Emilio Carballido (1925-2008) was a Mexican writer, playwright, storyteller, and comedian who enjoyed extensive artistic and cultural participation in his country during the 20th and early 21st centuries. His literary work was prolific, writing novels, short stories, theater and film scripts..
His texts stood out for having aesthetic and expressive quality. He used simple language through which he combined social issues of general interest. Carballido's theatrical pieces presented traditional and realistic features typical of Mexicans.
The most outstanding works of this Mexican author were: The triple stubbornness, The empty box, Rosalba and the key rings, A little day of anger, Happiness, The watchmaker of Córdoba Y Written in the body of the night. Emilio Carballido laid the foundations of modern theater in Mexico.
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Emilio Carballido Fentañes was born on May 22, 1925 in the city of Córdoba in the state of Veracruz. The writer came from a cultured, middle-class family, his parents being Francisco Carballido and Blanca Rosa Fentañes. His maternal grandmother inclined him towards literature with the stories she told him when he was a child.
Carballido attended elementary, high school and high school in his home state. Then he went to Mexico City to study law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). However, his passion for letters and theater led him to the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters.
At UNAM he began to attend theater classes and specialized in dramatic art and English letters. During his university years, he had as professors prominent intellectuals such as Celestino Gorostiza Alcalá, Rodolfo Usigli and Xavier Villaurrutia. He also studied with Rosario Castellanos, Sergio Magaña and Luisa Josefina Hernández.
Emilio Carballido's literary career took off in his younger years. In 1946, at just 21 years old, he wrote his first novel Alberto's worlds.
Four years later he made his theater debut with the play Rosalba and the keychains, which gave him wide recognition before the public. This piece was premiered at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
Carballido was one of those intellectuals who rose like foam in his professional career. In 1950 he won a scholarship in literature from the Rockefeller Institute and kept writing. It was in 1955 that the Centro Mexicano de Escritores granted him financial aid to continue developing his theater and narrative..
At that time he began his work at the Universidad Veracruzana as deputy director of the School of Theater, where he remained active in the production of scripts for television and cinema. The playwright also taught drama classes at the National Institute of Fine Arts; and in 1957 he premiered the play Happiness.
The work of Emilio Carballido extended to the promotion of culture, good customs and to make theater a form of expression and not an instrument to influence society. So - not satisfied with all the activities he did - he gave workshops in various institutions in his country and throughout Latin America..
The writer offered the public variety, humor, entertainment and realism through his plays. The simple, critical and expressive character of his staging led to his work being represented in several countries, such as: Venezuela, the United States, Switzerland, Belgium, France and Colombia, which gave him international recognition..
The 1960s was one of the most significant seasons in Carballido's career. In 1960 he developed A little day of anger and wrote the script for the film Macario (nominated for an Oscar Award). That was also the time when he published the storybook The empty box, where he was awarded the Casa de las Américas Theater Award.
Carballido held important positions within the cultural and artistic environment of Mexico throughout his professional life. He worked as a professor at UNAM and at various universities in the United States. He also served as editorial advisor to the Universidad Veracruzana and created and directed the magazine Tramoya For a good time.
The writer and playwright lived his last years in constant theatrical development, staging more than twenty plays. For his outstanding artistic work he was recognized with several awards, including the National Arts and Sciences. He died on February 11, 2011 in Xalapa due to a heart attack..
- Newspaper award The National in 1954.
- Casa de las Américas Award in 1962 (Cuba) for A little day of anger.
- Juan Luís de Alarcón Award in 1983.
- Ollantay Prize in 1983 (Caracas), for his magazine on theater Tramoya.
- Honorary Doctorate from the Universidad Veracruzana, 1992.
- National Prize of Sciences and Arts in 1996.
- Ariel Award in 1972, for the script and plot of The barefoot eagle, film directed by Alfonso Arau.
- Ariel de Oro for her film career.
Emilio Carbadillo gave his work modernity, passion and creativity. His literary style was characterized by the use of a simple language that combined the cultured and popular. His writings were based on aspects of everyday life, which he dealt with with humor, criticism, expressiveness, surprise and reflection..
- Alberto's worlds (1946).
- The subtle triangle (1948).
- The triple stubbornness (1948).
- The empty box (1962).
- The iron shoes (1983).
- Sputnik and David's story (1991).
- Rosalba and the keychains (1950).
- A little day of anger.
- The cursed sect.
- Nocresida's trip.
- The supplicant.
- Who's there?
- The day the lions were released.
- City shepherds.
- The triple stubbornness.
- Guillermo and the nahual.
- The intermediate zone.
- The domestic symphony.
- Waiting room.
- The crossed words.
- The dance that the turtle dreams.
- The golden strand.Happiness (1957).
- The watchmaker of Córdoba.
- Tribute to Hidalgo.
- Hush hairy chickens, they are going to throw their corn!
- I talk about the rose too.
- I swear Juana that I want to (1963).
- jellyfish.
- Juarez Almanac.
- An endless waltz across the planet.
- Acapulco on Mondays.
- The day the lions were released.
- A rose by another name.
- With condom and without condom.
- The nightmare.
- Photography on the beach.
- Thieves time.
- Ceremony at the tiger temple.
- Two-scented rose.
- The slaves of Istanbul.
- The census (1957).
- Delicious sunday.
- Orinoco.
- Written in the body of the night (1993).
- The prisoner.
- The commemorators.
- Join people!
- The death of the poor.
- The end of an idyll.
- The misery.
- The two catrines.
It was the play that made Carballido known, being directed in its first year by Salvador Novo. It belonged to the comedy genre and told the story of a daring young woman who traveled to Veracruz to change the lives of the Llavero family. The protagonist was in charge of showing him that he could live in a different way and free of guilt.
It was one of the many plays by the Mexican writer, which belonged to the genre of comedy. It was set in a poor town in the Aztec country known as La Lagunilla and told the story of the seamstress Dora, whose daily life was not easy. Problems and ignorance predominated.
It was a book of stories by Emilio Carballido in which he narrated through his expressive and colorful language the lifestyle of the people of the province. Throughout the stories, the author led the reader to discover the social problems of Mexico of his time, in the context of childhood and everyday life in general..
It was one of the best known plays by this Mexican playwright. He developed it in the mid-1950s and in it he exposed the lives of two spinster women who had an unusual relationship with a young man from the community. With this comedy, Carballido criticized the typical Mexican machismo and some social norms.
“Carlos, sitting like a monkey on top of the refrigerator, writes something in a notebook. Rocío, in the yard, fix the cages.
A little voice: (Out). A lemon water.
Carlos: (Shouts) Aunt Aminta! Tell me a word that rhymes with dry! (No answer. Keep writing).
The little voice: His glass.
Carlos stretches out and receives her. Keep writing. Crossing out. Enter Aminta.
Aminta: What did you say to me mijo?
Carlos: Tell me a word that rhymes with dry.
Aminta: (thinks). Shoe.
Carlos: Shoe? Why? How it will be? Tía Aminta, dry from drought, from dry land, which rhymes with mecca, hollow, scholarship ... mmh hollow ...
Aminta: Oh son, I thought it was a riddle. (Comes out).
Carlos writes. Reread. He is ecstatic. Rocío enters the store ".
It was a story by Emilio Carballido aimed at children. He told the story of friendship between an alligator named Sputnik and a boy named David. As his owner learned to read and write, his pet became exceptional and learned to play soccer. It was a fantastic, simple and entertaining narrative.
“He and David accompanied each other and walked together. Together they went to the pool one day to nothing and people shouted and left, protested also: they did not want to bathe with that animal in the same water. A fat lady hugged her children, cried and complained:
-That monster is going to eat them!
-It seems, guácala -said David.
But Sputnik watched them and it did occur to him that they might be tastier than the ball. David was a partner and had the right to bring a friend. They were finally kicked out, because the regulation prohibited swimming without a bathing suit.
-I'm going to buy you one - David consoled his saurian that yes, he cried two or three crocodile tears ".
“We heard Lupe moan and cry offstage. Yamilé is yelling fiercely at him.
Yamilé: I don't want anyone to slice my neck while I sleep! Don't even empty the house, beat me up and tie me up and rape me! Not even waking up to find yourself lying in the kitchen with all your guts out! Did you hear? May it be the last time! To do what you want, you go to the street!
Lupe: (Out). What happens, that you do not have a heart.
Yamilé: No. I don't have one. It was stolen by a gandal like those you put in the house. Malvivientes, drug addicts, drunkards and thugs, that's what you love ... But if it happens again, now if you leave! ... ".
“Once upon a time there was a very poor couple who lived in a very small town, on the bank of a river. Wide river, dense river, river full of butterflies, which favored an undulating existence full of surprises.
“It was not uncommon to see men shaving with machetes, after having slept in the shade of a tree on the riverbank… Or strange women, who traveled alone, in small sailing boats; they descended at night and waited there, under the trees without question; a swarm of young people came to visit them, perhaps to consult their problems or to talk with them ... ".
- “A writer who doesn't love, I don't think he has much to express. Hate has never been the source of good works. Without love of reality, of people, you cannot write ".
- "The wealth of a people is not that of the soil, but that of the brain".
- "Whoever gets used to eating lobster at the expense of the treasury becomes a courtier".
- “I don't think that theater has a direct influence on anyone, right? I have not seen anyone who changes to see theater ".
- "I was a precocious child who wrote a lot from a very young age".
- “I am not a very good director. I like it a lot, but it doesn't work out for me ".
- "... I do not emphasize showing certain types of customs, but certain events between human beings who have a certain type of character".
- "I have an interest in putting certain people who are in conflict within a credible environment, and for it to be credible, I must know them personally ...".
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