Baldomero Lillo (1867-1923) was a Chilean writer and storyteller whose work was framed within social realism. His writings were inspired by the social problems that his nation went through at the end of the 19th century and in the first decade of the 20th..
Lillo's literary work was rich in resources and characterized by modernist features and being traditional. The writer used a simple, precise and expressive language with which he narrated the disagreements of the less favored sectors of his native Chile.
Although the work of this writer was not extensive, he managed to leave a mark for its content and the depth with which the stories were told. His most valued titles were Sub-terra, Gate No. 12 Y Sub-sole. The way in which Lillo approached the situation in the Chilean mines made him a literary reference in his country.
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Baldomero Lillo Figueroa was born on January 6, 1867 in the town of Lota in the province of Concepción. He grew up in a cultured, middle-class family, where his father was José Nazario Lillo Robles and his mother Mercedes Figueroa. He had two brothers: Emilio and Samuel. His uncle Eusebio Lillo Robles was the poet who composed the national anthem of Chile.
Lillo's childhood years were spent in his hometown, where he was able to learn from the voice of the miners themselves the precarious conditions in which they worked and the difficult experiences they lived in the coal mines. Those narratives and his constant love of reading influenced his later performance as a writer..
Baldomero Lillo attended his first years of primary education in Lota and in 1876 he began to study at the mixed institution of Bucalebu. Seven years later he moved with his family to the community of Lebu, where he was able to enter the main high school in the town. At that time his father died and he abandoned his studies to dedicate himself to work.
Lillo worked for a long period in a grocery store to help her mother and siblings financially. In 1897 he married a young woman named Natividad Miller and together they went to Santiago in search of a better life. She was his companion until death and mother of his four children.
In the city of Santiago he met his brother Samuel (writer and winner of the National Prize for Literature in 1947), who helped him get a job at the University of Chile. The passion he felt for literature since he was a child led him to publish the poem in 1898 The sea on the Comic Magazine.
The spark of writing was always present in Lillo, so in 1903 he entered a literary contest promoted by the Catholic Magazine. The writer was the winner thanks to his short story "Juan Fariña", which he signed with the pseudonym Ars. That experience opened the doors for him in media such as Latest News, Zig-Zag Y The Mercury.
The nascent writer managed to consolidate his career and gain recognition in 1904 with the publication of Sub-terra, his first book. In the aforementioned work, Baldomero Lillo narrated the working circumstances of the miners, using a precise language loaded with social denunciation..
From then on, the author continued to constantly develop his profession as a writer, and in 1905 he attended the call for a literary contest organized by the newspaper The Mercury. Lillo signed up for the event with her story Sub-sole and got first place. On this occasion Baldomero signed the story under the pseudonym Danko.
Lillo continued to publish writings and stories both in the magazine Zig Zag like in The Mercury. In 1907 he released his second book of short stories entitled Sub-sole, in which he described the way of life of the peasant regions and the industrial advances of the time throughout thirteen stories.
That same year, a massive miners' strike took place and a massacre took place at the Santa María School in Iquique, in northern Chile. Such events motivated Baldomero to travel to the area to obtain more accurate information. As a result of what he observed, he began to write the novel The strike, but he could not finish it.
The author's life was marred by the loss of two loved ones. In 1909 his mother Mercedes Figueroa passed away, and three years later he suffered the departure of his wife Natividad. Despite her sadness, she had to find the strength to take care of her children: Laura, Eduardo, Marta and Óscar.
The writer dedicated his last years of life to taking care of his children, writing and his work at the university. The publications of his texts were less and less and on May 10, 1917 he retired from the University of Chile. At that time, Baldomero Lillo was found to have pulmonary tuberculosis, with which he lived until his death on September 10, 1923 in the city of San Bernardo..
Baldomero Lillo's literary style was framed within modernism and influenced by European writers such as Émile Zola and Tolstoi. The writer used a formal, precise, direct and expressive language. The theme of his writings was social and manners, loaded with realism, reflection and denunciation..
- Sub-terra (1904).
- Gate No. 12 (1906).
- Sub-sole (1907).
- Imamible (1907).
- Popular stories (Posthumous edition 1947).
- The find and other tales of the sea (Posthumous edition 1956).
- The feat (Posthumous edition 1959).
- Tragic investigation (Posthumous edition 1964).
This first book by Baldomero Lillo came to light on July 12, 1904, the full title being: Sub-terra, mining tables. The publication consisted of eight stories related to the experiences of the miners of the Lota community.
The development of the work was inspired both by the stories that the author heard when he was a child, and by the continuous situation of misery and labor exploitation experienced by the workers. Here are the stories that made up the book:
- "Invalids".
- "Gate No. 12".
- "The pay".
- "The devil's chiflon".
- "The firedamp".
- "Juan Fariña".
- "Major hunt".
- "The firedamp".
In 1917 Lillo made a second publication of this book. The writer made changes to some of the stories and added others that were published in various Chilean media. Here are the titles that were added:
- "The auger".
- "Register".
- "The hand stuck".
- "It was him alone".
- "Cañuela and Petaca".
This account told the story of Diamante, a horse that had long been used in the coal mines to pull wagons. His performance came to an end due to a leg injury, so the workers paid tribute through a speech.
“The extraction of a horse in the mine, a not very frequent event, had grouped around the shaft the workers who dumped the wheelbarrows on the field and those in charge of returning the empty carts and placing them in the cages… They were all old, useless for the workers. work inside the mine ...
“For many that beast brought the memory of better days, when in the narrow quarry with then vigorous arms they sank the steely tooth of the barretero's pickaxe with a single blow into the hidden vein ...
"Everyone knew Diamante, the generous brute, who was docile and indefatigable trotting with his train of wagons, from morning to night, in the winding hauling galleries ...".
“… After a few minutes of silent waiting, the employee signaled to the workers to come closer, and said:
-You are carreteros de la Alta, aren't you?
-Yes, sir, answered the interviewees..
-I'm sorry to tell you that you are out of work. I have an order to reduce the personnel of that vein.
The workers did not answer and there was for a moment a deep silence.
Finally the oldest said:
-But will we deal with elsewhere?
The individual closed the book tightly and, leaning back in the seat with a serious tone, replied:
-I see it difficult, we have plenty of people in all the tasks.
The worker insisted:
-We accept the work that is given to us, we will be turners, proppers, whatever you want ”.
It was the second book published by Lillo, which had a realistic and traditional style. In it he narrated the lifestyle of the inhabitants of rural areas of Chile. In this work the author was more meticulous with the writing and the content was more dynamic due to the themes he developed.
Here are some of the stories that made up the book:
- "Irredemption".
- "In the wheel".
- "The drowned".
- "The Wanderer".
- "Inamible".
- "Eve of the dead".
- "The trap".
This story was about the love that Sebastián felt for Magdalena. The relationship of the young people from the beginning was marked by the poverty of both, until one day the protagonist received an inheritance that put distance between the two and the end of the lover was tragic.
“… But that unconsciousness was only apparent. Ideas flashed in his brain like lightning. The vision of the past emerged in his spirit, luminous, clear and precise ... Little by little the light was made in his spirit and he bitterly acknowledged that his candor and good faith were the only culprits of his misery ... ".
The main characters in this story were two fighting cocks named Clavel and Cenizo. The writer wanted to portray a tradition of the peasants of the time, so he developed the contest between the two animals. Finally Ashen was the winner and Clavel had a fatal fate.
“The white plumage of the Carnation had taken on an indefinable hue, the head was swollen and black and at the site of the left eye there was a bloody hole ...
“The fight no longer had that attractive and picturesque atmosphere of recently. The shining armor of the paladins, so smooth and burnished at the start of the tournament, were now torn and disarranged, covered in a colorful layer of mud and blood….
“One morning in June, somewhat cold and foggy, Luis Rivera, the tenant of 'El Laurel', and his friend, the lieutenant of engineers Antonio del Solar, were having breakfast and chatting happily in the large and old dining room of the old houses of the I found ...
"The previous afternoon, to the great satisfaction of Rivera, who was distracted by his visit from his great loneliness, he had arrived determined to spend two days at the farm, dedicated to his favorite sport ...".
- "The silver strands of the hair, the wrinkles on the face and the dry and angular bodies were indicative signs that the two new tenants of room number five had passed fifty years".
- “Poor old man, they kick you out because you are no longer useful! The same thing happens to all of us. Down there no distinction is made between man and beast ".
- “Comrades, this brute is the image of our life! Like him we keep silent, suffering resigned our destiny! And yet our strength and power are so immense that nothing under the sun would resist its thrust. ".
- "The light of the star, soft as a caress, spilled a breath of life on the still life".
- “Honor your father and your mother, says the law of God, and I urge you, my children, never, ever, disobey your elders. Always be docile and submissive and you will achieve happiness in this world and eternal glory in the other. ".
- “This is not charity, it is waste, complicity; this is how vice and laziness are encouraged ".
- "... As the breath of a woman's fresh mouth, its radiance, of a subtle warmth, caressed obliquely, clouded with a mist of faint mist, the smooth crystal of the waters".
- "Ah, if he could conjure up the infernal spirits, he would not hesitate for a moment to sell his blood, his soul, in exchange for that handful of gold, the lack of which was the sole cause of his unhappiness!".
- "How and when the tolling of that bell, which, despite its smallness, vibrates so powerfully in inexperienced hearts, was quenched in his heart!".
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