Isidora Aguirre facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Isidora Aguirre
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| Born |
Isidora Aguirre Tupper
22 March 1919 Santiago, Chile
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| Died | 25 February 2011 (aged 91) Santiago, Chile
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| Resting place | Parque del Recuerdo, Santiago |
| Other names | Nené Aguirre |
| Occupation | Playwright |
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Notable work
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La pérgola de las flores |
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Isidora Aguirre Tupper (born March 22, 1919 – died February 25, 2011) was a famous Chilean writer. She mostly wrote plays about important social issues. Her plays were performed in many countries across the Americas and Europe. Her most well-known work is La pérgola de las flores. This play was a huge moment for Chilean theater in the second half of the 1900s.
Contents
About Her Life
Isidora Aguirre was the daughter of Fernando Aguirre Errázuriz and the painter María Tupper Huneeus. She went to the Joan of Arc School in Santiago, Chile. From 1937 to 1939, she studied many things. These included social work, literature, piano, modern ballet, and drawing.
In 1940, when she was 21, Isidora (also called Nené) married Gerardo Carmona. He was a refugee from the Spanish Civil War. She lived in the countryside for five years. Later, she moved with him to Paris, France. There, she started working as an illustrator. She also kept studying theater and cinema.
Back in Chile, something important happened. She met an actor and theater director named Hugo Miller. This meeting helped her decide to become a playwright. In 1952, Isidora joined a drama class taught by him. From then on, she gave her full attention to writing plays. She even put her personal life aside for her work.
Isidora once said that writing plays was a big commitment. She explained that she spent days in libraries for her play La pérgola. For Los papeleros, she talked to people who collected things from garbage cans for months. For Lautaro, she rode horses to visit indigenous communities. She felt that theater had chosen her.
Before writing plays, she wrote stories for children. In 1938, she published a book of eight children's stories. She also published a children's novel in 1948. Isidora remembered writing her first story at age six. It was called Los anteojos de Pepito. Later, when she was fifteen, she wrote for a children's page in a magazine.
In the 1950s and 1960s, many Chilean playwrights started their careers with university theaters. These theaters helped change Chilean theater a lot. They made theater more professional and artistic. This led to more plays being made and new theater groups forming. It also helped more people become interested in theater.
In 1955, Isidora's first comedies, Carolina and La dama del canasto, were performed. But soon, she started writing "committed theater." This type of theater focused on social issues. She used different styles to protest social problems. These included comedy, musical comedy, and historical plays.
In 1959, she wrote her first tragedy, Población Esperanza. This play had strong social messages. She wrote it with the novelist Manuel Rojas. The next year, she became very famous with La pérgola de las flores. This play has been performed many times. It was even made into a movie in 1965.
Isidora Aguirre also wrote novels for adults. Her first novel, Doy por vivido todo lo soñado (1987), was a story about her mother. Her second, Carta a Roque Dalton (1990), was about the Salvadoran writer Roque Dalton. Her last novel, Santiago de diciembre a diciembre, was a love story. It took place during the government of Salvador Allende and the military coup of 1973.
She taught Chilean Theater and Dramatic Construction at the University of Chile. She also taught at other universities. After Augusto Pinochet took power in Chile, Isidora lost her university job. But she traveled through Latin America and taught theater workshops in many cities.
Isidora had two children with her first husband, Gerardo Carmona. She had two more children with her second husband, Peter Sinclaire.
Isidora Aguirre Tupper passed away on February 25, 2011, from internal bleeding. Many people felt that Chile owed her the National Prize for Literature. This award would have recognized her amazing work as a novelist and playwright.
After she died, a fifth novel by Isidora was published. It was called Guerreros del sur. She wrote it with Renato Peruggi. The book was inspired by Lientur, a Mapuche leader who defeated the Spanish in a battle in 1629.
Even with all her great work and her fight for human rights, Isidora Aguirre never received the National Prize for Literature. This was mentioned by playwright Juan Radrigán when he accepted the prize in 2012.
Her Important Plays
La pérgola de las Flores
This play tells the story of flower sellers in Santiago. They fight to keep their traditional market places. It also shows Carmela, a young woman from the countryside, arriving in the city. The play highlights the differences between country life and city life. It is a story about love, traditions, and how ordinary people deal with authorities.
Los papeleros
This play shows the difficult lives of a group of people who collect trash in Santiago in the 1960s. It explores different social problems through the main characters. The story focuses on poverty and unfair treatment.
Los que van quedando en el camino
This play is about a peasant uprising and a terrible event that happened in 1934. It deals with the right to own land, which was a very important issue. The play shows the events in a way that highlights the characters' inner struggles.
Awards and Honors
- Critical and Golden Laurel Award for Población Esperanza
- Critical Award for La pérgola de las flores
- Luis Alberto Heiremans Award for Popular Theater
- 1964 Santiago Municipal Literature Award for Los papeleros
- 1971 Santiago Municipal Literature Award for Los que van quedando en el camino
- Eugenio Dittborn Award for Lautaro
- 1987 Casa de las Américas Prize for El retablo de Yumbel
- Medal of Santiago for her contribution to national culture
- 2005 Pablo Neruda Order of Artistic and Cultural Merit
List of Works
- 1938 – Ocho cuentos (children's stories)
- 1948 – Wai-Kii (children's novel)
- 1955 – Carolina (comedy)
- 1955 – La dama del canasto (comedy)
- 1956 – Pacto de medianoche (comedy)
- 1956 – Anacleto Chin-Chin (children's play)
- 1956 – Entre dos trenes (drama)
- 1957 – Dos y dos son cinco (comedy)
- 1957 – Las tres Pascualas (drama about a legend)
- 1957 – La micro (monologue)
- 1958 – Las sardinas o la supresión de Amanda (monologue)
- 1959 – Población Esperanza (tragedy, with Manuel Rojas)
- 1960 – La pérgola de las flores (musical comedy)
- 1962 – Los papeleros (with songs by Gustavo Becerra)
- 1964 – Don Anacleto Avaro (play)
- 1965 – La dama del canasto (play, with music by Sergio Ortega)
- 1969 – Los que van quedando en el camino (drama based on real events)
- 1970 – Quién tuvo la culpa de la muerte de la María González (play)
- 1972 – Cabezones de la feria (educational play)
- 1972 – Historia de las JJCC (play with choreography and direction by Víctor Jara)
- 1974 – En aquellos locos años veinte (adaptation of another play)
- 1974 – La Desideria en el cielo (play, with music by Luis Advis)
- 1975 – La leyenda de las tres Pascualas (play, 2nd version)
- 1979 – Amor a la africana (comedy)
- 1980 – Los juglares (play)
- 1982 – Lautaro. Epopeya del pueblo mapuche (play)
- 1982 – Esos padres de la patria: Manuel Rodríguez (play)
- 1983 – Fuenteovejuna (adaptation of a classic play by Lope de Vega)
- 1984 – Mi primo Federico (play)
- 1986 – Federico hermano (tribute to García Lorca)
- 1987 – El retablo de Yumbel (play)
- 1987 – Doy por vivido todo lo soñado (novel)
- 1987 – El señor presidente (theatrical adaptation of a novel)
- 1988 – Diálogos de fin de siglo (play about Chilean President José Manuel Balmaceda)
- 1988 – Tía Irene, yo te amaba (play)
- 1990 – Carta a Roque Dalton (novel)
- 1993 – Los libertadores Bolívar y Miranda (historical play about Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Miranda)
- 1998 – Santiago de diciembre a diciembre (novel)
- 1999 – Manuel (play based on the legend of Manuel Rodríguez)
- 2000 – El adelantado don Diego de Almagro (play about Diego de Almagro)
- 2003 – ¡Subiendo..., último hombre! (play about coal mines closing)
- 2007 – Isidora Aguirre: antología esencial. 50 años de dramaturgia (collection of plays)
- 2011 – Guerreros del sur (novel, with Renato Peruggi)
See also
In Spanish: Isidora Aguirre para niños
