Latin American literature consists of the oral and written literature of
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
(and the
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts...
) in several languages, particularly in Spanish, Portuguese, and indigenous tongues. It rose to particular prominence globally during the second half of the 20th century, largely due to the international success of the style known as magical realism. As such, the region's literature is often associated solely with this style (and its most famous exponent,
Gabriel García MárquezGabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. García Márquez, affectionately known as "Gabo" throughout Latin America, is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel...
). This largely obscures a rich and complex tradition of literary production that dates back many centuries.
Pre-Columbian literature
Pre-Columbian cultures were primarily oral, though the Aztecs and Mayans, for instance, produced elaborate
codicesAztec codices are books written by pre-Columbian and colonial-era Aztecs. These codices provide some of the best primary sources for Aztec culture....
. Oral accounts of mythological and religious beliefs were also sometimes recorded after the arrival of European colonizers, as was the case with the
Popol VuhPopol Vuh is a corpus of mythological narratives and regnal genealogies of the Post-Classic Quiché kingdom in Guatemala highlands. The title translates as "Book of the Community", "Book of Counsel", or more literally as "Book of the Mat"...
. Moreover, a tradition of oral narrative survives to this day, for instance among the
QuechuaQuechua is a Native American language family spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably some 6 to 8 million speakers...
-speaking population of Peru and the Quiché of Guatemala.
Colonial literature
From the very moment when Europeans encountered the New World, early explorers and conquistadores produced written accounts and crónicas of their experience, such as
ColumbusChristopher Columbus was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere...
's letters or
Bernal Díaz del CastilloBernal Díaz del Castillo was a conquistador, who wrote an eyewitness account of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards under Hernán Cortés, himself serving as a rodelero under Cortés. Born in Medina del Campo , he came from a family of little wealth and he himself had received only a minimal...
's description of the conquest of Mexico. At times, colonial practices stirred a lively debate about the ethics of colonization and the status of the indigenous peoples, as reflected for instance in
Bartolomé de las CasasBartolomé de las Casas, O.P. , was a 16th-century Spanish Dominican priest, writer and the first resident Bishop of Chiapas. As a settler in the New World he witnessed, and was driven to oppose, the torture and genocide of the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists...
's
Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies.
During the colonial period, written culture was often in the hands of the church, within which context Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz wrote memorable poetry and philosophical essays. Towards the end of the 18th Century and the beginning of the 19th, a distinctive
criolloThe criollos were a social class in the caste system of the overseas colonies established by Spain in the 16th century, especially in Latin America, comprising the locally born people of pure Spanish ancestry....
literary tradition emerged, including the first novels such as
José Joaquín Fernández de LizardiJosé Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi , Mexican writer and political journalist, best known as the author of El Periquillo Sarniento , reputed to be the first novel written in America....
's
El Periquillo SarnientoThe Mangy Parrot: The Life and Times of Periquillo Sarniento Written by himself for his Children by Mexican author José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, is generally considered the first novel written and published in Latin America. El Periquillo was written in 1816, though due to government...
(1816). The "libertadores" themselves were also often distinguished writers, such as
Simón BolívarSimón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte Blanco, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a South American political leader...
and
Andrés BelloAndrés de Jesús María y José Bello López Venezuelan humanist, poet, lawmaker, philosopher, educator and philologist, whose political and literary works constitute an important part of Spanish American culture...
.
Nineteenth-century literature
The 19th century was a period of "foundational fictions" (in critic Doris Sommer's words), novels in the
RomanticRomanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution...
or
NaturalistNaturalism is a literary movement that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. Naturalism is the outgrowth of Realism, a prominent literary...
traditions that attempted to establish a sense of national identity, and which often focused on the indigenous question or the dichotomy of "civilization or barbarism", for which see, say, the Argentine
Domingo SarmientoDomingo Faustino Sarmiento Albarracín was an Argentine activist, intellectual, and writer, and the seventh President of Argentina. His writing spanned a wide range of genres and topics, from journalism to autobiography, to political philosophy and history...
's
FacundoFacundo: Civilization and Barbarism is a book written in 1845 by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, a writer and journalist who became the seventh president of Argentina...
(1845), the Colombian
Jorge IsaacsJorge Isaacs Ferrer was a Colombian writer, politician and soldier. His only novel, María, became one of the most notable works of the Romantic movement in Spanish literature....
's
MaríaLa María is a novel written by Colombian writer Jorge Isaacs between 1864 and 1867. It is a costumbrist novel representative of the Spanish romantic movement...
, Ecuadorian
Juan León MeraJuan León Mera Martínez was an Ecuadorian poet, novelist, journalist, critic, politician and satirist.Mera is known as the father of Ecuadorian literature, principally for being the author of Cumandá...
's
CumandáCumandá is a location in the Chimborazo Province, Ecuador. It is the seat of the Cumandá Canton.- References :* * - External links :*...
(1879), or the Brazilian
Euclides da CunhaEuclides da Cunha was a Brazilian writer, sociologist and engineer...
's
Os SertõesOs Sertões is a book written by the Brazilian author Euclides da Cunha, widely considered one of the greatest achievements of Brazilian and even World literature...
(1902). Such works are still the bedrocks of national canons, and usually mandatory elements of high school curricula.
Another instance of 19th Century Latin American literature is
José HernándezJosé Hernández was an Argentine journalist, poet, and politician best known as the author of the epic poem Martín Fierro....
's epic poem
Martín FierroMartín Fierro is an 2,316 line epic poem by the Argentine writer José Hernández. The poem was originally published in two parts, El Gaucho Martín Fierro and La Vuelta de Martín Fierro . The poem is, in part, a protest against the Europeanizing and modernizing tendencies of Argentine president...
(1872). The story of a poor
gauchoGaucho is a term commonly used to describe residents of the South American pampas, chacos or Patagonian grasslands, found principally in parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Chile and Southern Region, Brazil...
drafted to fight a frontier war against Indians,
Martín Fierro is an example of the "gauchesque", an Argentine genre of poetry centered around the lives of gauchos.
Modernismo and Boom precursors
In the late 19th century,
modernismoModernismo is Spanish and Portuguese for modernism, however the term Modernismo also indicates a more specific art movement:* Modernismo refers to a Spanish-American literary movement, best exemplified by Rubén Darío...
emerged, a poetic movement whose founding text was the Nicaraguan
Rubén DaríoFélix Rubéen García Sarmiento also known as Rubén Darío was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated Spanish-American literary movement known as Modernismo , flourishing at the end of the 19th century. Dario has had the greatest and most lasting influence into twentieth century Spanish literature, and...
's
AzulAzul may refer to:* Azul... is a poetry collection by Rubén Darío* Azul, Buenos Aires, a town in Argentina* Operation Azul, the Argentine codename for the military landings that started the Falklands War*Azul , 2001 Cristian Castro album...
(1888). This was the first Latin American literary movement to influence literary culture outside of the region, and was also the first truly Latin American literature, in that national differences were no longer so much at issue.
José MartíJosé Julián Martí Pérez was a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. In his short life he was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, and a political theorist...
, for instance, though a Cuban patriot, also lived in Mexico and the USA and wrote for journals in Argentina and elsewhere. And in 1900 the Uruguayan
José Enrique RodóJosé Enrique Rodó was a Uruguayan essayist. He called for the youth of Latin America to reject materialism, to revert back to Greco-Roman habits of free thought and self enrichment, and to develop and concentrate on their culture....
wrote what became read as a manifesto for the region's cultural awakening,
Ariel.
Though modernismo itself is often seen as aestheticist and anti-political, some poets and essayists, Martí among them but also the Peruvians
Manuel González PradaManuel González Prada was a Peruvian politician and anarchist, literary critic and director of the National Library of Peru...
and
José Carlos MariáteguiJosé Carlos Mariátegui La Chira was a Peruvian journalist, political philosopher, and activist. A prolific writer before his early death at age 35, he is considered one of the most influential Latin American socialists of the 20th century...
, introduced compelling critiques of the contemporary social order and particularly the plight of Latin America's indigenous peoples. So the early twentieth century also saw the rise of indigenismo, a movement dedicated to representing indigenous culture and the injustices that such communities were undergoing, as for instance with the Peruvian
José María ArguedasJosé María Arguedas Altamirano was a Peruvian novelist, poet, and anthropologist who wrote mainly in Spanish, although some of his poetry is in Quechua...
and the Mexican
Rosario CastellanosRosario Castellanos was a Mexican poet and author. Along with the other members of the Generation of 1950 , she was one of Mexico's most important literary voices in the last century...
.
The Argentine
Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , best known as Jorge Luis Borges, was an Argentine writer and poet born in Buenos Aires. In 1914, his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school and traveled to Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and...
invented what was almost a new genre, the philosophical short story, and would go on to become one of the most influential of all Latin American writers. At the same time,
Roberto ArltRoberto Arlt was an Argentine writer born in Buenos Aires on April 2, 1900. His father was Karl Arlt and his mother, Ekatherine Iobstraibitzer. His relationship with his father was stressful, as Karl Arlt was a very severe and austere man, by Arlt's own account, and the memory of his oppressive...
offered a very different style, closer to mass culture and popular literature, reflecting the urbanization and European immigration that was shaping the
Southern Cone| style="border-top: solid 1px #ccd2d9; padding: 0.4em 1em 0.4em 0; vertical-align: top" |Sao Paulo
Buenos Aires
Santiago de Chile
Montevideo
|}...
.
Notable figures in Brazil at this time include the exceptional novelist and short story writer
Machado de AssisJoaquim Maria Machado de Assis , often known as Machado de Assis, Machado, or Bruxo do Cosme Velho , was a Brazilian novelist, poet and short story writer. He is widely regarded as the most important writer of Brazilian literature...
, whose both ironic view and deep psychological analysis introduced a universal scope in Brazilian prose, the modernist poets
Mário de AndradeMário Raul de Morais Andrade was a Brazilian poet, novelist, musicologist, art historian and critic, and photographer. One of the founders of Brazilian modernism, he virtually created modern Brazilian poetry with the publication of his Paulicéia Desvairada in 1922...
,
Oswald de AndradeJosé Oswald de Andrade Souza was a Brazilian poet and polemicist. He was born and spent most of his life in São Paulo....
(whose "
Manifesto AntropófagoThe Manifesto Antropófago was published in 1928 by the Brazilian poet and polemicist Oswald de Andrade.Its argument is that Brazil's history of "cannibalizing" other cultures is its greatest strength, while playing on the modernists' primitivist interest in cannibalism as an alleged tribal rite...
" praised Brazilian powers of
transculturationTransculturation is a term coined by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz in 1947 to describe the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures.-Definition:...
), and
Carlos Drummond de AndradeCarlos Drummond de Andrade was perhaps the most influential Brazilian poet of the 20th century. He has become something of a national poet; his poem "Canção Amiga" was printed on the 50 cruzados note....
.
The
Mexican RevolutionThe Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910 with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements.Over time the Revolution...
inspired novels such as
Mariano AzuelaMariano Azuela González was a Mexican author and physician, best known for his fictional stories of the Mexican Revolution of 1910...
's
Los de abajoLos de Abajo is the official supporters group of Universidad de Chile. They are one of the biggest groups of supporters in Chile.-History:...
, a committed work of social realism and the revolution and its aftermath would continue to be a point of reference for Mexican literature for many decades. In the 1940s, the Cuban novelist and musicologist
Alejo CarpentierAlejo Carpentier y Valmont was a Cuban novelist, essay writer, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period...
coined the term "lo real maravilloso" and, along with the Mexican
Juan RulfoJuan Rulfo was a Mexican author and photographer. One of Latin America's most esteemed authors, Rulfo's reputation rests on two slim books, the novel Pedro Páramo , and El Llano en llamas , a collection of short stories that includes his...
and the Guatemalan
Miguel Ángel AsturiasMiguel Ángel Asturias Rosales was a Nobel Prize–winning Guatemalan poet, novelist, and diplomat. Asturias helped establish Latin American literature's contribution to mainstream Western culture, and at the same time drew attention to the importance of indigenous cultures, especially those of his...
, would prove a precursor of the Boom and its signature style of "magic realism".
Poetry after Modernismo
Twentieth-century poetry in Latin America has often expressed love and political commitment, particularly given the model provided by Chilean
NobelNobel can mean:*Nobel Prize, awarded annually since 1901, from the bequest of Swedish inventor Alfred NobelThe Nobel family:*Alfred Nobel, , the inventor of dynamite, instituted the Nobel Prizes...
laureate
Pablo NerudaPablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean writer and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. Neruda assumed his pen name as a teenager, partly because it was in vogue, partly to hide his poetry from his father, a rigid man who wanted his son to have a "practical"...
, and followed by such poets as the Nicaraguan
Ernesto CardenalReverend Father Ernesto Cardenal Martínez is a Nicaraguan Catholic priest and was one of the most famous liberation theologians of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, a party he has since left. From 1979 to 1987 he served as Nicaragua's first culture minister. He is also famous as a poet, and he still...
and Salvadoran
Roque DaltonRoque Dalton García was a leftist Salvadoran poet and journalist. He is considered one of Latin America's most compelling poets...
.
Other significant poets include the Cuban
Nicolás GuillénNicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista was an Afro-Cuban poet, journalist, political activist, and writer. He is best remembered as the national poet of Cuba.-Life:Guillén was born in Camagüey, Cuba...
, the Puerto Rican
Giannina BraschiPoet and novelist Giannina Braschi is credited with writing the first Spanglish novel YO-YO BOING! and the poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams , which chronicles the Latin American immigrant's experiences in the United States...
, and the Uruguayan
Mario BenedettiMario Benedetti was a Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet....
, not to mention the Nobel laureates
Gabriela MistralGabriela Mistral was the pseudonym of Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga, a Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist who was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945...
and
Octavio PazOctavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Later life:...
, the latter also a distinguished critic and essayist, famous particularly for his book on Mexican culture,
The Labyrinth of SolitudeThe Labyrinth of Solitude one of Octavio Paz’s most famous works, is a collection of nine essays: ‘The Pachuco and other extremes’, ‘Mexican Mask’, ‘The Day of the Dead’, ‘The Sons of La Malinche’, ‘The Conquest and Colonialism’, ‘From Independence to the Revolution’, ‘The Mexican Intelligentsia’,...
.
In Chile,
Braulio ArenasBraulio Arenas was a Chilean poet and writer, founder of the surrealist Mandrágora group.- Life :Braulio Arenas lived most of his youth in the north of Chile, moving in his teens to Talca to study...
and others founded in 1938 the
MandrágoraFor other uses see Mandragora .La Mandrágora was a Chilean Surrealist group "officially founded" on 12 July, 1938 by Braulio Arenas , Teófilo Cid and Enrique Gómez Correa . The group had met in Talca and first started exchanging in 1932...
group, strongly influenced by
SurrealismSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
as well as by
Vicente HuidobroVicente García-Huidobro Fernández was a Chilean poet born to an aristocratic family. He was an exponent of the artistic movement called Creacionismo , which held that a poet should bring life to the things he or she writes about, rather than just describe them.Huidobro was born into a wealthy...
's
CreacionismoCreationism was a literary movement, initiated by Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro around 1912. Creationism is based on the idea of a poem as a truly new thing, created by the author for the sake of itself — that is, not to praise another thing, not to please the reader, not even to be...
. However, this group of poets was overshadowed by Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral.
The Boom
After World War II, Latin America enjoyed increasing economic prosperity, and a new-found confidence also gave rise to a
literary boomThe Latin American Boom was a literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s when the work of a group of relatively young Latin American novelists became widely circulated in Europe and throughout the world. The Boom is most closely associated with Julio Cortázar of Argentina, Carlos Fuentes of Mexico,...
. From 1960 to 1967, the major works of the
boomThe Latin American Boom was a literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s when the work of a group of relatively young Latin American novelists became widely circulated in Europe and throughout the world. The Boom is most closely associated with Julio Cortázar of Argentina, Carlos Fuentes of Mexico,...
were published. Many of these novels were somewhat rebellious from the general point of view of Latin America culture. Authors crossed traditional boundaries, experimented with language, and often mixed different styles of writing in their works.
Structures of literary works were also changing. Boom writers ventured outside traditional narrative structures, embracing non-linearity and experimental narration. The figure of
Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , best known as Jorge Luis Borges, was an Argentine writer and poet born in Buenos Aires. In 1914, his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school and traveled to Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and...
, though not a Boom author per se, was extremely influential for the Boom generation. Latin American authors were inspired by North American and European authors such as
William FaulknerWilliam Faulkner was a Nobel Prize-winning American author. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, his reputation is based on his novels, novellas and short stories. He was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter.Most of Faulkner's works are set in his native state...
,
James JoyceJames Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish expatriate author, playwright and poet of the 20th century. He is known for his landmark novel Ulysses and its controversial successor Finnegans Wake , as well as the short story collection Dubliners and the semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of...
, and
Virginia WoolfAdeline Virginia Woolf was an English novelist, essayist, epistler, publisher, feminist, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
as well as each others' works; many of the authors knew one another and influenced their styles.
The Boom really put Latin American literature on the global map. It was distinguished by daring and experimental novels such as
Julio CortázarJulio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, was an Argentine author of novels and short stories...
's
Rayuela (1963), that were frequently published in Spain and quickly translated into English. From 1966 to 1968,
Emir Rodríguez MonegalEmir Rodríguez Monegal was a Uruguayan scholar, literary critic, and editor of Latin American literature. From 1969 to 1985, Rodríguez Monegal was professor of Latin American contemporary literature at Yale University. He is usually called by his second surname Emir R...
published his influential Latin American literature monthly
Mundo NuevoMundo Nuevo was an influential Spanish-language periodical, being a monthly revista de cultura dedicated to new Latin American literature. Sponsored by the Ford Foundation, it was founded in 1966 by Emir Rodríguez Monegal in Paris, France, and distributed worldwide...
, with excerpts of unreleased novels from then-new writers such as
Guillermo Cabrera InfanteGuillermo Cabrera Infante was a Cuban novelist, essayist, translator, and critic; in the 1950s he used the pseudonym G. Caín....
or
Severo SarduySevero Sarduy was a gay Cuban poet, author, playwright, and critic of Cuban literature and art.-Biography:...
, including two chapters of
Gabriel García MárquezGabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. García Márquez, affectionately known as "Gabo" throughout Latin America, is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel...
's
Cien años de soledadOne Hundred Years of Solitude is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. It was first published in Spanish in 1967. The book was an instant success worldwide and was translated into over 27 languages. Lauded critically, the book contributed to the Latin American...
in 1966. In 1967, the published book was the Boom's defining novel, which led to the association of Latin American literature with
magic realismMagic realism, or magical realism, is an artistic genre in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or even "normal" setting...
, though other important writers of the period such as
Mario Vargas LlosaJorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer, politician, journalist, and essayist. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
and
Carlos FuentesCarlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. Fuentes has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...
do not fit so easily within this framework. Arguably, the Boom's culmination was
Augusto Roa BastosAugusto Roa Bastos, was a noted Paraguayan novelist and short story writer, and one of the most important Latin American writers of the 20th century. As a teenager he fought in the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, and he later worked as a journalist, screenwriter and professor...
's monumental
Yo, el supremo (1974). Other important novelists of the period include the Chilean
José DonosoJosé Donoso Yáñez was a Chilean writer. He lived most of his life in Chile, although he spent some years in self-imposed exile in Mexico, the United States and Spain...
, the Guatemalan
Augusto Monterroso"The Dinosaur" redirects here. For the song by Was , see Walk the Dinosaur. For other uses, see Dinosaur Augusto Monterroso Bonilla was a Guatemalan writer.-Life:...
and the Cuban
Guillermo Cabrera InfanteGuillermo Cabrera Infante was a Cuban novelist, essayist, translator, and critic; in the 1950s he used the pseudonym G. Caín....
.
Though the literary boom occurred while Latin America was having commercial success, the works of this period tended to move away from the positives of the modernization that was underway. Boom works tended not to focus on social and local issues, but rather on universal and at times metaphysical themes.
Political turmoil in Latin American countries such as
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
at this time influenced the literary boom as well. Some works anticipated an end to the prosperity that was occurring, and even predicted old problems would resurface in the near future. Their works foreshadowed the events to come in the future of Latin America, with the 1970s and 1980s dictatorships, economic turmoil, and
Dirty WarThe Dirty War refers to the state-sponsored violence against Argentine citizenry and left-wing guerrillas from roughly 1976 to 1983 carried out primarily by Jorge Rafael Videla's military government...
s.
Post-Boom and contemporary literature
Post-Boom literature is sometimes characterized by a tendency towards irony and towards the use of popular genres, as in the case of the work of
Manuel PuigManuel Puig was an Argentine author...
. Some writers felt the success of the Boom to be a burden, and spiritedly denounced the caricature that reduces Latin American literature to magical realism. Hence the Chilean
Alberto FuguetAlberto Fuguet de Goyeneche is a popular Chilean writer, journalist, film critic and film director who rose to critical prominence in the 1990s as part of the movement known as the New Chilean Narrative. Although he was born in Santiago, he spent his first 13 years of life in Encino, California...
came up with
McOndoMcOndo is a Latin American literary movement that seeks to distance itself from Latin America's long-dominant magical realist literary tradition...
as an antidote to the Macondo-ism that demanded of all aspiring writers that they set their tales in steamy tropical jungles in which the fantastic and the real happily coexisted. In a mock diary by post-modernist Giannina Braschi the Narrator of the Latin American Boom is shot by a Macy's make-up artist who accuses the Boom of capitalizing on her solitude. [3] Other writers, however, have traded on the Boom's success: see for instance
Laura EsquivelLaura Esquivel is a Mexican author making a noted contribution to Latin-American literature. She was born the third of four children of Julio César Esquivel, a telegraph operator, and Josefa Valdés.-Literary career:...
's pastiche of magical realism in
Como agua para chocolate.
Overall, contemporary literature in the region is vibrant and varied, ranging from the best-selling
Paulo CoelhoPaulo Coelho is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist.- Biography :Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He attended a Jesuit school. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer. Upon telling his mother this, she responded with "My dear, your father is an engineer. He's a logical,...
and
Isabel AllendeIsabel Allende Llona, , is a Chilean-American writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the "magic realist" tradition, is one of the first successful women writers in Latin America...
to the more avant-garde and critically acclaimed work of writers such as
Diamela EltitDiamela Eltit is a writer and a Spanish teacher from Chile.She got a bachelor degree in literature and works in the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana....
,
Giannina BraschiPoet and novelist Giannina Braschi is credited with writing the first Spanglish novel YO-YO BOING! and the poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams , which chronicles the Latin American immigrant's experiences in the United States...
,
Luisa ValenzuelaLuisa Valenzuela is a post-'Boom' novelist and short story writer. Her writing is characterized by an experimental, avant-garde style which questions hierarchical social structures from a feminist perspective. She is best known for her work written in response to the dictatorship of the 1970s in...
,
Ricardo PigliaRicardo Piglia is one of the foremost contemporary Argentine writers, known equally for his fiction and his criticism Ricardo Piglia (born on November 24, 1941 in Adrogué and raised in Mar del Plata) is one of the foremost contemporary Argentine writers, known equally for his fiction (several...
,
Roberto AmpueroRoberto Ampuero is a prolific award-winning and best-selling Chilean novelist, columnist and professor. He is the author of the popular detective series featuring Cayetano Brulé, a Cuban private detective who lives in Chile...
, Jorge Marchant L., Alicia Yánez, Jaime Marchán,
Jaime BaylyJaime Bayly Letts is a writer and a journalist . He is the third of 10 children and is also known by his nickname "El Tio Terrible" .-Early life:...
, Manfredo Kempff, Edmundo Paz Soldán,
Gioconda BelliGioconda Belli is an author, novelist and renowned Nicaraguan poet. She was designated among the 100 most important poets during the 20th century-Early life:...
, Jorge Franco,
Mario MendozaMario Mendoza Aizpuru is a former Major League Baseball infielder who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates , Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers ....
or
Roberto BolañoRoberto Bolaño Ávalos was a Chilean novelist and poet. In 1999 he won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for his novel Los detectives salvajes , and in 2008 he was posthumously awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for his novel 2666.-Life:Bolaño was born in Santiago, the son of a...
. Other important figures include the Argentine
César AiraCésar Aira is an Argentine writer and translator, considered by many as one of the leading exponents of Argentine contemporary literature, in spite of his limited public recognition....
or the Colombian
Fernando VallejoFernando Vallejo Rendón is a biologist, filmmaker and writer, born in Colombia. He obtained Mexican nationality in 2007.He was born and raised in Medellín, though he abandoned his hometown early in life...
, whose
La virgen de los sicarios depicted the violence in a Medellín under the influence of the drug trade.
There has also been considerable attention paid to the genre of testimonio, texts produced in collaboration with subaltern subjects such as
Rigoberta MenchúRigoberta Menchú Tum is an indigenous Guatemalan, of the K'iche' Maya ethnic group. Menchú has dedicated her life to publicizing the plight of Guatemala's indigenous peoples during and after the Guatemalan Civil War , and to promoting indigenous rights in the country...
.
Finally, a new breed of chroniclers is represented by the more journalistic
Carlos MonsiváisCarlos Monsiváis Aceves is a Mexican writer and journalist on the El Universal newspaper. He writes political opinion columns in other leading newspapers and is considered to be an opinion leader within the country's progressive sectors.Monsiváis studied economics and philosophy in the National...
and
Pedro LemebelPedro Lemebel is an openly gay Chilean essayist, chronicler, and novelist. He is known for his cutting critique of authoritarianism and for his humorous depiction of Chilean popular culture, from a queer perspective.-List of works:...
, who draw also on the long-standing tradition of essayistic production as well as the precedents of engaged and creative non-fiction represented by, say, the Uruguayan
Eduardo GaleanoEduardo Hughes Galeano is a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist. His most well known works are Memoria del fuego and Las venas abiertas de América Latina which have since been translated into twenty languages and transcend orthodox genres: combining fiction, journalism, political analysis,...
and the Mexican
Elena PoniatowskaElena Poniatowska is a Mexican journalist and author.-Life:...
.
Prominent writers
According to literary critic
Harold BloomHarold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, currently Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University...
, the most eminent Latin American author of any century is the Argentine
Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , best known as Jorge Luis Borges, was an Argentine writer and poet born in Buenos Aires. In 1914, his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school and traveled to Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and...
. In his controversial book
The Western Canon, Bloom says: "Of all Latin American authors in this century, he is the most universal... If you read Borges frequently and closely, you become something of a Borgesian, because to read him is to activate an awareness of literature in which he has gone farther than anybody else."
Among the novelists, perhaps the most prominent author to emerge out of Latin America in the 20th century is
Gabriel García MárquezGabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. García Márquez, affectionately known as "Gabo" throughout Latin America, is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel...
. His book
Cien Años de Soledad (1967), is one of the most important works in world literature of the 20th century. Borges opined that it was "the Don Quixote of Latin America."
Among the greatest poets of the 20th century is
Pablo NerudaPablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean writer and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. Neruda assumed his pen name as a teenager, partly because it was in vogue, partly to hide his poetry from his father, a rigid man who wanted his son to have a "practical"...
; according to Gabriel García Márquez, Neruda "is the greatest poet of the 20th century, in any language." His work is widely read and translated.
The most important literary prize of the Spanish language is widely considered to be the Cervantes Prize of Spain. Latin American authors who have won this prestigious award include:
Juan GelmanJuan Gelman is an Argentine poet. He has published more than twenty books of poetry since 1956. He won the Cervantes Prize in 2007, the most important in Spanish literature...
(Argentina),
Sergio PitolSergio Pitol Demeneghi is a prominent Mexican writer and diplomat. In 2005 he received the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious literary award in the Spanish-speaking world....
(Mexico),
Gonzalo RojasGonzalo Rojas Pizarro is a Chilean poet. His work is part of the continuing Latin American avant-garde literary tradition of the twentieth century.- Biography :He was the seventh son of a coal miner...
(Chile),
Álvaro MutisÁlvaro Mutis Jaramillo is a Colombian poet, novelist, and essayist. Before returning to Colombia in his adolescence, he lived in Brussels, where his father held a post as a diplomat. He has lived in Mexico City since 1956....
(Colombia),
Jorge EdwardsJorge Edwards Valdés is a Chilean novelist, winner of the 1999 Cervantes Prize.-Life and career:Jorge Edwards is a Chilean novelist and journalist. He was born on June 29, 1931. He went to Law School at Universidad de Chile....
(Chile),
Guillermo Cabrera InfanteGuillermo Cabrera Infante was a Cuban novelist, essayist, translator, and critic; in the 1950s he used the pseudonym G. Caín....
(Cuba),
Mario Vargas LlosaJorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer, politician, journalist, and essayist. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
(Perú),
Dulce María LoynazDulce María Loynaz Born in Cuba.Daughter of the famous General Enrique Loynaz del Castillo, a hero of the Cuban Liberation Army and author of Cuban National Anthem lyrics; and sister of poet Enrique Loynaz Muñoz...
(Cuba),
Adolfo Bioy CasaresAdolfo Bioy Casares was an Argentine fiction writer.Bioy Casares was born in Buenos Aires, the grandson of a wealthy landowner and dairy processor, and the descendant of Patrick Lynch, a successful Irish emigrant. Bioy's parents were keen alphabet enthusiasts, which explains their choice of his...
(Argentina),
Augusto Roa BastosAugusto Roa Bastos, was a noted Paraguayan novelist and short story writer, and one of the most important Latin American writers of the 20th century. As a teenager he fought in the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, and he later worked as a journalist, screenwriter and professor...
(Paraguay),
Carlos FuentesCarlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. Fuentes has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...
(Mexico),
Ernesto SabatoErnesto Sabato is an Argentine writer. He was born in Rojas, a tiny town in the Province of Buenos Aires. Sabato began his studies at the Colegio Nacional de La Plata. He then read physics at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, where he earned a Ph.D. He then attended the Sorbonne in Paris and...
(Argentina),
Octavio PazOctavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Later life:...
(Mexico),
Juan Carlos OnettiJuan Carlos Onetti was an Uruguayan novelist and author of short stories.A high school drop-out, Onetti's first novel, El pozo, published in 1939, met with his close friends' immediate acclaim, as well as from some writers and journalists of his time...
(Uruguay),
Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , best known as Jorge Luis Borges, was an Argentine writer and poet born in Buenos Aires. In 1914, his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school and traveled to Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and...
(Argentina) and
Alejo CarpentierAlejo Carpentier y Valmont was a Cuban novelist, essay writer, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period...
(Cuba).
Latin American authors who have won the most prestigious literary award in the world, the Nobel Prize for Literature, include:
Octavio PazOctavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Later life:...
(Mexico),
Gabriel García MárquezGabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. García Márquez, affectionately known as "Gabo" throughout Latin America, is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel...
(Colombia),
Pablo NerudaPablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean writer and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. Neruda assumed his pen name as a teenager, partly because it was in vogue, partly to hide his poetry from his father, a rigid man who wanted his son to have a "practical"...
(Chile),
Miguel Ángel AsturiasMiguel Ángel Asturias Rosales was a Nobel Prize–winning Guatemalan poet, novelist, and diplomat. Asturias helped establish Latin American literature's contribution to mainstream Western culture, and at the same time drew attention to the importance of indigenous cultures, especially those of his...
(Guatemala), and
Gabriela MistralGabriela Mistral was the pseudonym of Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga, a Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist who was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945...
(Chile).
The
Neustadt International Prize for LiteratureThe Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial award for literature sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and its international literary publication, World Literature Today. It is widely considered to be the most prestigious international literary prize after the Nobel Prize in...
, perhaps the most important international literary award after the Nobel Prize, counts several Latin American authors among its recipients; they include: Claribel Alegría (Nicaragua), Álvaro Mutis (Colombia), João Cabral de Melo Neto (Brazil), Octavio Paz (Mexico), and Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia). Candidates for the prize include: Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), Marjorie Agosin (Chile), Eduardo Galeano (Uruguay),
Homero AridjisHomero Aridjis is a Mexican writer and diplomat.Aridjis was born in Contepec, Michoacán, Mexico, on April 6, 1940, to a Greek father and Mexican mother; he was the youngest of five brothers. As a child, Aridjis would often walk up a hillside near his home to watch the migrating monarch...
(Mexico), Luis Fernando Verissimo (Brazil), Augusto Monterroso (Guatemala), Ernesto Cardenal (Nicaragua), Carlos Fuentes (Mexico), Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), Jorge Amado (Brazil), Ernesto Sábato (Argentina), Carlos Drummond de Andrade (Brazil), and Pablo Neruda (Chile).
Other important international literary awards are the
Jerusalem PrizeThe Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society is a biennial literary award given to writers whose work has dealt with themes of human freedom, society, politics, and government...
, whose winners include: Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), Ernesto Sabato (Argentina), Octavio Paz (Mexico), and Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina); the
Romulo Gallegos PrizeThe Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize was created on 6 August 1964 by a presidential decree enacted by Venezuelan President Raúl Leoni, in honor of the Venezuelan politician and President Rómulo Gallegos, the author of Doña Bárbara....
, whose winners include: Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia), Carlos Fuentes (Mexico),
Fernando del PasoFernando del Paso Morante is a Mexican novelist, essayist and poet.Del Paso was born in Mexico City and took two years in economics at the National Autonomous University...
(Mexico), Abel Posse (Argentina), Manuel Mejía Vallejo (Colombia), Arturo Uslar Pietri (Venezuela), Mempo Giardinelli (Argentina),
Ángeles MastrettaÁngeles Mastretta is a Mexican author and journalist. She is well known for creating inspirational female characters and fictional pieces that reflect the social and political realities of Mexico in her life.-Background:...
(Mexico), Roberto Bolaño (Chile), Fernando Vallejo (Colombia), and
Elena PoniatowskaElena Poniatowska is a Mexican journalist and author.-Life:...
(Mexico); and the
Juan Rulfo PrizeThe Juan Rulfo Prize for Latin American and Caribbean Literature, created in 1991, is awarded to writers of literature from Latin America or the Caribbean who write in Spanish, Portuguese, French, or English, or to writers from any part of America who write in Spanish...
: Nicanor Parra (Chile),
Juan José ArreolaJuan José Arreola Zúñiga was a Mexican writer and academic. He is considered Mexico's premier experimental short story writer of the twentieth century. Arreola is recognized as one of the first Latin American writers to abandon realism; he uses elements of fantasy to underscore existentialist and...
(Mexico), Eliseo Diego (Cuba), Julio Ramón Ribeyro (Peru), Nélida Piñón (Brazil), Augusto Monterroso (Guatemala), Olga Orozco (Argentina),
Sergio PitolSergio Pitol Demeneghi is a prominent Mexican writer and diplomat. In 2005 he received the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious literary award in the Spanish-speaking world....
(Mexico), Juan Gelman (Argentina),
Juan García PonceJuan García Ponce was a Mexican novelist, short-story writer, essayist, translator and critic of Mexican art.-Life and works:...
(Mexico), Cintio Vitier (Cuba), Rubem Fonseca (Brazil),
Tomás SegoviaTomás Segovia is a Mexican author and poet of Spanish origin. He was born in Valencia, Spain, and studied in France and Morocco. He went into exile to Mexico, where he taught at the Colegio de México and other universities...
(Mexico),
Carlos MonsiváisCarlos Monsiváis Aceves is a Mexican writer and journalist on the El Universal newspaper. He writes political opinion columns in other leading newspapers and is considered to be an opinion leader within the country's progressive sectors.Monsiváis studied economics and philosophy in the National...
(Mexico), and Fernando del Paso (Mexico).
Winners of Mexico's Alfonso Reyes Prize include: Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), Alejo Carpentier (Cuba), Carlos Fuentes (Mexico), Ernesto Mejía Sánchez (Nicaragua), José Luis Martínez (Mexico),
Rubén Bonifaz NuñoRubén Bonifaz Nuño is a Mexican poet and classical scholar.Born in Córdoba, Veracruz, he studied law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico from 1934 to 1947. In 1960, he began lecturing in Latin at the UNAM's Faculty of Philosophy and Literature and received a doctorate in Classics in...
(Mexico), Octavio Paz (Mexico),
Alí ChumaceroAlí Chumacero Lora is a notable Mexican poet.He was the joint editor of Tierra Nueva magazine from 1940 to 1942...
(Mexico),
Gutierre TibónGutierre Tibón was an Italian-Mexican author. He wrote widely on issues of cultural identity, mixing ideas from anthropology, linguistics, psychology, philosophy, ethnology, sociology, and political science.-Early career:...
(Mexico),
Ramón XirauRamon Xirau Subias , is a Mexican poet, philosopher and literary critic. In 1939, shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish civil war, he emigrated to Mexico and obtained Mexican citizenship in 1955...
(Mexico), Adolfo Bioy Casares (Argentina),
Andrés HenestrosaAndrés Henestrosa Morales was a Mexican writer and politician. In addition to his prose and poetry, Henestrosa was elected to the federal legislature, serving three terms in the Chamber of Deputies, and as a senator for the state of Oaxaca from 1982 to 1988...
(Mexico), Arnaldo Orfila Reynal (Argentina), Joaquín Diez Canedo (Mexico), Germán Arciniegas (Colombia),
Juan José ArreolaJuan José Arreola Zúñiga was a Mexican writer and academic. He is considered Mexico's premier experimental short story writer of the twentieth century. Arreola is recognized as one of the first Latin American writers to abandon realism; he uses elements of fantasy to underscore existentialist and...
(Mexico), Arturo Uslar Pietri (Venezuela),
Miguel León-PortillaMiguel León-Portilla is a Mexican anthropologist and historian, and a prime authority on Nahuatl thought and literature.He wrote a doctoral thesis on Nahua philosophy under the tutelage of Fr...
(Mexico), Rafael Gutiérrez Girardot (Colombia),
José Emilio PachecoJosé Emilio Pacheco is a Mexican essayist, novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the major Mexican poets of the second half of the 20th century....
(Mexico), and Antonio Candido (Brazil).
Latin American authors who figured in prominent literary critic
Harold BloomHarold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, currently Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University...
's
The Western Canon list of the most enduring works of world literature include: Rubén Dário, Jorge Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Severo Sarduy, Reinaldo Arenas, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, César Vallejo, Miguel Ángel Asturias, José Lezama Lima, José Donoso, Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes, and Carlos Drummond de Andrade.
Brazilian authors who have won the Camoes Prize, the most prestigious literary award in the Portuguese language, include: João Cabral de Melo Neto, Rachel de Queiroz, Jorge Amado, Antonio Candido, Autran Dourado, Rubem Fonseca, and Lygia Fagundes Telles. Some notable authors who have won Brazil's
Prêmio Machado de AssisThe Prêmio Machado de Assis is a literary prize awarded by the Brazilian Academy of Letters, and possibly the most prestigious literary award in Brazil. The prize was founded in 1941, named in memory of the novelist Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis...
include: Rachel de Queiroz,
Cecília Meireles, João Guimarães Rosa, Érico Veríssimo, Lúcio Cardoso, and Ferreira Gullar.
Chronology: Late 19th century-present day
See also
- List of Latin American writers
- Latin American poetry
Latin American poetry is the poetry of Latin America, mostly but not entirely written in Spanish or Portuguese. The unification of Indigenous and Spanish cultures produced a unique and extraordinary body of literature in Spanish America...
- Criollismo
Criollismo is a literary movement, also called costumbrismo, that took place between the end of the 19th century and the first part of the 20th century in Latin America, and is considered equivalent to regionalism in the USA literature. It is based on realism to describe the scenes, customs and...
- Chicano poetry
Chicano poetry is a branch of American literature written by and primarily about Mexican Americans and the Mexican-American way of life in the society. The term "Chicano" is a political and cultural term of identity specifically identifying people of Mexican descent who are born in the United States...
- Latin American Boom
The Latin American Boom was a literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s when the work of a group of relatively young Latin American novelists became widely circulated in Europe and throughout the world. The Boom is most closely associated with Julio Cortázar of Argentina, Carlos Fuentes of Mexico,...
- McOndo
McOndo is a Latin American literary movement that seeks to distance itself from Latin America's long-dominant magical realist literary tradition...
- Latin American culture
Latin American culture is the formal or informal expression of the peoples of Latin America, and includes both high culture and popular culture as well as religion and other customary practices....
- The Dictator Novel
- Nuyorican
Nuyorican is a blending of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Rican diaspora located in or around New York State especially the New York City metropolitan area, or of their descendants...
Hispanic American writers for writers living in the States and/or writing in English
External links