Tacuarembó, 1920 – Montevideo (Uruguay), 2009

By Flávio Aguiar

In 1956, he sparked controversy with Poemas de la oficina for contrasting the academic lyricism of his contemporaries, and in 1959, with the short stories collected in Montevideanos, for presenting a conception of urban prose. Paradigmatic, these volumes announce, as the axis of his vast production, the universe of the average subject and the search for effective communication with the reading public, qualities that place him among the most disseminated Hispanic American writers. He participated in the Generation of ’45 and was a journalist at the newspaper Marcha alongside critic Ángel Rama and the restless Uruguayan intellectuals and poets Idea Vilariño, Amanda Berenguer, and Ida Vitale.

A defender of human rights, his political stances led him into exile during the military dictatorship. He wrote dramatic texts staged in over ten countries and essays on Latin American history and culture, compiled in works such as El desexilio y otras conjeturas (1984). He was the director of the Literary Research Center of the Casa de las Américas. Another notable work: La tregua (1960).