LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

  Hispanic Literature’s Edgar Allan Poe Did you know Hispanic literature has its own Poe? His name is  Horacio Quiroga  (1878–1937), born in Uruguay and later settled in Argentina. Like Poe, he explored horror, madness, death, the bizarre, and the fatal side of human nature. Quiroga’s life was marked by tragedy: suicides in his family, the deaths of close relatives, and even the accidental killing of a friend. At 22, he discovered Poe, whose influence he openly acknowledged throughout his life. He became a teacher, photographer, explorer, and lived for years in the jungle — an experience that deeply shaped his dark vision. His fame began with  El almohadón de plumas  (1907), and many of his titles reveal his obsessions:  El vampiro ,  El hombre muerto ,  Anaconda , and the unforgettable collection  Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte . One of the most shocking stories in that book is  “La gallina degollada.”  It tells of a couple...

  General Douglas MacArthur said in his farewell address in 1951 that old soldiers never die; they just fade away . Writers and artists, however, neither die nor fade. They remain with us, leaving the legacy of their thoughts on the printed page. We can summon their prose—its cadence, its style, its ideas—whenever we choose, and in doing so, we carry their voices forward to newer and younger generations. These voices become what we call classics . And all of us who come after inherit their work. Each time we open a book by Carlos Fuentes, we re-create his ideas and commune with a writer no longer alive in the flesh, yet whose thought will endure as long as humanity endures. Carlos Fuentes Macías (Panamá City, 11 November 1928 – Mexico City, 15 May 2012) was a Mexican hombre del mundo . Son of a diplomat, he spent his childhood in Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Washington, Quito, and other world capitals. He later entered the diplomatic service himself, serving as ambass...

Hastiado con lo que periódicamente aparece como novedad literaria, perdido todo apetito por lo insulso del estilo y la pobreza de temas que se repiten con monotonía desesperante, me entrego cada vez con mayor frecuencia al útil y recomendable placer de la relectura. — Álvaro Mutis, De lecturas y algo del mundo (2000) Releer es un acto de reconciliación con la literatura. En tiempos en que la prisa dicta gustos y las modas se confunden con el talento, volver a un libro leído es volver a uno mismo. En la relectura descubrimos matices que el entusiasmo inicial nos había ocultado; hallamos una sabiduría callada que solo el tiempo sabe revelar.