Manlio Argueta facts for kids
Manlio Argueta (born November 24, 1935) is a famous writer, critic, and novelist from El Salvador. Even though he writes a lot of poetry, he is most known for his novel One Day of Life, especially in countries where people speak English.
Manlio Argueta's Life Story
Manlio Argueta was born in San Miguel, El Salvador, on November 24, 1935. He has said that he started hearing "poetic sounds" when he was a child. His love for poetry grew from his imagination as a kid. He began writing poems at age thirteen. He was greatly inspired by books from all over the world that he read as a teenager. He especially looked up to famous poets like Pablo Neruda and Federico García Lorca. Later, he studied law at the University of El Salvador, but he spent most of his time on his poetry.
In 1956, even though not many people knew him yet, he won first prize at the "Floral Games of San Miguel." This event was supported by a group called the Alberto Masferrer Society of Professors. In the 1960s, he started writing more stories and joined a literary group called the Committed Generation. This group had ideas about making society fairer for everyone, especially for people who were not rich. They also wanted to rediscover their country's old cultural traditions. Roque Dalton was another well-known member of this group.
Because Manlio Argueta wrote things that criticized the government, he had to leave El Salvador and live in Costa Rica. He stayed there from 1972 until 1993, mostly working as a teacher. He also taught as a guest professor in different places in North America and Europe, including at San Francisco State University.
After he returned to El Salvador, he became the "Director of National and International Relations" at the University. A special thing about his writing is that he often uses Salvadoran Spanish words and slang. He believes this helps show and keep some of El Salvador's unique culture.
About One Day of Life
Argueta is most famous for his book One Day of Life. This book has been translated into more than 12 different languages. The story takes readers through just one day in the life of Lupe, who is a grandmother living in a small village in El Salvador. Lupe is not very educated, but she shares her own thoughts and stories from her friends and family. Through these stories, the book shows how the Salvadoran army treated poor people very harshly during that time.
Here is a quote that shows how Lupe and other villagers felt:
- "The only thing we don’t have is rights. And as we began to arrive at this awareness, this place filled up with authorities wishing to impose order, omnipotent, with their automatics as they call them. From time to time they come to see how we are behaving, who has to be taken away, who has to be beaten to be taught a lesson."
The book also touches on a way of thinking called existentialism. This idea helped people realize that what matters is how they are treated right now, in the present. This was different from some religious ideas that told people to accept their hard lives on Earth to get a good place in heaven. But through existentialism, the villagers in the book began to understand that their lives on Earth were important.
Another quote from the book shows this idea:
- "That is awareness, José would say. The soul also exists, he would tell me. It is of little importance to know where it is going. It is the soul of the people that lives here on earth."
Because One Day of Life showed the Salvadoran government in a bad light and was thought to encourage people to rebel, it was banned in El Salvador. Argueta had to publish his book from Argentina after he had to leave his home country and go to Costa Rica.
Manlio Argueta's Books
- Un hombre por la patria (poetry, 1968)
- En el costado de la luz (poetry, 1968)
- El valle de las Hamacas (1970)
- Las bellas armas reales (1975)
- Un día en la vida / One Day of Life (1980)
- Poesía de El Salvador (Manlio Argueta, Editor, 1983)
- Cuzcatlán, donde bate la mar del sur / Cuzcatlán, Where the Southern Sea Beats (1986)
- El Salvador (with Adam Kufeld and Arnoldo Ramos, 1990)
- Magic Dogs of the Volcanoes/Los perros magicos de los volcanos (1990)
- Milagro de la Paz / A Place Called Milagro de la Paz (1996)
- Siglo de O(G)ro (1997), also known as Once Upon a Time Bomb (2007)
- Poesia completa 1956-2005 (2005)
- El Cipitío (2006)
- Los Poetas del Mal (2013)
See also
In Spanish: Manlio Argueta para niños
- Central America literature
