The writer Horacio Quiroga.
Horacio Silvestre Quiroga Forteza (1878-1937) was a storyteller who throughout his life was drawn to write about nature and love. However, these stories showed a life full of tragedies; he lost many close ones and his love stories did not have happy endings.
He leaned toward some avant-garde writing movements, modernism, and naturalism, and used to place nature as an enemy of human beings. He was considered one of the best storytellers in Latin America, not only in his time, but of all times.
Biography
Early life and family
Horacio was born in Uruguay on December 31, 1878He lived a large part of his life in Argentina. His mother was Pastora Forteza and his father Facundo Quiroga, who died after an accident with his shotgun when he returned from hunting. Horacio, at that time, was 2 months old.
His mother married Mario Barcos, a man who won the affection of Quiroga. In 1896 the author's stepfather had a stroke that left him speechless and semi paralyzed. Barcos became so depressed that he shot himself in the mouth using his feet, while Horacio opened the door of the room.
Studies
Writer Horacio Quiroga.
In the capital of his native country, he completed high school.a, during his youth the author showed his interest in life in the country, photography, and literature. He was a young observer, in some workshops of the Polytechnic Institute and at the University of Uruguay he learned various tasks with no intention of qualifying.
During his university days he spent time in a workshop, there a young man interested him in philosophy, too worked in the newspapers The magazine y Reform. This experience helped him polish his style and gain recognition. Until 1897 he wrote twenty-two poems, which are still preserved.
Literary beginnings
The Consistorio del Gay Saber was a literature group that he founded at the beginning of his career in 1900, it was there that he formally experimented as a storyteller. In 1901 he published his first bookHowever, in that year his two brothers and his friend Federico died, whom he accidentally murdered when he was shot with a gun.
The pain of these tragedies, especially that of his friend, forced the author to settle in Argentina, where he traveled to the jungle of missions and managed to reach maturity as a professional and writer. He was instructed as a pedagogue and got a teaching job at the National College of Buenos Aires.
Horacio and his murky love
Horacio taught Spanish, and in 1908 he fell in love with Ana María CiresB, he was forced to beg his parents to allow them to marry. Finally they accepted, the couple went to live in the jungle and had 2 children; but Ana was not happy to live there, and decided to commit suicide in 1915.
The author decided to return to Buenos Aires with his children; he worked as a secretary at the Uruguayan Consulate General. At that time, inspired by the momentous journey to the jungle, Quiroga produced important works, including: Tales of the Jungle, published in 1918.
Last years and death
In the last ten years of his life, Horacio married María Elena BravoThey had a daughter and settled in the Misiones jungle. They do not allow him to transfer his position in the Consulate due to a change of government, his second wife also got tired of the jungle life and returned to Buenos Aires, this frustrated the author.
Their separation did not prevent Maria and her daughter from accompanying him when he fell ill. Quiroga returned to Buenos Aires to be treated, he suffered from prostate cancer. On February 19, 1937, the writer decided to end his life due to cyanhydric intoxication, this after having lived surrounded by tragedies.
Works
Various photos of Horacio Quiroga.
Storybooks characterized Quiroga's pen, they became classics for literature; he reflected his reality through writing without turning his stories into a narrative of his life. Some of the most significant works of the "great master of the Latin American tale" were entitled:
- Coral reefs (1901)
- Story of a murky love (1908)
- Tales of love, madness and death (1917)
- Tales from the jungle (1918)
- Anaconda and other stories (1921)
I have read and have in my personal library all the works of Quiroga. Admirable writer that I met, literary, when he was in the second year of business school that year. I think his work, Más Allá, reflects his last and sad stage in literature. In my opinion, the story of him The Vampire, totally identifies him with what would be his last ending on this plane; prophetic, in a way. I know that his spirit still wanders in limbo, in the Hospital de Clínicas.