Alejo Carpentier

Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (, ; December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French and Russian parentage, Carpentier grew up in Havana's Communist Revolution in Cuba in the mid-20th century. Carpentier was jailed and exiled for his leftist political philosophies.

With a developed knowledge of music, Carpentier explored musicology, publishing an in-depth study of the music of Cuba, ''La música en Cuba'' and integrated musical themes and literary techniques throughout his works. He explored elements of Afro-Cubanism and incorporated the cultural aspects into the majority of his writings. Although Carpentier wrote in a myriad of genres, such as journalism, radio drama, playwrighting, academic essays, opera and libretto, he is best known for his novels. He was among the first practitioners of magical realism using the technique, ''lo real maravilloso'' to explore the fantastic quality of Latin American history and culture. The most famous example of Afro-Cuban influence and use of ''lo real maravilloso'' is Carpentier's 1949 novel '' El reino de este mundo'' ('' The Kingdom of this World'') about the Haitian revolution of the late 18th century.

Carpentier's writing style integrated the resurgent Baroque style, or ''New World Baroque'' style that Latin American artists adopted from the European model and assimilated to the Latin American artistic vision. With a first-hand experience of the French Surrealist movement, Carpentier also adapted the Surrealist theory to Latin American literature. Always eager to explore more than Cuban identity, Carpentier used his traveling experiences throughout Europe and Latin America to expand his understanding of Latin American identity. Carpentier wove elements of Latin American political history, music, social injustice and art into the tapestries of his writings, all of which exerted a decisive influence on the works of younger Latin American and Cuban writers like Lisandro Otero, Leonardo Padura and Fernando Velázquez Medina.

Carpentier died in Paris, France, in 1980 and was buried in Havana's Colon Cemetery with other Cuban political and artistic luminaries.

Life

Early life and education

Carpentier was born on December 26, 1904, in Lausanne, Switzerland, to Jorge Julián Carpentier, a French architect, and Lina Valmont, a Russian language teacher. cited in For a long time it was believed that he was born in Havana to Paris. As an adolescent, he read Balzac, Flaubert, and Zola. In 1921, Carpentier attended the School of Architecture of the University of Havana. When he was 18, his parents' marriage broke up and his father left. The following year, Carpentier left his studies and tried to find work to support his mother. He turned to journalism, working for the Cuban newspapers ''Carteles'' and ''Social''. He also studied music.Colchie, Thomas (editor), ''A Hammock Beneath the Mangoes: stories from Latin America''; Penguin Group, 416–417 (1991).

Though bilingual from an early age, Carpentier always spoke Spanish with a marked French accent.

Cuba and exile in France

In 1921, while studying in Havana, Carpentier became a cultural journalist, writing mostly about avant-garde developments in the arts, particularly music." He contributed columns to ''La Discusión'', a daily journal from Havana. His journalistic work, which was considered leftist, helped establish the first Cuban Communist Party.
During 1923 and 1924 he continued to work as a columnist and also edited musical and theatre reviews for ''La Discusión'' and ''El Heraldo de Cuba''. In 1927, with the help of Jorge Mañach, Juan Marinello, Francisco Ichaso, and Martí Casanovas, he became a founding member of '' Revista de Avance'', a magazine devoted to nationalism, radicalism and new ideas in the arts.

The first issue appeared on March 15, 1927; it lasted until September 15, 1930, and became the "voice of the vanguard" and the primary voice of expression of the Cuban movement. Because of his involvement in such projects, Carpentier was often suspected of having subversive and ultramodern cultural ideas. Carpentier was arrested in 1927 for opposing Gerardo Machado y Morales dictatorship and had signed a democratic and anti-imperialist manifesto against Machado's regime and, as a result, spent forty days in jail. During this brief period in jail he started working on his first novel, ''Ecué-Yamba-O'', an exploration of Afro-Cuban traditions among the poor of the island. (The book was eventually completed in 1933.)

After his release, he escaped Cuba with the help of journalist Robert Desnos who lent him his passport and papers. Carpentier decided on a voluntary exile to France and arrived in Paris in 1928; he remained there until 1939, when he returned to Havana. When he left Cuba, he was fortunate enough to avoid the political conflicts which had occurred during the 1930s. During this time certain positions were unacceptable to the authorities and Cuban intellectuals were forced to define their political position and for these and other political reasons he decided to leave.

During this time abroad, his disconnection from Cuba and the interaction with different groups of intellectuals and artists in Paris helped with his "critical vision". Carpentier felt that it was important for him to remain outside the influences of movements because he believed in maintaining a "balance against the insularity of his homeland". Upon arriving in Paris he immediately began working on poems and editorials in Parisian and Cuban magazines. Contributions to the Parisian Journal such as the short story "Cahiers du Sud" (1933), in French, were an effort to acquire European readers as a way to improve his recognition. He also contributed to the magazines ''Documents'' and ''L'Intransigeant''. Carpentier was familiar with the activities of the ''Comité de Jeunes Revolutionnaires Cubains'', a group of exiled Cuban leftists who had published ''La Terreur á Cuba'', a brochure against the Machado government. He documented the latest news about this group and their activities in his book ''Homenaje a nuestros amigos de Paris''. It was also during this time that, with the help of Robert Desnos, Carpentier became part of the surrealist movement which became a positive influence in his work. While in France, Carpentier also founded a literary magazine called ''Imán'' in 1931, for which he became editor-in-chief. Most of the authors who worked with him in ''La Revolution Surrealiste'' also contributed works in ''Imán'' under the title "''Conocimiento de America''". Carpentier contributed the short story ''Histoire de Lunes'' (1933); it was experimental for its time as it contained elements of fantasy and folklore characterized as magical reality.

Surrealism helped Carpentier to see contexts and aspects, especially those of American life, which he did not see before and after working among the leading artistic figures for some time, Carpentier did not feel overly enthusiastic about his work within surrealism and had felt that his "surrealist attempts ha been in vain" describing his frustration, as he felt he had "nothing to add to this movement in France".

As Carpentier became acquainted with those among the arts community he had several encounters to meet other famous authors such as Pablo Neruda, who had sent him a draft of his book '' Residencia en la Tierra'' to review; Guatemalan author Miguel Ángel Asturias, whose work on pre-Columbian mythology influenced his writing; and Pablo Picasso, an introduction made possible through Carpentier's connection with friends in the arts.

Throughout his time in France Carpentier was occupied with not only literary works, but also other projects that kept him engaged within the arts. He collaborated with French composer Marins François Gaillard on the musical ''Yamba-O'', "a burlesque tragedy", that was presented in the ''Théâtre Beriza'' in Paris (1928); and with composer Amadeo Roldán helped organize the Cuban premieres of works by Stravinsky and Poulenc. In film, Carpentier wrote text and edited music for the French documentary ''Le Vaudou''. He continued to earn his living by writing on contemporary culture, both in French and Spanish. He also began working for a French radio station as a sound-technician and producer. From 1932 until 1939 Carpentier worked on several projects produced by Foniric Studios. He directed the production of '' Le Livre de Christophe Colomb'' and collaborated with Desnos on arranging readings of Edgar Allan Poe's ''The Murders in the Rue Morgue'', and Walt Whitman's ''Salute to the World''. Although abroad, Carpentier still maintained contact with Cuba by sending articles and poems to contribute to Havana publications such as ''Ensayos Convergentes''.

When the Machado regime came to an end in 1933, Carpentier decided to make plans to return to his native land to visit, and in 1936 he made the trip back to Cuba. The time he had spent in Paris for over eleven years had enriched and "oriented his expressive abilities". Carpentier himself indicated that he was tiring of Paris, and "...in 1939 without any other reason than the nostalgia of Cuba, I vacated my apartment and started the return to La Habana".

Years in Haiti and return to Cuba

In 1943, accompanied by French theatrical director Louis Jouvet, Carpentier made a crucial trip to Haiti, during which he visited the fortress of the Citadelle Laferrière and the Palace of Sans-Souci, both built by the black king Henri Christophe. This trip, along with readings from Oswald Spengler's cyclical interpretation of history, provided the inspiration for his second novel, ''El Reino de Este Mundo'' ''( The Kingdom of this World)'' (1949).

Carpentier returned to Cuba and continued to work as a journalist at the outbreak of World War II. He worked on a history of Cuban music, eventually published in 1946 as ''La música en Cuba''.

Life in Venezuela

In 1945, Carpentier moved to Caracas as an exile. From 1945 to 1959 he lived in Venezuela, which is the inspiration for the unnamed South American country in which much of his novel ''The Lost Steps'' takes place.

He wrote short stories which were later collected in ''The War of Time'' (1958). While in Cuba, Carpentier attended a ''santería'' ceremony that was to further deepen his interest in Afro-Cubanism. In 1949, he finished his novel ''The Kingdom of this World''. This novel has a prologue that "outlines Carpentier's faith in the destiny of Latin America and the aesthetic implications of its peculiar cultural heritage."

Later life

Carpentier returned to Cuba after the triumph of the revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1959. He worked for the State Publishing House while he completed the baroque-style book, ''El Siglo de las Luces'' ''( Explosion in a Cathedral)'' (1962). This novel discusses the advent of the Enlightenment and the ideas of the French Revolution in the New World. It has twin leitmotifs of the printing press and the guillotine and can be read as a "meditation on the dangers inherent in all revolutions as they begin to confront the temptations of dictatorship." After reading the book, Gabriel García Márquez is said to have discarded the first draft of ''One Hundred Years of Solitude'' and begun again from scratch.

In 1966, Carpentier settled in Paris where he served as Cuban ambassador to France. In 1975 he was the recipient of the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca. He received the Cervantes PrizeUne autre vision de Cuba
/ref> in 1977 and was recipient of the French Laureates Prix Médicis étranger in 1979 for ''La harpe et l'ombre''.Prix MédicisLettres de Cuba, Alejo Carpentier
A perennial contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Carpentier was first nominated for the award in 1965.

Carpentier was struggling with cancer as he completed his final novel, ''El arpa y la sombra'', and finally died in Paris on April 24, 1980. His remains were returned to Cuba for interment in the Colon Cemetery, Havana.

'' École Française de la Havane "Alejo Carpentier"'', a French international school in Havana, is named after him.

Themes

''Lo real maravilloso''

Carpentier is widely known for his theory of ''lo real maravilloso''. This is the notion that the history and the geography of Latin America are both so extreme as to appear fictional or even magical to outsiders. Thus, Latin America is a region where the line between magic and reality is blurred. It was in the prologue to ''The Kingdom of this World'', a novel of the Haitian Revolution, that he described his vision of ''lo real maravilloso'': "But what is the history of Latin America but a chronicle of magical realism?" The novel itself develops the outlandish (but true) history of Henri Christophe, first king of Haiti, as an example of how the real history of Latin America is so strange as to appear fictional. Some critics interpret the ''real maravilloso'' as being synonymous with magical realism. However, Carpentier's theory and its development in his work are more limited in their scope than is the magical realism of, for example, Gabriel García Márquez. Whereas García Márquez's works include events that the reader never mistakes for reality (rainfall of flowers, old men with wings, etc.), Carpentier, for the most part, simply writes about extreme aspects of the history and geography of Latin America, aspects that are almost unbelievable, but that are in fact true.

Music

As a young child Carpentier was exposed to a great deal of music. Carpentier himself played the piano, as did his mother; his father played cello, studying under Pablo Casals

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