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 Arecibo (; ) is a Arecibo barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the northern coast of Puerto Rico, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, located north of Utuado, Puerto Rico, Utuado and Ciales, Puerto Rico, Ciale ...

. 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 ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

.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'' (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 (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

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 area, 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 p ...

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 Arriví, Abelardo Díaz Alfaro and Lorenzo Homar. 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. 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 ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, New York. The success of the play motivated

Míriam Colón Míriam Colón Valle (August 20, 1936 – March 3, 2017) was a Puerto Ricans, 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 Bro ...

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 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 1958 Victoria Espinosa directed Marques' '' Los soles truncos (The Half-Suns)'' at the First Puerto Rican Theatre Festival. This collaboration was a success and Espinosa was the only person to direct that play for the following thirty years. 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 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 tha ...

, with

in the lead role. René Marqués died in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan ( , ; Spanish for "Saint John the Baptist, John") is the capital city and most populous Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in the Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the ...

on March 22, 1979, at age 59. Puerto Rico has named a school in his honor and in the Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center in San Juan there is a 760-seat René Marqués Theater.

Noted works

Plays Juan Bobo 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