Luis Sepúlveda Calfucura (October 4, 1949 – April 16, 2020) was a Chilean writer and journalist. A
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
militant and fervent opponent of
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...
's regime, he was imprisoned and tortured by the military dictatorship during the 1970s. Sepúlveda was author of poetry books and short stories; in addition to Spanish, his mother tongue, he also spoke English, French and Italian. In the late 1980s, he conquered the literary scene with his first novel, ''The Old Man Who Read Love Novels''.
Biography
Luis Sepúlveda was born in
Ovalle
Ovalle is a city in the Coquimbo Region of Chile, founded in 1831 as a settlement. It has a population of more than 113,000 people. The name Ovalle was chosen to honor to Chile's vice-president, José Tomás Ovalle. Ovalle is the capital of th ...
,
Limarí Province,
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 eas ...
in 1949.
[Luis Sepúlveda]
, biografyasvidas.com/ Retrieved August 6, 2016 His father, José Sepúlveda, was a militant of the
Chilean Communist Party
The Communist Party of Chile ( es, Partido Comunista de Chile, ) is a communist party in Chile. It was founded in 1912 as the Socialist Workers' Party () and adopted its current name in 1922. The party established a youth wing, the Communist Youth ...
; and his mother, Irma Calfucura, was a nurse of
Mapuche
The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who s ...
descent. After High School in
Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, who ...
, he studied theatre production at the National University of Chile.
Luis Sepúlveda was politically active first as a leader of the student movement and in the
Salvador Allende
Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the firs ...
administration in the department of cultural affairs where he was in charge of a series of cheap editions of classics for the general public. He also acted as a mediator between the government and Chilean companies.
After the
Chilean coup of 1973
Chilean may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Chile, a country in South America
* Chilean people
* Chilean Spanish
* Chilean culture
* Chilean cuisine
* Chilean Americans
See also
*List of Chileans
This is a list of Chileans who ar ...
which brought to power General
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...
he was jailed for two-and-a-half years and then obtained a conditional release through the efforts of the German branch of
Amnesty International and was kept under house arrest.
He managed to escape and went underground for nearly a year. With the help of a friend who was head of the
Alliance française
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
in
Valparaíso
Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...
he set up a drama group that became the first cultural focus of resistance. He was rearrested and given a life sentence (later reduced to twenty-eight years) for treason and subversion.

The German section of Amnesty International intervened again and his prison sentence was commuted to eight years of exile, and in 1977 he left Chile to fly to Sweden where he was supposed to teach Spanish literature. At the first stopover in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the Capital city, capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata ...
he escaped and managed to enter Uruguay. Because the political situations in both Argentina and Uruguay were similar to those in his home country, Sepúlveda went to
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
in Brazil and then to Paraguay. He had to leave again because of the local regime and finally settled in
Quito
Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, Pichincha ...
in Ecuador guest of his friend
Jorge Enrique Adoum
Jorge Enrique Adoum (June 29, 1926 in Ambato – July 3,
2009 in Quito) was an Ecuadorian writer, poet, politician, and diplomat. He was one of the major exponents of Latin American poetry. His work received such prestigious awards as the first ...
. He directed the Alliance Française theatre, founded a theatrical company and took part in a
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...
expedition to assess the impact of colonization on the
Shuar people
The Shuar are an Indigenous people of Ecuador and Peru. They are members of the Jivaroan peoples, who are Amazonian tribes living at the headwaters of the Marañón River.
Name
Shuar, in the Shuar language, means "people". The people who spe ...
.
During the expedition he shared the life of the Shuars for seven months and came to an understanding of Latin America as a multicultural and multilingual continent where the Marxism he was taught was not applicable to a rural population that was dependent on its surrounding natural environment. He worked in close contact with organizations of the Indigenous people and drafted the first literacy teaching plan for the
Imbabura peasants' federation, in the Andes.
In 1979, he joined the
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830) was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and ...
International Brigade which was fighting in Nicaragua and after the victory of the revolution he started working as a journalist and one year later he left for Europe.
He went to
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
in Germany because of his admiration of German literature (he learned the language in prison) especially the romantics such as
Novalis
Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (), was a German polymath who was a writer, philosopher, poet, aristocrat and mystic. He is regarded as an idiosyncratic and influential figure o ...
and
Friedrich Hölderlin
Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (, ; ; 20 March 1770 – 7 June 1843) was a German poet and philosopher. Described by Norbert von Hellingrath as "the most German of Germans", Hölderlin was a key figure of German Romanticism. Pa ...
and worked there as journalist traveling widely in Latin America and Africa.

In 1982, he came in contact with
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth ...
and worked until 1987 as a crew member on one of their ships. He later acted as coordinator between various branches of the organization. His environmental activism then continued after he left Greenpeace. For example, he was a strong advocate for environmental protection in his beloved Patagonia, the subject of some of his most popular works.
In 1988 he won the
Tigre Juan Award
The Tigre Juan Award ( es, Premio Tigre Juan, links=no) is a Spanish literary award created in 1977 in honor of the novel ''Tigre Juan. El curandero de su honra'' by Ramón Pérez de Ayala. It is awarded to the best narrative work in Spanish publis ...
for his novel ''Un viejo que leía novelas de amor'', and in 2009 he won the ''Premio Primavera de Novela'' for his novel ''La sombra de lo que fuimos''. He wrote novels, children's books, and travel guides. He was also a film writer and director.
On March 1, 2020, after returning from a conference in
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal:
:* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...
, he was confirmed as the first man in the
Asturias
Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain.
It is coextensi ...
region of Spain to be infected by
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...
. By March 11, it was reported that Sepúlveda was in critical condition, that he was in an induced coma with assisted breathing due to multiple organ failure in an
Oviedo
Oviedo (; ast, Uviéu ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city. Oviedo is located ap ...
hospital. He died on April 16 due to the virus.
Books
*''Martim o melhor jogador de futebol no mundo'' (1969; English title: ''Chronicle of Pedro Nobody'')
* ''Martim e Maria, o mais belo livro de romance'' (1986; ''Fear, Life, Death, and other Hallucinations'')
* ''Cuaderno de viaje'' (1987; ''Travel Log'')
* ''Mundo del Fin del Mundo'' (1989; ''The World at the End of the World'')
* ''Un viejo que leía novelas de amor'' (1989; ''The Old Man Who Read Love Stories'')
* ''La frontera extraviada'' (1994; ''The Lost Frontier'')
* ''Nombre de torero'' (1994; ''The Name of a Bullfighter'')
* ''Al andar se hace el camino se hace el camino al andar'' (1995; ''Patagonia Express'')
* ' (1996; ''The Story of The Cat Who Taught seagulls To Fly'')
* ' (2000)
* ''Hot line'' (2002)
* ' (2002)
* '
* '
* '
* ' (with Mario Delgado Aparaín, 2004)
* ' (2004)
* ' (2009; ''The Shadow Of What We Were'')
Filmography
* ''Vivir a los 17'', 1986 director and writer
* ''
Lucky and Zorba
''Lucky and Zorba'' ( it, La gabbianella e il gatto; literally "The Little Seagull and The Cat") is a 1998 Italian traditional animation film directed by Enzo D'Alò, based on ''The Story of A Seagull and The Cat Who Taught Her To Fly'' by Luis ...
'', 1998 writer
* ''Tierra del fuego'', 2000 screenplay
* ''
The Old Man Who Read Love Stories
''The Old Man Who Read Love Stories'' is a 2001 Australian adventure drama film directed by Rolf de Heer. It is based on the book of the same name by Luis Sepulveda.
Although the film premiered in 2001 it was not seen in cinemas until 2004. '', 2001 writer
* ''Nowhere'', 2002 director and writer
* ''Corazón verde'', 2002 writer
Documentaries
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sepulveda, Luis
1949 births
2020 deaths
People from Ovalle
Chilean film directors
Chilean male writers
Chilean journalists
Chilean people of Mapuche descent
Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain
University of Chile alumni