Santiago’s “Earthquake of Chile” Art show

One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded struck central Chile this past Saturday, Feb. 28, 2010 while the country was in the midst of bicentennial celebrations of 200 years of independence from Spain. One visual art show in the capital city, Santiago, sanctioned for the bicentennial, eerily foreshadowed the country’s tragic future. El terremoto de [...]

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Girondo’s “Persuasion de los dias” 2007 Edition

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Girondo Translation 1. Vuelo Sin Orillas / Flight Without Shores

The following poem is the first in Oliverio Girondo’s 1942 collection Persuasíon de los días (Persuasion of the Days). I translated it, tracking the interwoven themes of flight, space and distance, death/life, and dark/light, and also the ascendant movement of the poem more generally. Its abstract themes are grounded in images, the kind envisioned by [...]

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Surrealist Poet Oliverio Girondo

Oliverio Girondo is an argentine poet, born in Buenos Aires to a wealthy family, who lived from 1891- 1967. He traveled extensively between Argentina and Europe during his lifetime. His contemporaries included Jorge Luis Borges. Pablo Neruda and Federico García Lorca were among his friends. Abroad in France, in 1922, he published 20 Poems to [...]

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Roberto Bolano Book Released, El Tercer Reich

A new, early book of literary crossover star Roberto Bolaño was released this month in Spain. The novel, The Third Reich, was one of Bolaño’s early works, unedited by him during his lifetime. Now, Anagrama, a Spanish editor, published the book in Spain. The Latin American writer topped the New York Times’s top 10 books [...]

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Myth of Zitarrosa

Alfredo Zitarrosa (b. 1936, d.1989, Montevideo, Uruguay) is Uruguay’s most beloved folk singer. He is often compared with Carlos Gardel, another of the most famous folk singers of Latin America. Often, their songs express the spirit of Latin America. Zitarrosa sang folk milongas, he even had songs to Jose Artigas, the national hero of Uruguay. [...]

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