René Marqués (October 4, 1919 – March 22, 1979) was a Puerto Rican short story writer and playwright.

Early years

Marqués was born, raised and educated in the city of Arecibo. He developed an interest in writing at a young age and was politically keen to support independence for the non-sovereign nation of

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

.Dictionary of Literary Biography on Rene Marques
/ref>La Muerte no entra en un Palacio
/ref> In the 1940s, Marqués wrote what is considered to be his best play, ''

La Carreta ''La Carreta'' ( en, The Oxcart) is a 1953 play by Puerto Rican playwright René Marqués.Gil de La Madrid, Antonio.René Marqués, dramaturgo. ''Biografías de escritores puertorriqueños'', ''La Gran Enciclopedia Ilustrada del Proyecto Salón ...

'' (The Oxcart). In 1953, it opened in New York City.Gil de La Madrid, Antonio.
René Marqués, dramaturgo
. ''Biografías de escritores puertorriqueños'', ''La Gran Enciclopedia Ilustrada del Proyecto Salón Hogar.'' Accessed February 20, 2013. In 1954, it opened in

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

and helped secure his reputation as a leading literary figure. The drama traces a rural Puerto Rican family as it moved to the

slum A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily ...

s of San Juan and then to New York in search of a better life, only to be disillusioned and to long for their island.

The Generation of the 50s

René Marqués was a figure of what was known in Puerto Rico as "La generación del 50" (The Generation of the 50s). This was an artistic and literary group of Puerto Rican intellectuals which included

Francisco Matos Paoli Francisco Matos Paoli (March 9, 1915 – July 10, 2000), was a Puerto Rican poet, critic, and essayist who in 1977 was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. His books were rooted in three major literary movements in Latin America: Rom ...

Francisco Arriví Francisco Arriví (June 24, 1915 – February 8, 2007), a.k.a. ''Paco,'' was a writer, poet and playwright known as "The Father of the Puerto Rican Theater." Early years Arriví (birth name: Francisco Arriví Alegria ) was born in Santurce, a ...

, Abelardo Díaz Alfaro and

Lorenzo Homar Lorenzo Homar Gelabert (September 10, 1913 – February 16, 2004) was a Puerto Rican printmaker, painter, and calligrapher whose artwork stretches to three main workshops: (CPA), DIVEDCO (), and the of the (ICP). Homar was also the designer of ...

. In 1950, together with the other members of the group, Marqués worked for the Division of Community Education of Puerto Rico. Marqués however, did often come into conflict with

Luis Muñoz Marín José Luis Alberto Muñoz Marín (February 18, 1898April 30, 1980) was a Puerto Rican journalist, politician, statesman and was the first elected governor of Puerto Rico, regarded as the "Architect of the Puerto Rico Commonwealth." In 1948 he ...

. He believed in complete Puerto Rican sovereignty and he often criticized Muñoz Marín, when he became governor, because of his acceptance of U.S. sovereignty over Puerto Rico. In 1954, Puerto Rican director, Roberto Rodríguez, produced ''La Carreta'', the play opened at the Church of San Sebastian, located in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York. The success of the play motivated

Míriam Colón Míriam Colón Valle (August 20, 1936 – March 3, 2017) was a Puerto Rican actress. She was the founder and director of New York City's Puerto Rican Traveling Theater. Beginning her career in the early 1950s, she performed on Broadway and on ...

and Rodríguez to form the first Latino theater group with its own 60-seat theater, called "El Círculo Dramatico" (The Dramatic Circle). In 1955, Marqués wrote one of his later works, '' Juan Bobo y la Señora Occidental'' (

Juan Bobo Juan Bobo is a folkloric character on the island of Puerto Rico. For nearly two centuries a collection of books, songs, riddles and folktales have developed around him. Hundreds of children's books have been written about Juan Bobo in English ...

and the Occidental Lady).''Encyclopedia of Latin American Theater'', p. 431; ed. by Eladio Cortés & Mirta Barrea-Marlys; Greenwood Publishing Group pub.; Westport, CT; In 1959, Marqués published three plays together in the collection ''Teatro'' (Theater). These were ''La Muerte no entrará en Palacio'' (Death will not enter the Palace), ''Un Niño Azul para esa Sombra'' (A Blue Boy for that Shadow) and ''Los Soles Truncos''. In an essay (1960), which the

Puerto Rican Nationalist Party The Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico ( es, Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico, PNPR) is a Puerto Rican political party founded on September 17, 1922, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Its primary goal is to work for Puerto Rico's independence. The P ...

published as a pamphlet, Marqués addressed the problem of the language of instruction in Puerto Rico's colonial situation. He concluded that only the enjoyment of complete national sovereignty will cleanse the pedagogical problem of all extra-pedagogical baggage.

Later years

In 1965, George Edgar and Stella Holt produced the English version of Marqués' "The Oxcart"

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

, with

in the lead role. René Marqués died in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the ...

on March 22, 1979 at age 59. Puerto Rico has named a school in his honor and in the

Luis A. Ferré Don Luis Alberto Ferré Aguayo (February 17, 1904 October 20, 2003) was a Puerto Rican engineer, industrialist, politician, philanthropist, and a patron of the arts. He was the governor of Puerto Rico from 1969 to 1973. He was the founder of the ...

Performing Arts Center in San Juan there is a 760-seat René Marqués Theater.

Noted works

Plays

and the Occidental Lady
La Carreta (The Oxcart)
El Hombre y Sus Sueños (Published in 1948)
El Hombre Y Sus Sueños Palm Sunday
El Sol y Los Mac Donald (Premiered 1950)
Los Soles Truncos (Premiered 1958) (Based on his short story "Purificación en la Calle del Cristo")
Un Niño Azul para esa Sombra
La Muerte No Entrará en Palacio
La Casa Sin Reloj
El Apartamiento
Mariana o el Alba
Sacrificio en el Monte Moriah
David y Jonatán, Tito y Berenice
Carnaval Afuera, Carnaval Adentro Novels La Víspera del Hombre
La Mirada (1975) Essays El Puertorriqueño Dócil
Ensayos 1956–1969 Short Stories Otro Día Nuestro
En Una Ciudad Llamada San Juan
Purificación en la Calle del Cristo
Cuentos Puertorriqueños de Hoy Screenplays Juan Sin Seso (Brainless Juan) (Short Film; Dir. Luis A. Maisonet)
Modesta (Short Film; Dir. Benji Doniger, Music by Héctor Campos Parsi)

References

External links