Acevedo Díaz, Eduardo Inés (1851–1921)

Eduardo Inés Acevedo Díaz (b. 1851; d. 18 June 1921), Uruguayan journalist and novelist, born in Montevideo. Connected from early on with his country's National (or Blanco) Party, Acevedo Díaz took up arms on three occasions between 1870 and 1897 to participate in revolutionary movements. As a journalist, he wrote tough polemics concerning party struggles in such periodicals as La Democracia, La Razón, and El Nacional. Due to his political militancy, he was imprisoned and exiled on several occasions, and it was during his exile in Argentina between 1876 and 1895 that he wrote his most representative works, the historical novels Brenda (1886), Ismael (1888), Nativa (1890) and his famous Soledad (1894), a series that would be completed in 1914 by Lanza y sable.

Acevedo Díaz is considered to be the first Uruguayan novelist as well as the founder of the historical novel in Uruguay. His entire work can be seen as an investigation into the origin of nationality, yet his effort occurred in the framework of the modernizing process carried out by the ruling class between 1870 and 1920. This process entailed the formation of a modern state, which required for its legitimacy the building of a nationalist sentiment in order to lend cohesion to the community. The work of Acevedo Díaz, like that of his contemporary Juan Zorrilla De San Martín (La leyenda Patria [1879] and Tabaré [1888]), were significant contributions to this effort.

See alsoLiterature: Spanish America; Uruguay, Political Parties: Blanco Party; Zorrilla de San Martín, Juan.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alberto Zum Felde, Proceso intelectual del Uruguay, vol. 1 (1930).

Eduardo Acevedo Díaz, La vida de batalla de Eduardo Acevedo Díaz (1941).

Walter Rela, Eduardo Acevedo Díaz (1967).

Emir Rodríguez Monegal, Vínculo de sangre (1968).

Arturo Sergio Visca, "Eduardo Acevedo Díaz," in Diccionario de literatura Uruguaya, vol. 1 (1989).

Additional Bibliography

Deus, Sergio. Eduardo Acevedo Díaz: El caudillo olvidado Montevideo, Uruguay: Acali Editorial, 1978.

Lasplaces, Alberto. Eduardo Acevedo Diaz/por Alberto Lasplaces. Montevideo, Uruguay: C. García, 1931.

Rodríguez Monegal, Emir. Vínculo de sangre; crítica. Montevideo, Uruguay: Editorial Alfa, 1968.

                                   MarÍa InÉs de Torres