. A beautiful and intellectually precocious girl, Juana was a favorite at the viceregal court before entering...

• López Velarde, Ramón 1888-1921, Mexican poet. One of the major poets of Mexico, he deeply influenced the work of later poets, notably Xavier Villaurrutia. Although his poetry sometimes shows the influence of modernismo , he was one of the first poets to rebel against its labored aestheticism. His excesses are the result of a passionate quest for originality. It was his masterful treatment of the Mexican landscape,...

• Larreta, Enrique Rodríguez 1875-1961, Argentine novelist. Larreta lived for many years in Spain and France. His fame rests on La gloria de don Ramiro (1908, tr. 1924), a historical novel of the days of Philip II. It is a classic...

• Lins do Rego, José see Rego, José Lins do.

• Lispector, Clarice 1925-77, Brazilian author, b. Ukraine. An editor, translator, newspaper columnist, and law student as well as fiction writer, Lispector traveled widely and was influenced by Virginia Woolf and Katharine...

• Llosa, Mario Vargas see Vargas Llosa, Mario.

• Lugones, Leopoldo 1874-1938, Argentine poet and man of letters. First an anarchist, then a socialist, finally a fascist, Lugones was a friend of Rubén Darío and the outstanding modernista poet of Argentina. His early volumes ( Las montañas de oro [the golden mountains] (1897), Los crepúsculos del jardín [twilights in the garden] (1905), and El lunario sentimental [sentimental almanac] (1909) were influenced by Victor Hugo and Walt Whitman. Later he turned to realism and satire, emphasizing epic and patriotic themes. In his novels and short stories, Lugones...

• Mármol, José 1817-71, Argentine writer of the romantic school. His invectives against Juan Manuel de Rosas earned him the nickname "the poetic hangman of Rosas." He was imprisoned by Rosas in 1839 and later...

• Márquez, Gabriel García see García Márquez, Gabriel.

• Mallea, Eduardo 1903-82, Argentine novelist and essayist. Mallea is considered one of the outstanding Latin American literary figures. Existentialist thought, particularly the writings of Kierkegaard and Kafka,...

• Mistral, Gabriela 1889-1957, Chilean poet whose original name was Lucila Godoy Alcayaga. She was a teacher in and director of rural schools in Chile before she attained wider acclaim as an educator. Mistral was...

• Montalvo, Juan 1832-89, Ecuadorean essayist and political writer. A champion of liberalism and a master of political invective, he showered fiery anathemas on the tyrant Gabriel García Moreno and later on the...

• Neruda, Pablo 1904-73, Chilean poet, diplomat, and Communist leader. He changed his original name, Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basualto, so that his railroad-worker father would not discover that he was a poet...

• Nervo, Amado 1870-1919, Mexican poet. Known as the "monk of poetry," he studied for the priesthood but abandoned it for writing. An intimate friend of Rubén Darío, he was a leading figure of modernismo...

• Oña, Pedro de 1570?-1643, Chilean poet. Having been born in Latin America, he is considered Chile's first national poet. His poetry is both epic and religious. Inspired by La aravcana, by Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga...

• Olmedo, José Joaquin 1780-1847, Ecuadorian statesman and poet. An ambassador to Paris and London after Ecuador's independence, Olmedo gained renown for his ode La Victoria de Junín [the victory at Junín]...

• Palés Matos, Luis 1898-1959, Puerto Rican poet and essayist. Palés Matos was an outstanding exponent of Afro-Antillean poetry, which by use of African intonations, dance rhythms, and colorful suggestion evokes the...

• Parra, Nicanor 1914-, Chilean poet. A poet who is also a professor of mathematics and physics, he has written verse influenced by existential philosophy and has called his work "antipoetry" because it is written in clear, colloquial language and deals with issues of common interest. Notes of humor and satire mitigate the disillusion and anguish frequently expressed in his verse. His...

• Paz, Octavio 1914-98, Mexican poet and critic. A diplomat, he lived abroad many years. Paz's books—revealing depth of insight, elegance, and erudition—place him among his generation's ablest writers. His works...

• Peralta Barnuevo, Pedro de 1664-1743, Peruvian writer. Although his major literary interests were drama and poetry, he also wrote on astronomy, mathematics, and history. His play La rodoguna (1710) shows the influence of Corneille...

• Puig, Manuel 1932-90, Argentine novelist. He is considered one of Latin America's most creative writers, and his writing reflects the myths and realities of contemporary Argentine life. His fiction, including Betrayed...

• Ramos, Graciliano 1892-1953, Brazilian novelist. His work is marked by psychological analysis and focuses on social problems in rural districts of NE Brazil.

• Rego, José Lins do 1901-57, Brazilian novelist. His fame rests largely on his semiautobiographical "sugarcane cycle," dealing with social transformation in the Brazilian northeast. The first of the series, Menino...

• Reyes, Alfonso 1889-1959, Mexican writer, diplomat, and educator. Reyes is generally recognized as one of the greatest Spanish American writers of his time. After spending several years in Europe, Argentina, and...

• Reyles, Carlos 1868-1938, Uruguayan novelist. A wealthy breeder of horses, Reyles traveled extensively and devoted himself to writing. His impassioned, naturalistic novels include La raza de Caín [Cain's...

• Ribeiro, Darcy 1922-97, Brazilian anthropologist, statesman, and author. An expert on the indigenous peoples of Brazil, he wrote many books, notably the six-volume 1960s work, Studies of the Anthropology of Civilizations....

• Ribeiro, João Ubaldo 1941-, Brazilian journalist and novelist. His novel Sergeant Getúlio (1971, tr. 1978) narrates the efforts of a mercenary to deliver a prisoner in remote NE Brazil; it is notable for its violence...

• Rivera, José Eustasio 1889-1928, Colombian novelist. Rivera served on the commission to fix the Venezuelan boundary deep in the rain forest of the Amazon basin. The jungle became the setting and protagonist of his...

• Rodó, José Enrique 1872-1917, Uruguayan essayist, literary critic, and philosopher. Rodó spent most of his life in Montevideo, where he helped to found and edit La Revista Nacional de Literatura y Ciencias Sociales....

• Rodríguez Larreta, Enrique see Larreta, Enrique Rodríguez.

• Rosa, João Guimarães 1908-67, Brazilian novelist. In The Devil to Pay in the Backlands (1956, tr. 1963), Rosa combines naturalism with psychological analysis in his examination of Riobaldo, an outlaw from NE Brazil. Rosa, a leading novelist of 20th-century Brazil, was also a...

• Rulfo, Juan 1918-86, Mexican writer. In his fiction he recreates the desolation of his native southern Jalisco and brings to life its simple people in a harsh and tragic manner. He wrote one book of short...

• Sábato, Ernesto 1911-, Argentinean novelist and literary critic, b. Rojas. He received his doctorate in physics (1937) and taught until removed for anti-Peronist activities in 1945. His novels, which include El túnel...

• Sánchez, Florencio 1875-1910, Uruguayan playwright. His many plays concern pastoral life in the region of the Río de la Plata. Sánchez's style owes much to the naturalism of Ibsen, although it has none of its...

• Sigüenza y Góngora, Carlos de 1645-1700, Mexican writer and humanist. The foremost intellectual figure of colonial Mexico, he wrote on mathematics, astronomy, history, geography, and other fields. His works include Manifiesto filosófico...

• Silva, José Asunción 1865-96, Colombian poet, one of the precursors of modernismo. Silva's life was shadowed by the loss of a crucial manuscript, family debt, and the death of a beloved sister. He committed suicide at 31, leaving behind poems marked by technical innovations,...

• Torres Bodet, Jaime 1902-74, Mexican poet, diplomat, short-story writer, and essayist. Torres Bodet's first book of poems, Fervor (1918), reveals the influence of symbolism and modernismo, but his later poetry shows...

• Uslar Pietri, Arturo 1906-2001, Venezuelan novelist and essayist. Uslar Pietri is considered one of the most powerful regional writers in modern Spanish American letters. His masterpiece is the historical novel Las Lanzas...

• Valencia, Guillermo 1873-1943, Colombian poet, one of the leaders of modernismo. He came from an aristocratic family, received solid classical training, and became active politically as an orator. Valencia was a disciple...

• Vallejo, César 1895-1938, Peruvian poet. Vallejo was one of the most influential yet least imitated figures of modern Spanish-American letters. He identified himself with the sufferings of the underprivileged...

• Vargas Llosa, Mario 1936-, Peruvian novelist and politician. Although his works contain much external realism emphasizing the ugly and grotesque, he also often explores the minds of his characters, overcoming...

• Veríssimo, Érico Lopes 1905-75, Brazilian writer. Veríssimo lectured and taught in the United States. He wrote (in English) Brazilian Literature (1945). His best-known novel is Caminhos cruzados (1935; tr. Crossroads,...

• Villaurrutia, Xavier 1903-50, Mexican poet and playwright. Villaurrutia was deeply influenced by Ramón López Velarde. He worked on the Mexican literary review Contemporáneos (1928-31) and in 1928...

• Yáñez, Agustín 1904-80, Mexican novelist and critic. Yáñez's writings include works about Native American myths and the Spanish colonial era. His work includes tthe novels The Edge of the Storm (1947,...