Pedro Lemebel (1952-2015) was a Chilean writer, novelist, chronicler and plastic artist, recognized as one of the most prominent intellectuals in his country and with a wide projection throughout the continent. His rebellious spirit and sexual orientation led him to develop a literature of social and political criticism and at the same time challenging.
Pedro Lemebel's literary work was characterized by a content of denunciation and by responding in a provocative way to the marginalized situation of Chile of his time. In addition, the writings of the author had autobiographical features.
The writer used a language framed within poetic prose, which stood out for being ostentatious and full of rhetorical figures. Although Lemebel's literary production was not so extensive, it was enough to leave an indelible mark throughout Latin America..
Some of his most prominent titles were: The corner is my heart, Crazy eagerness, Of pearls and scars, Zanjón de la Aguada, Goodbye cute ladybug Y I'm afraid, bullfighter. His works have been translated into several languages.
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Pedro Segundo Mardones Lemebel was born on November 21, 1952 in Santiago de Chile, near the banks of the Zanjón de la Aguada. He came from a family with few economic resources. His parents were the baker Pedro Mardones Paredes and Violeta Elena Lemebel. His childhood was marked by poverty and marginalization.
Pedro Lemebel's early years of studies were limited by the poverty in which he lived. However, his parents managed to move to a house they rented in the well-known Departmental avenue and there he had the opportunity to enter the Liceo Industrial de Hombres de la Legua.
Lemebel did not do well at the Liceo Industrial, that was because he did not like the knowledge he received in furniture and metal work. Then the future writer completed his studies at the Manuel Barros Borgoño High School. Later, Pedro began studying plastic arts at the University of Chile in 1970.
The first professional work that Lemebel carried out was as a teacher in high schools in the Chilean capital. The plastic artist taught at two educational institutions from 1979 to 1983, the year in which he was fired. His exit from the classrooms could have been due to his homosexual condition.
Pedro Lemebel's literary career began at the same time that he finished his teaching job. In this sense, the nascent writer made his way into literary workshops and began the development of stories in the early eighties.
At that time, the author reflected his experiences and undertook his social criticism in the stories. It was at that time that Pedro participated in several literature competitions.
However, his name and his qualities as a writer gained public recognition when he won first place at the Caja de Compensación Javiera Carrera event in 1983 with the story "Because time is near." The story dealt with the prostitution of a young homosexual.
Pedro Lemebel manifested his communist political inclination and against Augusto Pinochet in the mid-eighties. At that time, the leftist position of the intellectual suffered some obstacles due to his homosexuality.
One of Lemebel's most prominent interventions in the political context was the 1986 reading of his manifesto "I speak for my difference." This exhibition was given at the Estación Mapocho Cultural Center in the middle of a meeting of leftists.
The way in which he attended that meeting is remembered by Chilean history; the author was dressed in heels and with his face made up with a hammer and sickle, both symbols of communism. Around this time, the writer made friends with prominent feminists, such as Pía Barros and Diamela Eltit, which strengthened his political presence..
The Chilean writer always manifested a contrary attitude towards all areas of life, so the cultural one was not the exception. Thus, in the company of the artist Francisco Casas, they created "Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis" in 1987..
The above was about an artistic action duo that broke into various events to provoke public reaction around existing social guidelines. Lemebel achieved popularity with this countercultural group that surprised society with its irreverent appearances and in a tone of protests.
Some of the most outstanding appearances of "Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis" were at the Pablo Neruda Award ceremony in 1988 and at the French Chilean Institute in 1989 with the performance "Lo que el sida se van".
After almost a decade in "Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis" and deciding to use only the maternal last name (in support of the female gender), Lemebel focused on seriously developing his career as a writer. In this way, the intellectual published his first work entitled The corner is my heart in 1995, a series of chronicles of an urban nature.
Later, the author had a participation in the radio with the program "Cancionero". In turn, he had the opportunity to present his second book Crazy Eagerness: Chronicles of Sidario in 1996, which exposed the reality of transvestites and AIDS.
At that time, the intellectual worked for the print media: The Nation, Open Page Y Final point.
The recognition of Lemebel in his native Chile was evident, however, it was at the end of the nineties that the author achieved an international boom. His fame transcended borders in 1999 with the publication in Spain of his work Crazy Eagerness: Chronicles of Sidario, thanks to the help he received from his colleague and friend Roberto Bolaño.
Then he was invited to the Guadalajara Book Fair (Mexico) and, later, published the novel I'm afraid, bullfighter in 2001. The story was based on a love affair in 1986, the year Augusto Pinochet was attacked. The narrative work was published in Italian, English and French.
Lemebel was constant in publishing his chronicles. This is how in 2003 he released the anthology Zanjón de la Aguada. These writings were aimed at describing the situation of homosexuals in the different social strata of Chile. A year later he published Goodbye cute ladybug.
After that, the intellectual's life took an unexpected turn when he was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 2011. A year later, he underwent surgery and, as a consequence, lost a high percentage of his voice. By that date, the writer published another work of chronicles called Tell me about loves.
The last years of this Chilean writer's life were marked by the consequences of cancer, although he had some public appearances. Lemebel was presented to receive the José Donoso Prize in 2013 and also made an artistic presentation at the Literature Festival to commemorate the 1973 coup in Chile..
The writer made his last public appearance on January 7, 2015 in a tribute that was paid to him at the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center. Pedro Lemebel lost the battle against cancer on January 23 of that same year, in the city where he was born. His remains rest in the Metropolitan Cemetery of Santiago de Chile.
In the following short video Lembel tells some of the concepts of his work, in addition to his opinions:
His literary style was characterized by critically and irreverently exposing the social and political situation of Chile of his time. In addition, the author expressed the exclusion and accusations suffered by homosexuals in his native country, which is why many of his works contain fragments of his own experiences.
Everything described above was captured through precise and constantly adorned language. Hence, many scholars pointed out that Lemebel's work had traits of Baroque literature. This was due to the overloaded, allegorical and opulent of his texts. His poetic prose was full of rhetorical elements.
- The corner is my heart: urban chronicle (nineteen ninety five).
- Crazy Eagerness: Chronicles of Sidario (nineteen ninety six).
- Of pearls and scars (1998).
- Zanjón de la Aguada (2003).
- Goodbye cute ladybug (2004).
- Cafiola serenade (2008).
- Tell me about loves (2012).
- Little man (2013).
- My friend gladys (posthumous edition, 2016).
- Nephando: chronicle of a sin (2000).
- I'm afraid, bullfighter (2001).
- I have no friends, I have loves (posthumous edition, 2018).
- Oral lemebel (posthumous edition, 2018).
- She came in through the bathroom window (2012).
- Countless (1986).
- Open heart: literary geography of homosexuality in Chile (2001).
- Better than fiction (2012).
- Current Latin American Chronicle Anthology (2012).
It was the first book of chronicles published by Lemebel, and in which he collected 19 chronicles based on the social inequality that existed in Chile in the 20th century, specifically with homosexuals and the poor class. All the writings were autobiographical. On the other hand, the stories had been published in various Chilean newspapers.
Some of the most outstanding chronicles were:
- "Anacondas in the park".
- "The Babylon of Horcón".
- "How am I not going to love you or The micropolitics of the bars".
- "Steel lace for a penitential pillow".
- "Barbarella clip (that frozen orgy of modernity)".
- "Tarantulas in the hair".
- "The music and the lights never went out".
- "The feathered glow of the transvestite circus".
This work was the second published by the Chilean writer and it was also one of the most important and recognized. Its title is related to a tango. While the content focused on the way of life of transvestites, the marginality with which they lived in Chile and also addressed the issue of AIDS.
On the other hand, the book was divided into five chapters, which were made up of 31 chronicles. Some of the most outstanding texts were the following:
- "The night of the visions or The last party of the Popular Unity".
- "The death of Madonna".
- "It was raining and snowing outside and inside of me".
- "Letter to Liz Taylor or Esmeraldas for AZT".
- "Tied to a grain of sand".
- "And now the lights (spot: ponteló-ponseló. Ponte-ponte-ponseló)".
- "Those long eyelashes of local AIDS".
- "Urban homoerotics or Notes escaped from a cauliflower petal".
- "I manifest (I speak for my difference)".
- "Pink and Starless Bible (The Homosexual Rock Ballad)".
- "Chantilly floats in the Plaza de Armas".
- "Kisses witches (songbook)".
- "How is life, I start from AIDS and cancer grabs me".
- “The clock keeps turning towards a flowery and warm future. I did not manage to write everything I wanted to have written, but you can imagine, my readers, what things were missing, what spit, what kisses, what songs I could not sing. Damn cancer stole my voice (although it wasn't that sharp either) ".
- “I don't have friends, I have loves. Friendship is bourgeois, it is a bourgeois and masculine construction: the compadre, the leg ... I have loves ".
- "More than saying that there is a homosexual literature, there is a punished lyrics, a misunderstood literature, like a bolero".
- “My manhood was biting me teasing. Eating rage so as not to kill everyone. My manhood is to accept myself differently ".
- “You don't know what it is to carry this leprosy. People keep their distances. People understand and say: 'He's a queer but he writes well', 'he's a queer but he's a good friend', 'super cool. I'm not cool. I accept the world without asking for that good vibes ".
- "I was never queen of any spring, dear friends".
- “Writer, visual artist, drug addict, homosexual, drug dealer. Pa 'bitch did not give me, but I have done everything ".
- “But don't talk to me about the proletariat, because being poor and a fag is worse. You have to be acid to bear it ".
- “I would name La Legua a World Heritage Site. The places of the rich are almost always preserved. Army Street with its palaces and its hoe. Why can't the places of the poor be patrimony of humanity, those places where the fight against tyranny took place? ".
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