Fernando Santiván (pseudonym of Fernando Antonio Santibañez Puga, 1 July 1886 12 July 1973) was a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

an writer renowned for winning 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 1952.

Life and career

Early life

Born in Arauco, Santiván was the son of a Spaniard father and Chilean mother. At the age of 8, with the death of his mother, he was sent to the port city of Valparaiso, where he attended several schools. Later, he attended the prestigious " Instituto Nacional" and the School of Arts & Crafts, from which he was expelled for his

Tolstoyan The Tolstoyan movement () is a social movement based on the philosophical and religious views of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910). Tolstoy's views were formed by rigorous study of the ministry of Jesus, particularly the Sermon on the ...

anarchist activities. For a short time, he entered the Pedagogic Institute of the Universidad de Chile, studying maths and

Castilian Spanish In English, Castilian Spanish can mean the variety of Peninsular Spanish spoken in northern and central Spain, the standard form of Spanish, or Spanish from Spain in general. In Spanish, the term (Castilian) can either refer to the Spanish langu ...

Anarchist organizing

After abandoning university studies, he founded a "Tolstoyan Colony" with writer Augusto d'Halmar and painter Julio Ortiz de Zárate on land gifted from the poet Manuel Magallanes Moure. The colony was founded to practice the ideals of a simple and well-lived life, but was hampered by every-day logistical problems of living in community. The colony befriended fellow anarchist colony of San Cristóbal mountain. Santiván wanted to work to have his own independence, which led him to take jobs unusual for a future writer; shoemaker, tailor, coal seller, boxer, propagandist, etc. He made shoes alongside Italian anarchist Aquiles Lemire.

Writing career and later life

With the failure of the colony, he took up residence with d'Halmar in San Bernardo, devising the pseudonym he began writing. He married d'Halmar's sister Elena Gonzalez Thomson having two children, Hilda Santibáñez González (1908-1925) and Felipe Santibáñez González (1912-2004). Later, he married Carcamo Carcamo, with whom he had two more daughters: Iris and Regina. He gained notoriety with the publication of hist first novel ''Anisa'' which won the 1910 Centenary contest. In 1912 he directed the weekly "Pluma y Lápiz" (Pen & Pencil). In 1914, acting as secretary for the Chilean Writers Society, he organized the

Floral Games Floral Games were any of a series of historically related poetry contests with floral prizes. In Occitan, their original language, and Catalan they are known as (, ; modern or ). In French, they became the (), and in Basque (). The origina ...

. The winner was the poet

Gabriela Mistral Lucila Godoy Alcayaga (; 7 April 1889 – 10 January 1957), known by her pseudonym Gabriela Mistral (), was a Chilean poet-diplomat, educator, and Catholic. She was a member of the Secular Franciscan Order or Third Franciscan order. She was ...

, with her '' Sonetos de la Muerte''. In 1915 he wrote about art in the magazine Sucesos. In 1917 he directed the Antofagasta Press. In 1918 he founded the successful magazine ''Artes y Letras''. He also directed the Revista del Pacifico and the Correo de Valdiva. By 1952, he received the Literature National Prize. Santiván had a stroke in the city of

Valdivia Valdivia (; Mapuche: Ainil) is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder, Pedro de Valdivia, and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and ...

, where he died in 1973.

Bibliography

* Palpitaciones de vida (1909) * Ansia (1910) * Crisol (1913) * La Hechizada (1916) * En la montaña (1917) * Robles, Blum y Cia. (1923) * Braceando en la vida (1927) * Confesiones de Enrique Samaniego: memorias literarias (1933) * Charca en la selva (1934) * El mulato Riquelme (1951) * Memorias de un Tolstoyano (1955) * Confesiones de Santiván. recuerdos literarios (1958) * Bárbara (1963) * Obras completas (1965, with prologue by Ricardo Latcham)

References

* 1886 births 1973 deaths Chilean male writers Eduardo de la Barra Lyceum alumni Instituto Nacional General José Miguel Carrera alumni University of Chile alumni National Prize for Literature (Chile) winners {{Chile-writer-stub