''La Mandrágora'' (Spanish for ''The
Mandrake
A mandrake is the root of a plant, historically derived either from plants of the genus '' Mandragora'' found in the Mediterranean region, or from other species, such as ''Bryonia alba'', the English mandrake, which have similar properties. The ...
'') was a
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
an
Surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
group "officially founded" on 12 July 1938 by
Braulio Arenas
Braulio Arenas (La Serena (Chile), La Serena, April 4, 1913 - †Santiago de Chile, Santiago May 12, 1988) was a Chilean poet and writer, founder of the surrealism, surrealist ''Mandrágora'' group.
Life
Braulio Arenas lived most of his youth i ...
(1913-1988),
Teófilo Cid and
Enrique Gómez Correa.
[La Mandrágora]
article The group had met in
Talca
Talca () is a List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune in Chile located about south of Santiago, Chile, Santiago, and is the capital of both Talca Province and Maule Region (7th Region of Chile). As of the 2012 census, the ...
and first started exchanging in 1932. They published an eponymous review (of which 7 issues were edited at a small scale, the last issue being edited in October 1943)
[ and an anthology of poetry, ''El A, G, C de la Mandrágora'', which included works by all founders except Teófilo Cid. Politically, the group supported the ]Popular Front
A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".
More generally, it is "a coalition ...
.
Vicente Huidobro
Vicente García-Huidobro Fernández (; January 10, 1893 – January 2, 1948) was a Chilean poet born to an aristocratic family. He promoted the avant-garde literary movement in Chile and was the creator and greatest exponent of the literary m ...
(1893-1948), who had formed the Creationist
Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 'th ...
literary movement, had been one of the main intermediaries of Surrealist thought in Chile, through his yearly travels to Paris.[
The poet Gonzalo Rojas (1917-2011) was also for a short time member of the group, although he harshly disavowed it years laters. Rojas had introduced the young Jorge Cáceres to Braulio Arenas in 1938.] Others collaborators to the movement included Cáceres, Fernando Onfray, Gustavo Osorio, Huidobro, Pablo de Rokha
Pablo de Rokha (born Carlos Ignacio Díaz Loyola; 17 October 1894 – 10 September 1968) was a Chilean poet. He won the Chilean Premio Nacional de Literatura (National Literature Prize) in 1965 and is counted among the four greats of Chilean ...
, the Venezuelan Juan Sánchez Peláez,Sobre el surrealismo hispanoamericano: el fin de las habladurias
by Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and ...
, on Ștefan Baciu
Ștefan Aurel Baciu ( pt, Estêvão Baciu, es, Esteban Baciu; October 29, 1918 – January 6, 1993) was a Romanian and Brazilian poet, novelist, publicist and academic who lived his later life in Hawaii. A precocious, award-winning, young author ...
's ''Antología de la poesía surrealista latinoamericana'', Joaquín Mortiz, México, 1974. as well as the painters Eugenio Vidaurrázaga and Mario Urzúa, the musicians Renato Jara, Alejandro Gaete and Mario Medina, and the artist Ludwig Zeller, among others.[
]
References
External links
Website dedicated to the Mandrágora
on the ''University of Chile
The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843. s website
Chilean surrealist writers
Chilean literature
Chilean surrealist artists
Surrealist groups
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