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Uruguayan Writer Mario Benedetti Dies At 88
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by yuls.source | May 17, 2009 at 04:58 pm
145 views | 10 Recommendations | 2 comments
Famous Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti passed away from liver failure at the age of 88 on Sunday. Benedetti was know as one of Latin America’s most influential writers, having had authored numerous novels, poems, short stories and plays, among them “The Truce”, “Left Wing” and "The World I Breathe.” Benedetti had spent a lot of his life in exile, fleeing the military dictatorship in Uruguay.
Mario Benedetti, a prolific Uruguayan writer whose novels and poems reflect the idiosyncrasies of Montevideo's middle class and a social commitment forged by years in exile from a military dictatorship, died Sunday, his secretary said. He was 88.
Benedetti died at his home in Uruguay's capital, Montevideo, personal secretary Ariel Silva said. He had suffered from respiratory and intestinal problems for more than a year, and had been released from a hospital on May 6.
Called "Don Mario" by his friends, the mustachioed author penned more than 60 novels, poems, short stories and plays, winning honors including Bulgaria's Jristo Borev award for poetry and essays in 1985, and Amnesty International's Golden Flame in 1986. In 1999 he won the Queen Sofia prize for Iberoamerican poetry.
One of Uruguay's best-known writers, Mario Benedetti, whose poems on love and politics became popular songs and whose muse was the unassuming Uruguayan capital Montevideo, died on Sunday of liver failure, local media reported. He was 88.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 18:11 on May 18th, 2009
I must admit I never heard of him, but he sounds like a courageous man who lived by his convictions, connecting with his people. May he rest in peace now.
at 20:57 on May 19th, 2009
This is a poem in memory of Mario Benedetti.
Talking With The Poet, Mario Benedetti,
After His Death
As we sit at this particular table
At your favorite cafe, where the kind waiter,
Miguel Braga serves us coffee or wine,
Depending on how we view love and kindness on this day...
You know, comrade, we have made a deal
Beyond Montevideo, beyond the grave where we all go.
Let us always talk or banter about the tango, mate,
Salsa, and the beautiful girls we saw in Paris,
Or the women who threw themselves at us in a drunken rage.
Was it poetry that attracted them to us,
Or was it simply we took them seriously beyond their lovely eyes,
Ample breasts and pouting lips?
So, now you have joined your wife, Luz, not in the clouds,
But in the beautiful earth of Uruguay...
Now, Don Mario, my dear Italian and Uruguayan friend,
It has come to be that the gentlest of nights is approaching...
Your death has not caused me grief for you will never die,
As long as there is poetry in the hearts of the young.
Luis Lazaro Tijerina
May 19th, 2009
Burlington, Vermont