#peruvian writers

[uwmspeccoll]

SPOTLIGHT: Alonso Cueto

Last week on May 2, UWM Special Collections co-sponsored a lecture by the great Peruvian novelist Alonso Cueto on the work of his friend and fellow Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa. After the lecture, Cueto and some friends stopped by to relax and talk in Special Collections after hours. It was great fun!

The gang included Cueto and his son Esteban; Max Yela, the head of Special Collections; Dr. Germán Carrillo, professor emeritus of Spanish at Marquette University; Dr. César Ferreira, professor of Spanish here at UWM; and two newly-minted Masters of Arts in Spanish, Laura Martinez-Geijo and Arcadio Bolaños.

We all had a grand time conversing and reviewing our collection of contemporary, signed Latin American editions and several choice rare books, including the extremely rare second printing, first edition of Melville’s Moby Dick (1855). Cueto was particularly taken by his encounter with this edition, and read to us in eloquent tones a section from Chapter 42 that includes Melville’s description of Cueto’s hometown of Lima:

Nor is it, altogether, the remembrance of her cathedral-toppling earthquakes; nor the stampedoes of her frantic seas; nor the tearlessness of arid skies that never rain; nor the sight of her wide field of leaning spires, wrenched cope-stones, and crosses all adroop (like canted yards of anchored fleets); and her suburban avenues of house-walls lying over upon each other, as a tossed pack of cards;--it is not these things alone which make tearless Lima, the strangest, saddest city thou can'st see. For Lima has taken the white veil; and there is a higher horror in this whiteness of her woe. Old as Pizarro, this whiteness keeps her ruins for ever new; admits not the cheerful greenness of complete decay; spreads over her broken ramparts the rigid pallor of an apoplexy that fixes its own distortions.

My, oh my! Cueto later told us that he will never forget being able to hold and read from this rare printing of the first edition. After a couple of cheerful hours, it was time to head off for dinner (unfortunately, Max had another engagement, however), but before they left Alonso Cueto generously inscribed our copies of his books. Thank you, Alonso. A memorable afternoon all ‘round!

[onenakedfarmer]

Currently Reading

Augusto Higa Oshiro THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF KATZUO NAKAMATSU

Translated from the Spanish by Jennifer Shyue

[uwmspeccoll]

A Visit with Alonso Cueto

Last week UWM Special Collections co-sponsored a lecture by the internationally-acclaimed, award-winning Peruvian writer Alonso Cueto, who was here to discuss his current writing project on the first Mestiza in South America, Francisca Pizarro, who was also the daughter of Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish conquistador responsible for exploring and subjugating Peru.

The next day, Dr. Cueto made a visit to Special Collections where we spent a bit of time discussing many things, but particularly the writings of Melville and Joyce. He was enraptured by our first and very rare second printings of Moby Dick (the first printing is actually held by our sibling department, the American Geographical Society Library); our John Rodker/Egoist Press second printing of James Joyce’s Ulysses in its original blue paper wrappers and the 1935 Limited Editions Club printing of Ulysses, with original etchings by Henri Matisse, one of only 250 copies signed by both the author and the artist; as well as several incunables.

In return, besides scintillating conversation, Cueto inscribed a copy of his latest published novel to add to our comprehensive collection of signed works by him, Otras caricias (Other Caresses), printed in Peru in 2021 and published in Spanish by Random House, the same publishers of the first American edition of Joyce’s Ulysses in 1934.

Muchas gracias, Alonso, and I hope to spend time with you in Peru one day, mi amigo. Abrazos!

Ver una visita anterior con Alonso Cueto.

-- MAX, Head, Special Collections

[penamerican]

"Good literature erects bridges between different peoples, and by having us enjoy, suffer, or feel surprise, unites us beneath the languages, beliefs, habits, customs, and prejudices that separate us." — Mario Vargas Llosa, born on this day in 1936

[homerorios]

"H i m n o   Ro j o"

Entre todos los colores, el rojo es el que halaga, y me atrae y me seduce y mi espíritu levanta. Amo el rojo, porque rojo es el sol de mis montañas, porque rojos son mis sueños, mis odios, mis iras santas y los labios de mi musa, y las rosas de mi Tacna. ¡Gloria eterna al color rojo! Rojo es el vino que embriaga y consuela nuestras penas y nos electriza el alma. Roja es la sangre que vierten, llenos de valor y audacia, los mártires y los héroes en los campos de batalla. Rojo es el pendón que agitan los que libertad reclaman, rojo el laurel que florece, y rojos, como la grana, los cánticos que yo entono al ver cautiva a mi patria. ¡Gloria eterna al color rojo! El color rojo me encanta porque es símbolo de guerra y de rebelión que estalla...

Federico Barreto

[homerorios]

"Happy ending"

Aunque la noche, conmigo,  no la duermas ya, sólo el azar nos dirá  si es definitivo. Que aunque el gusto nunca más vuelve a ser el mismo, en la vida los olvidos no suelen durar.

Jaime Gil de Biedma

[escapedtoperu-blog-blog]

Mario Vargas Llosa - Peru's Nobel Prize Winner

Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa has long been regarded as one of the most acclaimed writers, playwrights, essayists and literary critics in Latin America. Recently this reputation was confirmed by the prestigious 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature. This makes him one of two Latin Americans to have won the prize, alongside Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Born in Arequipa, Peru, Vargas Llosa stays true to his roots. Most of his novels take place in Peru and follow the traditional Peruvian fiction regarding social protest that exposes political corruption, violence and racial prejudices. Despite dealing with such passionate and personal topics, he is known for maintaining a lack of preaching or having to reconcile ideological propaganda with artistic aims.

After being born in Arequipa, Peru in 1936, Vargas Llosa moved to Bolivia after his parents separated, with his mother and maternal grandparents. The family returned to live in northern Peru in 1946 and then moved to Lima, Peru. He first attended military school and then studied literature and law in Lima, and afterwards Spain. During this time, he wrote several books on literary criticism as well as fiction and started to become a famous writer whose ambitious goal was to rejuvenate the Latin American novel.

During the 1960s, the country of Peru suffered from problems in the publishing industry and many Peruvian writers suffered as well. Vargas Llosa moved to France and was a Spanish teacher, journalist and broadcaster in the early 1960s. During the late 1960s, he served as an adjunct professor at many European and American universities.

It was in 1962, however, that Vargas Llosa primarily became known as a novelist with the book, “The Time of the Hero”, which takes place at one of the military academies where he had been a student. It won immediate international recognition although it was considered controversial in his own country where 1000 copies were publicly burned by Peruvian military officials.

Since then, he has written over thirty novels, plays and essays including “Conversation in the Cathedral” and the “The Green House”. He was awarded the Cervantes Prize, the Hispanic world’s most distinguished literary honor in 1995.

In addition to novels, Vargas Llosa has published a great deal of criticism and literary and political journalism. He has been a writer with an international following and has written for The New York Times, Le Monde, The Times Literary Supplement, El País, and other well-known newspapers. The book, “Diary of Iraq”, published in 2003, is a collection of his articles for El País magazine about the war in Iraq. In 2005 he travelled to Israel and Palestine with his daughter to record his impressions in the book “Israel/Palestine: Peace or War”. The Jewish community in South America had mixed reactions.

Entering the political arena, he ran to become president of Peru in 1990 but lost to Alberto Fujimori. In 1994, he was the first Latin American writer to be elected to the Spanish Academy and he took his seat there in 1996.

If you are planning a vacation to Peru or would like to get to know the country better, be sure to check out some of Mario Vargas Llosa's varied works for a unique and intimate view of the Peruvian psychology. It might help explain some of the strange things you encounter when travelling!

Author: Jon Clarke- Escaped to Peru / Escaped to Latin America