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Jaime Manrique (born 16 June 1949) is a bilingual
Colombian American
Colombian Americans ( es, Colomboestadounidenses), are Americans who trace their ancestry to Colombia. The word may refer to someone born in the United States of full or partial Colombian descent or to someone who has immigrated to the United Sta ...
novelist, poet, essayist, educator, and translator. His work is a representation of his cultural upbringing and heritage mixed with the flavors of his education in English. A primary distinction of his work comes from his bilingualism, and his choice to write in both English and Spanish. Many of his novels are published in English whereas his poetry is often printed and shared in Spanish. Manrique's writing covers a variety of themes and topics with some of his more notable works ranging from talking about his father's corpse and the adventures of a young gay Colombian immigrant. Therefore, Manrique's personal life and experiences can clearly be visualized in his writing and appreciated in his bilingual works.
Background
Manrique was born in
Barranquilla,
Colombia. He lived his childhood between the city of his birth and
Bogotá. In 1966, he emigrated with his mother to
Lakeland, Florida
Lakeland is the most populous city in Polk County, Florida, part of the Tampa Bay Area, located along Interstate 4 east of Tampa. According to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau release, the city had a population of 112,641. Lakeland is a principal ci ...
. He received a B.A. in English literature at the
University of South Florida
The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF i ...
in 1972.
In 1974, Manrique met
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...
, ''The New Yorkers film critic, with whom he began a friendship that lasted until her death in 2001. His book ''Notas de Cine: Confesiones de un Crítico Amateur'' (1979), is dedicated to Kael.
In 1977, Manrique received permission from the Argentine novelist
Manuel Puig
Juan Manuel Puig Delledonne (December 28, 1932 – July 22, 1990), commonly called Manuel Puig, was an Argentine author. Among his best-known novels are '' La traición de Rita Hayworth'' (''Betrayed by Rita Hayworth'', 1968), ''Boquitas pint ...
to join a workshop that Puig taught at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. Manrique was working on ''El cadáver de papá'' (1980). Puig encouraged him to continue writing fiction when he said that he liked his writing because ''"it came from under the epidermis."'' They became friends after that. Manrique described their friendship in ''The Writer As Diva'', an essay included in ''Eminent Maricones''.
Also in 1977, Manrique met the American painter
Bill Sullivan William Sullivan may refer to:
Government
* William J. Sullivan (born 1939), American judge on the Connecticut Supreme Court
*William H. Sullivan (1922–2013), United States diplomat
* William Sullivan (Kentucky politician) (1921–2013), Kentuck ...
. The couple lived between
Colombia and
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
until the end of 1979. Until Sullivan's death in 2010, they remained partners.
Jaime Manrique began his career as university professor in the US in 1987 at the Eugene Lang College of The New School for Social Research (
The New School
The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
). His career as educator continues to this day.
Writing career
His first poetry volume ''Los Adoradores de la Luna'', won Colombia's National Poetry Award in 1975. His first novel published in English was ''Colombian Gold'' in 1983. In 1992 he published ''Latin Moon in Manhattan''. About this novel James Dao wrote in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'': ''"A picaresque tale about a gay Colombian immigrant's adventures among hookers, self-made millionaires, narcotics traffickers and elderly book mavens..." and also stated that "the novel is hardly intended to portray the "typical" immigrant experience."''
In 1995 he published ''My Night with Federico García Lorca'' (
Lambda Book Award Finalist), about which
John Ashbery said, "Memories of an ecstatic childhood—walks by the sea, 'a happy mambo,' eating deceptive tropical fruits—merge with those of recent loves in these luscious, incantatory poems." In 1997 appeared the novel ''Twilight at the Equator'' which Ilan Stavans in The Washington Post called ''"He is, after all, the most accomplished gay Latino writer of his generation, a ''picaro'' prone to shock his readers by testing the moral standards of his time."''
In 1999 he published ''Maricones Eminentes (Arenas, Lorca, Puig and Me)'' for which he received a
Guggenheim Fellowship. About ''Maricones Eminentes''
Ilan Stavans
Ilan Stavans (born Ilan Stavchansky on April 7, 1961) is a Mexican-American author and academic. He writes and speaks on American, Hispanic, and Jewish cultures. He is the author of ''Quixote'' (2015) and a contributor to the ''Norton Anthology ...
said in The Washington Post that the book is ''"his sterling examination, through short narrative lives, of the gender wars in the Hispanic world. ...Posterity is a puzzle, of course. Whether this volume will last I cannot say, but that it should I have no doubt."'' And
Susan Sontag said "A splendid memoir of Manuel Puig. It evokes him—how he really was—better than anything I've read." In 1999 he als
The Foundation for Contemporary ArtsGrants to Artist award. In 2006 he published ''Our lives are the Rivers'' about which the
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
wrote "A compelling story that melds history and biography into the context of a passionate love affair, ''Our Lives Are the Rivers'' is a masterful piece of historical fiction." The novel received
The International Latino Book Award (Best historical novel 2007).
In 2012 Manrique published ''Cervantes Street'' (
Akashic Books
Akashic Books is a Brooklyn-based independent publisher. Akashic Books' collection began with Arthur Nersesian's ''The Fuck Up'' in 1997, and has since expanded to include Dennis Cooper's "Little House on the Bowery" series, Chris Abani's Blac ...
, 2012). About the novel
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
said ''"Cervantes Street is exciting to read...Under Mr. Manrique's pen, the world of renaissance Spain and the Mediterranean is made vivid, its surface cracking with sudden violence and cruelty...This novel can be read as a generous salute across the centuries from one writer to another, as a sympathetic homage and recommendation... Cervantes Street brings to life the real world behind the fantastic exploits of the knight of La Mancha. The comic mishaps are funnier for being based in fact. The romantic adventures are more affecting. Cervantes Street has sent me back to Don Quixote."''
Junot Díaz
Junot Díaz (; born December 31, 1968) is a Dominican-American writer, creative writing professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and was fiction editor at '' Boston Review''. He also serves on the board of advisers for Freed ...
said about the novel ''"A sprawling vivacious big-hearted novel. Manrique is fantastically talented"''. And Sandra Cisneros said ''"Cervantes Street, Jaime Manrique's magnificent novel, is a fabulous tale of the life of Miguel de Cervantes, an extraordinary portrait of a writer's life created from fact and imagination. I read it in bed over two or three days, never wanting the tale to end. Manrique is our Scheherazade."''
Manrique novels, poemas and essays have been translated into English, Spanish, Hebrew, Polish, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese, German, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, and other languages.
Personal Ideology
Jaime Manrique's bilingual background allows him to publish works in both
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
. There is a distinguishing characteristic between Jaime Manrique's works in the two languages. The fictional works written by Jamie Manrique are published in English, and the poetry written by Manrique is published in Spanish. Jaime Manrique separates his writing in this way as writing in each individual language provides different contextual and emotional meaning. Manrique's works published in English tend to categorically fall into areas of a more public domain where the thoughts and ideas presented are meant to be more easily digestible and understood. However, unlike works written in English, Manrique's Spanish written works are in nature more personal and private language. Since Spanish is Jamie Manrique's native language, the thoughts shared in his shared Spanish poetry tend to portray deeper anecdotal values.
Homosexuality
A significant detail of some writings by Jaime Manrique is the choice inclusion of themes of
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...
and homoerotiscm. Within Jaime Manrique's poetry book, ''Los Adoradores de la Luna'', there are visible expressions of homosexuality. These expressions of homosexuality and homoerotiscm stem largely from the speaker of the poems being an androgynous person. The reason for this
androgyny
Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to biological sex, gender identity, or gender expression.
When ''androgyny'' refers to mixed biological sex characteristics in ...
is in part due to the structure of the
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in th ...
. Because of the pronoun forms of the Spanish language, this allows the reader to interpret the sex of the speaker based on individual choice. A particular example of this effect in the poem collection, ''Los Adoradores de la Luna'', is in the use of the words "te amaba" which could be perceived as spoken from a male or female since this form hold both the masculine and feminine parts of speech.
Another factor that attributes to the visibility of
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...
and queer representation is through the embodiment of a metaphysical love. This abstract form of love takes shape in multiple ways within poems written by Manrique. Commonly, these states and figures share Manrique's views on the complexities of love and the emotions surrounding it.
The love resembles how
queer individuals of this time might feel whether the feelings are positive or negative. An example of this is in the poem, "Los lobos", which focuses on wolves as seen by the title. The wolves express tones of danger and darkness which portrays how Manrique seeks to share some enchanting features of love.
However, the wolves serve as two toned symbols as they can be seen as guides through the darkness and function on the trust of the pack. As well, the use of wolves is not the only example of how Manrique writes of complex love in
queer culture
Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of people who have shared experiences, backgrounds, or interests due to common sexual or gender identities. Among the first to argue that members of sexual mi ...
.
Although the poem collections are the primary example where
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...
and homoerotiscm can be seen in Jaime Manrique's work. This does not exclude his novels as well. The diction and emotion are paralleled in his poetry and his books. However, there are some key differences in the way the material is presented. Manrique's work is a combination of his current
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
and upbringing which shines through the Spanish poetry and English written texts uniquely.
The ability of Manrique as author to write in both languages and also create unified and individualistic themes distinguishes his work.
Teaching career
He has taught at
The New School for Social Research
The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSS ...
, 1978-1980 (Writer in Residence);
Mount Holyoke College, 1995 (Writer in Residence in the Spanish Department);
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, 2002 – 2008 (Associate Professor in The MFA in Writing);
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
, 2009 (Visiting Writer in the MFA Program in Writing); and The
City College of New York, 2012 – to the present (Distinguished Lecturer in the Department of Classic and modern Languages and Literatures)
Works
*''Like This Afternoon Forever'', 2019
*''Como esta tarde para siempre'', 2018
* ''El libro de los muertos, poemas selectos 1973-2015'', 2016
* ''Cervantes Street'', 2012
* ''Our Lives Are the Rivers'', 2006
* ''The Autobiography of Bill Sullivan'', 2006
* ''Tarzan My Body Christopher Columbus'', 2001
* ''Eminent Maricones:Arenas, Lorca, Puig, and Me'', 1999
* ''Mi cuerpo y otros poemas'', 1999
* ''Twilight at the Equator'', 1997
* ''Sor Juana's Love Poems'', 1997
* ''My Night with Federico García Lorca'', 1995
* ''Latin Moon in Manhattan'', 1995
* ''Scarecrow'', 1990
* ''Colombian Gold:A Novel of Power and Corruption'', 1983
* ''El cadáver de papá'', 1980
* ''Notas de cine:confesiones de un crítico amateur'', 1979
* ''Los adoradores de la luna'', 1977
Prizes and Awards
* 2019:
Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement for ''Like This Afternoon Forever''
See also
*
LGBT culture in New York City
*
List of Colombian writers
*
List of LGBT writers
This list of LGBT writers includes writers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender or otherwise non-heterosexual who have written about LGBT themes, elements or about LGBT issues (such as Jonny Frank). Works of these authors are part of LGB ...
*
List of LGBT people from New York City
References
Bibliography
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External links
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manrique, Jaime
Wikipedia Student Program
1949 births
Living people
American male poets
Columbia University faculty
American gay writers
Hispanic and Latino American poets
LGBT Hispanic and Latino American people
American LGBT poets
Mount Holyoke College faculty
New York University faculty
Writers from New York City
20th-century American poets
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American poets
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American novelists
American male novelists
Hispanic and Latino American novelists
American LGBT novelists
Gay poets