
Fernando Alegría (
Santiago de Chile
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 ...
, 26 September 1918 –
Walnut Creek
A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''.
Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
, October 29, 2005) was a Chilean poet, writer, literary critic and scholar.
Biography
He grew up in the
Independencia ''
barrio
''Barrio'' () is a Spanish word that means " quarter" or " neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city, usually delimited by functional (e.g. residential, commercial, industrial, etc.), social, a ...
'' of the city. Poets from this ''barrio'' include
Pablo Neruda
Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...
,
Violeta Parra
Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (; 4 October 1917 – 5 February 1967) was a Chilean composer, singer-songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist. She pioneered the Nueva Canción Chilena (The Chilean New Song), a renewal and ...
and
Volodia Teitelboim.
Alegría studied al
Instituto Nacional General José Miguel Carrera of Santiago and
Universidad de 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. . He received a
Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. ...
(M.A.) from
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a Public university, public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized programs and research ...
in 1941 and a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
from
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
in 1947.
From 1964 to 1967, Alegría was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. From 1967 to 1998 he was a professor at
Stanford University and for many years he was Chair of the Spanish and Portuguese Language Departments there. He sat on the Board of Trustees at the
Western Institute for Social Research(
WISR) for about twenty years beginning with its inception in 1975.
Alegría served as cultural attaché from the government of
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 ...
to the United States from 1970 to 1973. He was the representative of the
Royal Academy of the Spanish Language
The Royal Spanish Academy ( es, Real Academia Española, generally abbreviated as RAE) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with ...
in the United States for many years. Among the many awards he received is the Latin American Prize of Literature.
Alegría's "Viva Chile Mierda", the most recited poem of the Allende era, was written in the 1960s.
Bibliography
*''Recabarren''. Santiago, Chile: Editora Antares, 1938. 162 pp
*''Como un árbol rojo''. Santiago, Chile: Editora Santiago, 1968. 200 pp
*''Lautaro, joven libertador de Arauco''. Santiago, Chile: Zig-Zag, 1943. 238 pp.
*''La maratón del Palomo''. Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos Garamond, 1968. 165 pp.; 2a. ed., 1971.
*''Camaleón''. México, D. F.: Edición y Distribución Iberoamericana de Publicaciones, S.A., 1950. 302 pp.
*''Walt Whitman en Hispano America''. Mexico City: Ediciones, 1954.
*''Caballo de copas''. Santiago, Chile: Zig-Zag, 1957. 227 pp. (Biblioteca de novelistas).
*''Mañana los guerreros''. Santiago, Chile: Zig-Zag, 1964. 274 pp; 2a. ed.1965.
*''Amerika, Amerikka, Amerikkka, manifiestos de Vietnam. Santiago, Chile: Editorial Universitaria, 1970. 190 pp. 2a. ed.,1974.
*''El paso de los gansos''. Long Island City, N.Y.: Ediciones Puelche, 1975). 215 pp.; 2a. ed., 1980.
*''Allende. Mi vecino el Presidente''. (novela). Santiago de Chile: Planeta/ Biblioteca del Sur, 1989. 292 pp.
*''La rebelión de los placeres''. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Andrés Bello, 1990. 171 pp.
*''Viva Chile'', M... Santiago, Chile: Editorial Universitaria, 1965. 38 pp. 2a. ed., 1966; 3a. ed., 1973.
Sources
*Epple, Juan Armando. ''Actas de Palo Alto. La obra literaria de Fernando Alegría''. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Mosquito, 2000.
*Epple, Juan Armando, ed. ''Para una fundación imaginaria de Chile. La literatura de Fernando Alegría''. Lima: Latinoamericana Editores-Stanford University, 1987.
*Giacoman, Helmy F. ed. ''Homenaje a Fernando Alegría. Variaciones interpretativas en torno a su obra''. New York: Las Americas Publishing Co., 1972.*
*Ruiz, Rene, ''Fernando Alegría: vida y obra'' (Madrid: Playor, 1979).
External links
*Kelly Vance
"Chile Warmth: New documentary celebrates dissenting poet-activist Fernando Alegría" ''East Bay Express'', January 28, 2004
Literature and Revolution translation
Research resources
Fernando Alegria Papers, 1924-2000(59 linear ft.) are housed in th
a
Stanford University Libraries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alegria, Fernando
1918 births
People from Santiago
Chilean male poets
2005 deaths
Chilean expatriates in the United States
Bowling Green State University alumni
University of California, Berkeley alumni
University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty
Stanford University Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures faculty
People from Walnut Creek, California
20th-century Chilean poets
20th-century Chilean male writers