Biography and works of Nicanor Parra

Nicanor Segundo Parra Sandoval (1914-2018) He was a physicist, mathematician and poet of Chilean nationality, considered one of the writers who most influenced literature in Spanish, and according to experts: the best in the western region.

He was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, he did not get it. Nevertheless was awarded with the National Literature and the Cervantes. The author had a good relationship with Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile, who visited him until the end of his days.

Biography

Birth and family

Nicanor Parra was born on September 5, 1914 in San Fabián de Alico, Chile. He came from a family with few economic resources. His father was: Nicanor Parra Alarcón, a bohemian musician and teacher; and his mother: Rosa Clara Sandoval, a dressmaker fond of the traditional music of her country.

Eight children were born from that union, Nicanor was the eldest. However, she had two maternal half-sisters, from a previous marriage. Their home was the father's teaching place, they moved during the Carlos Ibáñez dictatorship, as Alarcón had to work for the government in several cities.

Youth and studies

Nicanor studied his baccalaureate at the Liceo de Hombres in Chillán, place where the family finally settled. He began to write poetry, this due to the influence he received from the many books to which he had access: works of modernist poetry, popular lyres and an anthology that a professor awarded him.

He was the only one in his family to enter higher education. He was awarded a scholarship to complete his baccalaureate when he moved to Santiago, and in 1933 he began to study mathematics and physics at the University of Chile. During his university stage he published New Chilean Poetry Anthology; graduated in 1937.

Literary beginnings

The year of his graduation he published a first collection of poems, Songbook with no name, and decided to return to Chillán to practice his profession. The published work received the Municipal Poetry Prize of Santiago. In 1939, after an earthquake, he returned to the capital and in 1943 he won a scholarship to study in the United States.

In 1949 he won another scholarship, this time at Oxford. During this period, Parra learned a great deal about European literature. He married Inga Palmen and they went to Chile, in 1955 published Poems and antipoems, a mixture of his own culture and that of Europe, for this work he became recognized worldwide.

International recognition

Antipoetry, contrary to the traditional, was the characteristic that attracted the reading community. In the sixties, Parra published various poems, including Songs Russian. In 1967 Jorge Elliott translated the production that gave it the greatest boom; its title in english was Poems and anti-poems.

Parra during the Cold War

The poet was invited to the National Poetry Festival of the United States. That visit gave the White House the opportunity, through a deception, to turn Cuba against the writer, photographing him with Pat Nixon. This problem tainted Parra's reputation.

After the war was over, he published Ecopoems As a protest against these two countries, of course, it was not risky, since it was not based on any ideology. Throughout the XNUMXs he stood firm in his discontent with capitalism and socialism.

Nobel nominations

When the dictatorship in his country ended, the writer again obtained recognition. During the 1990s his three nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature occurred, the first in 1995, then in 1997 and the last in 2000. Unfortunately he did not manage to obtain it and was added to the list of authors who did not win the Nobel.

Centennial and death

In 2014, Nicanor Parra celebrated his 100th birthdayDuring that month activities were held in honor of him, however, the poet did not attend any. Michelle Bachelet was the only person she welcomed into her home, as she did not usually accept visitors. Since he discovered Juan Rulfo, Parra said he had found himself again with the letters, not in vain Rulfo's books are among the best works of Mexico and the world.

Nicanor Parra died at his home in Santiago de Chile at 103 years of age, on January 23, 2018; National mourning was decreed for two days to honor his memory. The day after his death, he was buried at his residence, during a family ceremony that the former president attended.

Art Works

- Song without songbook (1937)

- Living room verses (1962)

- Sermons and sermons of the Christ of Elqui (1977)

- Poem and antipoems by Eduardo Frei (1982)

- Ecopoems (1982)

- Christmas verses (antivillancico)  (1983)

- After-dinner speeches (2006).