Alicia Freilich
Encyclopedia
Alicia Freilich is a Venezuela
n writer
, novel
ist, journalist
and educator.
, Alicia Freilich is the oldest of three girls born to Máximo Freilich and Rebeca (née Warszawska) Freilich, immigrants of Polish
origin. She grew up in an orthodox Jewish
home and attended Universidad Central de Venezuela
, where she received a bachelor's degree
in literature
in 1969.
, working on a column about literature and reporting politics, with a focus on children and family issues, among other subjects. Interestingly, she gravitated toward stories that featured real-life struggles of ordinary people, with profile articles that have garnered national feature-writing awards and international honors.
Freilich spent 31 years at El Nacional, working under the direction of Arturo Uslar Pietri
(1969–1978) and Ramón J. Velásquez
(1982–2002). She also has published freelance articles in El Universal
(1979–1981), Tal Cual
(2006–2009), and Fundación Bigott publications (2005–2007).
In addition, her interest in the media projected into the television atmosphere, when she hosted a cultural affairs program at Televisora Nacional
from 1970 through 1971. Shortly after, she wrote a script based on the novel La Rebelión, published in 1946 by author Rómulo Gallegos
, which was aired by Radio Caracas Televisión in 1972.
As an active educator for more than four decades, Freilich has being capable of providing instruction at various levels in her discipline from elementary school to university, both in private and public education.
Focusing on the diversity of her creative imagination, Freilich wrote Triálogo (1973), in which compares historical themes and subjects, such as Shakespeare's Shylock
and the horrible consequences of a myth; traces the parallels between the life of Isaac Babel
and other Russian
exiles, such as Boris Pasternak
and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
; associated Shalom aleichem
with Jewish humor, and studies of Italian
writers Giorgio Bassani
and Natalia Ginzburg
.
Through her first novel, Cuarta Dimensión (1975), she points out how the critic must understand and make them understand the book she has read, as you can read writers. And that is – simple and beautiful – the task that the author does. Her best know work is Cláper (1987), which shows a deeper sense of belonging and family identity during a spiritual and physical journey to America in the early twentieth century.
In addition, her book La Venedemocracia (1978) is a compendium of interviews with some relevant political figures of Venezuelan contemporary history and their analysis, including former presidents Rómulo Betancourt
and Rafael Caldera
as well as Gonzalo Barrios
, Luis Beltrán Prieto
, Pompeyo Márquez
and Jóvito Villalba
, among others. Thirty years later it has now been reissued for the third time (2008). She has also written two biographies on well known musicians as Ilan Chester
(2004) and Aldemaro Romero
(2008).
, in 1962, and was known as Alicia Freilich de Segal until their divorce in 2008. They had two sons, Ernesto and Ariel.
Ccurrently, Freilich is an independent education and learning consultant who works across education settings in Venezuela. Besides this, she offer her opinion on art, film, literature, music, and politics in the blog Ideas de Babel.
Novels
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
ist, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and educator.
Early life
Born in CaracasCaracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, Alicia Freilich is the oldest of three girls born to Máximo Freilich and Rebeca (née Warszawska) Freilich, immigrants of Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
origin. She grew up in an orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
home and attended Universidad Central de Venezuela
Central University of Venezuela
The Central University of Venezuela is a premier public University of Venezuela located in Caracas...
, where she received a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
in 1969.
Professional career
Shortly after graduation, Freilich began her journalism career at El NacionalEl Nacional
El Nacional is a Venezuelan publishing company under the name C.A. Editorial El Nacional, most widely known for its El Nacional newspaper. It, along with Últimas Noticias and El Universal, are the most widely read and circulated daily national newspapers in the country, and it has an average of...
, working on a column about literature and reporting politics, with a focus on children and family issues, among other subjects. Interestingly, she gravitated toward stories that featured real-life struggles of ordinary people, with profile articles that have garnered national feature-writing awards and international honors.
Freilich spent 31 years at El Nacional, working under the direction of Arturo Uslar Pietri
Arturo Uslar Pietri
Arturo Uslar Pietri , was a Venezuelan intellectual, lawyer, journalist, writer, television producer and politician.- Life :...
(1969–1978) and Ramón J. Velásquez
Ramón José Velásquez
Ramón José Velásquez Mujica is a Venezuelan political figure. He served as Acting president of Venezuela between 1993 and 1994. He is known as a historian, journalist, lawyer, politician and entertainer of companies for his knowledge of the "national life".Velásquez was born in Táchira,Venezuela...
(1982–2002). She also has published freelance articles in El Universal
El Universal (Caracas)
El Universal is a major Venezuelan newspaper, headquartered in Caracas with an average daily circulation of about 150,000. The online version carries news, politics, sports, economy and more....
(1979–1981), Tal Cual
Tal Cual
Tal Cual is a Venezuelan newspaper. It was launched in 2000, with Teodoro Petkoff as editor....
(2006–2009), and Fundación Bigott publications (2005–2007).
In addition, her interest in the media projected into the television atmosphere, when she hosted a cultural affairs program at Televisora Nacional
Televisora Nacional
Televisora Nacional was the first television station to begin operations in Venezuela. It broadcast from 1952 to 1989.-History:On 22 November 1952, the first television station in Venezuela was inaugurated: Televisora Nacional , channel five, was a state-owned television station which was...
from 1970 through 1971. Shortly after, she wrote a script based on the novel La Rebelión, published in 1946 by author Rómulo Gallegos
Rómulo Gallegos
Rómulo Ángel del Monte Carmelo Gallegos Freire was a Venezuelan novelist and politician. For a period of some nine months during 1948, he was the first cleanly elected president in his country's history....
, which was aired by Radio Caracas Televisión in 1972.
As an active educator for more than four decades, Freilich has being capable of providing instruction at various levels in her discipline from elementary school to university, both in private and public education.
Focusing on the diversity of her creative imagination, Freilich wrote Triálogo (1973), in which compares historical themes and subjects, such as Shakespeare's Shylock
Shylock
Shylock is a fictional character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.-In the play:In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is a Jewish moneylender who lends money to his Christian rival, Antonio, setting the security at a pound of Antonio's flesh...
and the horrible consequences of a myth; traces the parallels between the life of Isaac Babel
Isaac Babel
Isaak Emmanuilovich Babel was a Russian language journalist, playwright, literary translator, and short story writer. He is best known as the author of Red Cavalry, Story of My Dovecote, and Tales of Odessa, all of which are considered masterpieces of Russian literature...
and other Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
exiles, such as Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian language poet, novelist, and literary translator. In his native Russia, Pasternak's anthology My Sister Life, is one of the most influential collections ever published in the Russian language...
and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was aRussian and Soviet novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his often-suppressed writings, he helped to raise global awareness of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly in The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of...
; associated Shalom aleichem
Shalom aleichem
Shalom aleikhem is a greeting version in Hebrew, literally meaning "peace be upon you". The appropriate response is "aleikhem shalom", or "upon you be peace"....
with Jewish humor, and studies of Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
writers Giorgio Bassani
Giorgio Bassani
Giorgio Bassani was an Italian novelist, poet, essayist, editor, and international intellectual.-Biography:Bassani was born in Bologna into a prosperous Jewish family of Ferrara, where he spent his childhood with his mother Dora, father Enrico , brother Paolo, and sister Jenny...
and Natalia Ginzburg
Natalia Ginzburg
Natalia Ginzburg née Levi was an award-winning Italian author whose work explored family relationships, politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II, and philosophy. She wrote novels, short stories and essays, for which she received the Strega Prize and Bagutta Prize...
.
Through her first novel, Cuarta Dimensión (1975), she points out how the critic must understand and make them understand the book she has read, as you can read writers. And that is – simple and beautiful – the task that the author does. Her best know work is Cláper (1987), which shows a deeper sense of belonging and family identity during a spiritual and physical journey to America in the early twentieth century.
In addition, her book La Venedemocracia (1978) is a compendium of interviews with some relevant political figures of Venezuelan contemporary history and their analysis, including former presidents Rómulo Betancourt
Rómulo Betancourt
Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello , known as "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", was President of Venezuela from 1945 to 1948 and again from 1959 to 1964, as well as leader of Accion Democratica, Venezuela's dominant political party in the 20th century...
and Rafael Caldera
Rafael Caldera
Rafael Antonio Caldera Rodríguez was president of Venezuela from 1969 to 1974 and again from 1994 to 1999.Caldera taught sociology and law at various universities before entering politics. He was a founding member of COPEI, Venezuela's Christian Democratic party...
as well as Gonzalo Barrios
Gonzalo Barrios
Gonzalo Barrios Bustillos , was a Venezuelan politician. Founding member of party Acción Democrática , and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first AD government . Later Minister of Interior and Justice under Raúl Leoni ....
, Luis Beltrán Prieto
Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa
Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa , was a Venezuelan politician. A founder of Democratic Action and Minister of Education in its first government , he was a leader of Democratic Action after the restoration of democracy in 1958...
, Pompeyo Márquez
Pompeyo Márquez
Pompeyo Ezequiel Márquez Millán is a Venezuelan politician and former marxist guerrilla member in the 1960s. Was one of the founders of Movimiento al Socialismo , and currently, part of the opposition to the current Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.-References:...
and Jóvito Villalba
Jóvito Villalba
Jóvito Villalba Gutiérrez , was a Venezuelan lawyer and politician, member of the Generation of 1928, founder of the party URD and signer of the Punto Fijo Pact.-Background:...
, among others. Thirty years later it has now been reissued for the third time (2008). She has also written two biographies on well known musicians as Ilan Chester
Ilan Chester
Ilan Chester is a celebrated Venezuelan singer, keyboardist, arranger and composer. Born in Israel in 1952, of European parents, Ilan emigrated to Venezuela in 1953.- Biography :...
(2004) and Aldemaro Romero
Aldemaro Romero
Aldemaro Romero was a Venezuelan pianist, composer, arranger and orchestral conductor. He was born in Valencia, Carabobo State.-Biography:...
(2008).
Private life
Freilich had two sisters, Miriam (born 1943) and Perla (1945–1972). She was married to Jaime Segal, a neurologistNeurologist
A neurologist is a physician who specializes in neurology, and is trained to investigate, or diagnose and treat neurological disorders.Neurology is the medical specialty related to the human nervous system. The nervous system encompasses the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. A specialist...
, in 1962, and was known as Alicia Freilich de Segal until their divorce in 2008. They had two sons, Ernesto and Ariel.
Ccurrently, Freilich is an independent education and learning consultant who works across education settings in Venezuela. Besides this, she offer her opinion on art, film, literature, music, and politics in the blog Ideas de Babel.
Selected works
Books- Cuarta Dimensión
- En clave sexymental: Aldemaro Romero a medio siglo creativo
- Entrevistados en carne y hueso
- Ilan Chester es verdad
- La Venedemocracia
- Legítima defensa
- Triálogo, Notas de crítica urgente
Novels
- Cláper
- Colombina Descubierta
- Vieja verde
See also
- List of novelists by nationality
- List of Venezuelan writers
- Venezuelan literatureVenezuelan literatureVenezuelan literature can be traced to pre-Hispanic times with the myths and oral literature that formed the cosmogonic view of the world that indigenous people had. Some of these stories are still known in Venezuela. Like many Latin American countries, the Spanish conquerors have had the greatest...