Literature is an important part of the Latine community with many Nobel Prize winning authors hailing from countries in South and Central America. Just because the stories are originally in a language you may not speak, doesn’t mean it should put you off from reading some of the best reads the world has to offer. One person I want to recommend is Julio Cortázar, a 20th century author.
Julio Cortázar was born in Brussels, Belgium to Argentine parents on August 26, 1914. He went to Argentina to be educated and stayed to work as a translator and secondary school teacher. After leaving Argentina, he stayed engaged with politics in South America, leading to his early writings criticizing the government of Argentina, despite the fact that he lived in Europe. He was part of the Latin American Boom, a literary period during the 1960s and 70s, when young writers from all over South and Central America started producing influential novels that challenged the standards of literature. Books from this time period are still revered as some of the best works of art, such as “Cien años de soledad” by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, which is cited as one of the supreme achievements in literature.
During one of my Spanish classes, I was introduced to one of Cortázar’s most famous short stories, “Continuidad de los parques,” a masterpiece with a beautiful plot twist. In the story we are first introduced to a man who sits down in a study to read about two lovers who plan on killing the woman’s husband. The farther he delves further into the story and intertwines himself in the book, the more enraptured he becomes until the scene of the murder, where he becomes the intended-to-be-murdered husband sitting in his study reading a book. What is so genius about this story is how it is written. Cortázar leads the reader along with the main character so well that you feel as if you are about to be murdered as well. It is one of the best pieces of literature I have ever read and I will die on that hill.
Reading is one of the best things a person can do within their lifetime, at least I think so. As the author George R. R. Martin once wrote, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”1 If a book feels like too much of a commitment, short stories are a great option, and many great Latin American authors have collections of short stories to choose from. Celebrate Latine Excellence this Hispanic Heritage Month by living a “new life.”
1. Martin, G. R. R. (2011). A Dance with Dragons. Bantam Books, USA.
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