Roque Esteban Scarpa Straboni (March 26, 1914 in

Punta Arenas Punta Arenas (; historically Sandy Point in English) is the capital city of Chile's southernmost region, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena. The city was officially renamed as Magallanes in 1927, but in 1938 it was changed back to "Punta Are ...

- January 11, 1995 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, whos ...

) 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 writer, literary critic and scholar. He won the

Chilean National Prize for Literature {{Use dmy dates, date=October 2020 In Chile, the National Prize for Literature ''(Premio Nacional de Literatura)'' was created by Law No. 7,368 during the presidency of Juan Antonio Ríos on 8 November 1942. It consists of a lump-sum monetary prize ...

in 1980. He was of Croatian and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

descent. Scarpa served as professor of literature at 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.

and was a prominent member of the Chilean Academy of Language. In 1943 he founded the Teatro de Ensayo of the Catholic University of Chile. He was director of the National Library of Chile (1967–1971 and 1973–1977). He also served as a literary critic in the newspapers ''

El Mercurio ''El Mercurio'' (known online as ''El Mercurio On-Line'', ''EMOL'') is a Chilean newspaper with editions in Valparaíso and Santiago. Its Santiago edition is considered the country's newspaper of record and it is considered the oldest daily in ...

'' and '' La Aurora''.

Works

*''Dos poetas españoles: Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti'' (1935) *''Mortal mantenimiento'' (1942) * ''Cancionero de Hammud'' (1942) * ''Luz de ayer (poesía 1940-45)'' (1951) *''Thomas Mann. Una personalidad en una obra'' (1961) *''Una mujer nada de tonta'' (1976) *''El árbol deshojado de sonrisas'' (1977) *''No tengo tiempo: (poesía 1976)'' (1977) *'' La desterrada en su patria: Gabriela Mistral en Magallanes: 1918-1920'' (1977) *''El laberinto sin muros'' (1981)

References

1914 births 1995 deaths Chilean male writers Chilean people of Croatian descent Chilean people of Italian descent People from Punta Arenas National Prize for Literature (Chile) winners {{chile-writer-stub