José Luis Appleyard
Encyclopedia
Childhood and Youth
He was born in AsunciónAsunción
Asunción is the capital and largest city of Paraguay.The "Ciudad de Asunción" is an autonomous capital district not part of any department. The metropolitan area, called Gran Asunción, includes the cities of San Lorenzo, Fernando de la Mora, Lambaré, Luque, Mariano Roque Alonso, Ñemby, San...
, capital city of Paraguay.
He completed his primary studies in “la Escuela Normal de Profesores”. He attended high school in Colegio de San José de Asunción, but he finished highschool in Colegio San Martín, de Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
.
He studied law at Universidad Nacional de Asunción
Universidad Nacional de Asunción
The Universidad Nacional de Asunción, abbreviated UNA, is a public university in Paraguay. Founded in 1889, it is the oldest and most traditional university in the country.In 2006, there were 36,000 students and 5,500 professors.- Organization :...
and after graduating, he worked as a lawyer for approximately ten years. After this, he decided to dedicate himself to journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
and poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
.
First Steps
He was one of the favourite disciples of César Alonso de las HerasCésar Alonso de las Heras
César Alonso de las Heras was born in Villaralbo, Zamora, Spain, December 24, 1913.He was a priest of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Betharram Congregation, main supporters of the San José School, one of the oldest and traditional schools in Asunción, cradle of numerous philosophers and national...
, a priest in Colegio de San José. Father Alonso is a fundamental figure regarding the diffusion of Spanish poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
of what are called the ‘98 and ’27 generations. He was also the mentor of numerous talented poets and writers. First from the Academia Literaria del Colegio de San José, and then from the Academia Universitaria, being president and active referent of this last.
Appleyard was part of the so called “the fifties generation” in paraguayan poetry, along with other icons like José María Gómez Sanjurjo, Ricardo Mazó and Ramiro Domínguez, amongst others.
For almost two decades he was part of the body of journalists of the “La Tribuna” newspaper of Asunción
Asunción
Asunción is the capital and largest city of Paraguay.The "Ciudad de Asunción" is an autonomous capital district not part of any department. The metropolitan area, called Gran Asunción, includes the cities of San Lorenzo, Fernando de la Mora, Lambaré, Luque, Mariano Roque Alonso, Ñemby, San...
. He was also “Boss of the Culture Area” and director of the cultural supplement published on Sundays. He was editor of “Monólogos” an important column which influenced people and achieved great popularity by writing about subjects of interest in the time such as “how people speak in Paraguay”. Likewise, he worked in “Ultima Hora”, newspaper where “Desde el tiempo que vivo” his column, was one of the most expected by the thousands of readers.
Being invited by many countries, such as United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, amongst others, he visited numerous nations in which he gave conferences, chats and presented his poems.
Trajectory
He was President of the PEN Club del Paraguay and, being an important member of Academia Paraguaya de la Lengua Española, he was a secretary of this important cultural institution.The also poet and literary critique Roque Vallejos
Roque Vallejos
Roque Vallejos was a poet, psychiatrist and essayist from Paraguay.-Background:He was a forensic surgeon in the High Court of Justice.He served as a member and the president of the Academia de la Lengua Paraguaya....
writes in the epilogue of the book “José-Luis Appleyard - Antología poética” published in 1996: “...He has poems of notable social sarcasm that Rafael Barret would have wanted to include in his “Moralidades actuales”. So as in his poem “Hay un sitio” que that states in one of its fragments: There are synonyms clear, translucent: / being free is growing without will / to steal is to rob, love is hate, / and to live is to die defenceless / loneliness is called company/ and betraying is to be loyal to your friends. / The news are old. All that's new/ has a dark old shining. Discretely and with no violence, Appleyard faithfully and severely describes the state of spiritual and semantic emptiness of the words and trapped feeling that the dictatorship
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
carried within for more than thirty. A poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
that has based all his pieces on freedom couldn't –nor has tried to do so- defend a dogmatic moral that would have fatally led him to mere materialist doctrinism ”.
Hugo Rodríguez-Alcalá
Hugo Rodríguez-Alcalá
Hugo Rodríguez-Alcalá was a Paraguayan writer, essayist, poet, narrator and literature critic...
, paraguayan literature investigator wrote in his book “Appleyard da a la estampa”... the best in his promotion:… Amongst those of the Academia Universitaria, Appleyard is the one who best fulfills the following subjects: the longing for lost times, the teen love, the magic of childhood. All these subjects are mentioned in “Entonces era siempre”, anthology of poems in which the poet reviews childhood”.
His Style
Appleyard himself, in a brief script of June 1981 that introduces his book “Tomado de la mano”, expresses the following in relation to his poems: “And this is how, grabbing hands with them, I have found myself in a long journey of years, days and hours that have granted me a bit of everything.In this path expressed in my verses I have felt sad and happy, I have felt overwhelmed by loneliness and yet more by company. I have seen myself as a child in Areguá
Areguá
Areguá is a city in Paraguay; located 28 km away from the capital city Asunción. It is the capital of Central. Probably the best feature of this Paraguayan town is its geographical location; it lays between a group of rolling hills with a distinctive rock formation and a beautiful blue lake,...
. I have seen myself as a young student in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. I have felt as if I were in Academia Universitaria again feeling that beautiful rush that a group of friends generates. And I have also seen myself, with white hair, white bearb, just as I am today”. And he adds: “The eyes of those who read me won't see what I see . But they might build the image of a road in which edges life is found. If this is so, my verses would have had accomplished their mission of leaving my voice within these pages. If not, these poems will always be my sons that in most cases were born in painful desperation, sons of mine that are were left defenceless, alone and defenceless of the one that gave them life through a poem. They remain with the reader, lost and lonely, those poems. Let them say if they have it… their truth.
Distinctions
In 1961 he won the Municipal Award of Theater with the poetic drama about the Paraguayan independence “Aquel 1811”.Works
Even though he has written many other brief pieces, most of his theatrical production remains inedited.| Year | Pieces |
|---|---|
| 1953 | “Poesía”, junto a otros miembros de la Academia Universitaria. |
| 1963 | El poemario “Entonces era siempre”, su primer libro (1963). |
| 1965 | “El sauce permanece” (1965), |
| 1978 | “Así es mi Nochebuena”. |
| 1981 | book featuring the poem “Cigarra, tonta cigarra”, magnificently musicalizad by Maneco Galeano Maneco Galeano Maneco Galeano was born in Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay; on May 13, 1945.Son of W. Antonio Galeano and Ana Mieres, his real name is Felix, after his grandfather on his father side, and Roberto , after his grandfather, on his mother side.-Childhood and youth:... , “Tomado de la mano”. |
| 1982 | “El labio y la palabra”. |
| 1983 | “Solamente los años. |
| 1965 | En narrativa es autor de una novela: “Imágenes sin tierra” |
| 1971 | “Los monólogos” |
| 1983 | “La voz que nos hablamos” |
| Year | last publications |
|---|---|
| 1988 | “Las palabras secretas”, un poemario. |
| 1993 | “Desde el tiempo que vivo”, a series of sixty short poems regarding the most important events of the second millennium of the Christian era, book that attributed the award Premio Municipal de Literatura in1994 |
| 1997 | For his last book, “Cenizas de la vida”, he was awarded with the highest in paraguayan literature paraguayas, Premio Nacional de Literatura that the Parlamento Paraguayo trusted to him the same year. |
External links
- Palabra Virtual
- Poesía Castellana
- Members
- Poemas-Poetas
- http://www.abc.com.py/seccion/poemasradio/