Mario Benedetti
Mario Benedetti | |
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Deutsche Schule Montevideo |
Mario Benedetti Farrugia
Early life and education
Benedetti was born 1920 in
Career
He trained as a journalist with Carlos Quijano, on the weekly newspaper Marcha.[8] From 1938 and 1941 he lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He worked in different professions on both banks of the Río de la Plata river, for example, as a stenographer.[9] In 1946 he married Luz López Alegre.
He was a member of the "
He wrote for the weekly Uruguayan newspaper Marcha from 1945 until it was forcibly closed by the military government in 1973, and was its literary director from 1954. In 1957, he traveled to Europe and visited nine countries as a correspondent for Marcha weekly magazine and El Diario newspaper.[11]
Exile, 1973–1985
For 12 years, from 1973 to 1985, when a civic-military dictatorship ruled Uruguay, Benedetti lived in exile. He first went to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and then to Lima, Peru, where he was detained, deported and then given amnesty. He went to Cuba in 1976 and the following year to Madrid, Spain.[6] His exile was made particularly trying by the fact that his wife had to remain in Uruguay to look after both of their mothers. In 1980, he moved to
Return to Uruguay, 1985
Benedetti returned to Uruguay in March 1985, following the restoration of democracy, and thereafter divided his time between
For his poetry and novels Benedetti won numerous international awards. In 1986, he was awarded
In 2006, Mario Benedetti signed a petition in support of the independence of Puerto Rico from the United States.
Personal life and death
In the last ten years of his life, Benedetti suffered from asthma and, in order to avoid the cold, spent his winters in Madrid where it was summer, though as his health deteriorated he eventually remained in Montevideo. In 2006, his wife Luz López died, ending more than six decades of matrimony.
Before dying, he dictated to his personal secretary, Ariel Silva, what would become his last poem:[13]
Mi vida ha sido como una farsa |
My life has been like a fraud |
—(Fragment) |
He died in Montevideo on 17 May 2009. He had suffered from respiratory and intestinal problems for more than a year. His remains are buried at the National Pantheon in the Central Cemetery of Montevideo.[14]
Works
Short story collections
- Esta mañana (1949)
- Montevideanos (1959)
- La muerte y otras sorpresas (1968)
- Con y sin nostalgia (1977)
- Geografías (1984)
- Despistes y franquezas (1989)
- Buzón de tiempo (1999)
- El porvenir de mi pasado (2003)
Novels
- Quién de nosotros (1953)
- La tregua (1960). The Truce: The Diary of Martín Santomé, trans. Benjamin Graham (Harper & Row, 1969); also trans. Harry Morales (Penguin, 2015)
- Gracias por el fuego (1965). Adapted as a film directed by Sergio Renán in 1984.
- El cumpleaños de Juan Ángel (1971). Juan Angel's Birthday, trans. David Arthur McMurray (1974)[15]
- Primavera con esquina rota (1982). Springtime in a Broken Mirror, trans. Nick Caistor (The New Press, 2018)
- La borra del café (1992)
- Andamios (1996)
Poetry
- 1945: La víspera indeleble ("Indelible Eve"), his first published book[16]
- 1956: Poemas de oficina ("Office Poems")[16]
- 1963:
- 1977: La casa y el ladrillo ("The House and the Brick")[16]
- 1981: Viento del exilio ("Wind of the exile")[16]
- 1986: Preguntas al azar ("Random Questions")[16]
- 1988: Yesterday y mañana ("Yesterday and Tomorrow")[16]
- 1991: Las soledades de Babel ("The Loneliness of Babel")[16]
- 1994: Inventario dos (1985-1994) ("Inventory Two (1985-1994)"), published in Madrid[16]
- 1995: ("The Exercise of Discretion: Oblivion Is Full of Memory"), published in Spain[16]
- 1996: El amor, las mujeres y la vida. Poemas de amor.
- 1997: La vida ese paréntesis[16]
- 2002: Insomnios y Duermevelas, ISBN 84-7522-959-X
- 2004: Defensa propia, ISBN 950-731-438-5
- Little Stones At My Window (Bilingual edition; translation and introduction by Charles Hatfield) ISBN 1-880684-90-X
- Poemas de otros
- Noción de Patria
- Sólo mientras tanto
- Quemar las naves
- A ras de sueño
- Letras de emergencia
- 2007: Vivir adrede
Essays
- 1960: El país de la cola de paja
- "La Colección"
Plays
- 1958: Ida y Vuelta
- 1979: Pedro y el capitán
Miscellaneous
English translations
- La tregua (1960). The Truce: The Diary of Martín Santomé, trans. Benjamin Graham (Harper & Row, 1969); also trans. Harry Morales (Penguin, 2015)
- El cumpleaños de Juan Ángel (1971). Juan Angel's Birthday, trans. David Arthur McMurray (1974)[15]
- Blood Pact & Other Stories, ed. Claribel Alegría and Darwin J. Flakoll (Curbstone Press, 1997)
- Little Stones at My Window: Poems, trans. Charles Dean Hatfield (Curbstone Press, 2003)
- Only in the Meantime & Office Poems, trans. Harry Morales (Host Publications, 2006)
- Pedro y el capitán (1979). Pedro and the Captain: A Play in Four Parts, trans. Adrianne Aron (Cadmus Editions, 2009)
- The Rest Is Jungle and Other Stories, trans. Harry Morales (Host Publications, 2010)
- Witness: The Selected Poems of Mario Benedetti, trans. Louise B. Popkin (White Pine Press, 2012)
- Primavera con una esquina rota (1982). Springtime in a Broken Mirror, trans. Nick Caistor (The New Press, 2018)
Awards and honours
- 1982: Orden Félix Varela from the Consejo de Estado de Cuba
- 1987: Premio Llama de Oro, for Primavera con una esquina rota
- 1982: Medalla Haydée Santamaría from the Consejo de Estado de Cuba
- 1986: International Botev Prize
- 1995: Medalla Gabriela Mistral
- 1996: Premio Especial Bartolomé Hidalgo for his essays
- 1999: Gran Premio Nacional a la Actividad Intelectual, Ministerio de Educación y Cultura
- 1999: VIII Premio Reina Sofía de Poesía Iberoamericana
- 2005: Medalla Pablo Neruda
- 2005: Menéndez Pelayo International Prize
- 2005: Premio Alba in the category of Letras and the Orden Francisco de Miranda Primera Clase
See also
- List of Uruguayan writers
- Eduardo Galeano
- Juan Carlos Onetti
- Daniel Viglietti
- Sergio Renán
- Eliseo Subiela
- Nacha Guevara
References
- ^ Martinez, Ezequiel (2000). "Los 80 años de Mario Benedetti". Especial Mario Benedetti en El Clarín. Retrieved 27 October 2006.
- ^ "The Associated Press: Famed Uruguayan writer Benedetti dies at 88". Retrieved 17 May 2009.
- ^ Gregory, Stephen William George (1999) The collapse of dialogue: Intellectuals and politics in the Uruguayan crisis, 1960-1973 Thesis, Modern Language Studies, University of New South Wales.
- ^ "Mario Benedetti: Writer in the vanguard of South America's literary". 11 June 2009. Retrieved 17 October 2022. Mario Benedetti: Writer in the vanguard of South America's literary boom in the second half of the 20th century
- ^ "Biografía de Mario Benedetti - Mario Benedetti". Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 October 2022.
- ^ a b c Nick Caistor (7 June 2009). "Poet of Uruguay's revolutionary moment". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
- ^ "Página/12 Web - Sociedad - "Del exilio se vuelve cambiado, otra persona"". 26 September 2007. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
- ^ Fundación Mario Benedetti
- ^ "Mario Benedetti Biografía Detallada: 1920-1959 – Fundación Mario Benedetti" (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 September 2020.
- ^ Generación del 45: severa en la crítica y brillante en la creación. Archived 22 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Mario Benedetti Biografía Detallada: 1920-1959 – Fundación Mario Benedetti" (in Spanish). Retrieved 14 September 2020.
- IMDb
- ^ "Rostros de vos". El Diario Ecuador. 21 May 2009. [El Diario de Ecuador: Mario Benedetti dictates his last poem (in Spanish)]
- ^ Benedetti dies (in Spanish)
- ^ ISSN 0025-4878.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Web page titled "Biblioteca de autores contemporaneos / Mario Benedetti - El autor" (in Spanish), retrieved 27 May 2009