Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003) was a Chilean writer, novelist and poet considered one of the most important exponents of 20th century literature in all of Latin America. Its relevance was due to the way in which it linked human existence and its values with literature.
Despite his death, Bolaño continues to be one of the most current intellectuals. His literary work was characterized by being original, creative and profound. The writer used simple language in both his prose and his poetry.
The writer's texts presented features of the infra-realism movement, which focused on a free literature, far from the conventional and inspired by personal experiences. Bolaño's literary production was broad and diverse in terms of genres. The intellectual developed poetry, short stories, novels, speeches, and essays.
His most prominent titles were: Reinventing love, Romantic dogs, The ice rink, Distant star Y The wild detectives. Currently, Roberto Bolaño's work continues to be edited and translated into other languages.
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Roberto Bolaño Ávalos was born on April 28, 1953 in Santiago de Chile. The writer came from a cultured lower-middle-class family. His parents were the boxer and truck driver León Bolaño and the teacher Victoria Ávalos. It is known that Bolaño had a younger sister than him.
On the other hand, Roberto Bolaño lived a good part of his childhood in various cities of his native country, such as Cauquenes, Quilpué and Los Angeles. On the other hand, Bolaño was a witness in his childhood of the many separations from his parents and at the same time of their constant reconciliations..
Bolaño's first years of studies were spent in schools in the towns where he spent his childhood. At that time, little Roberto worked selling bus tickets in Quilpué to help financially at home..
In 1968 Roberto and his family went to live in Mexico, where he continued his high school education. However, the writer decided to leave his studies in 1969 when he was only 16 years old to dedicate himself to the development of his greatest passion: literature..
As a consequence of his decision, Bolaño also did not pursue a university degree. So he dedicated himself to reading all kinds of books and writing. It was a time in which he applied his time to doing journalistic and merchant work.
Roberto Bolaño returned to his country in 1973, after a five-year absence. He quickly joined the Popular Unity to cooperate in the reform and change projects of then-President Salvador Allende. The young writer took advantage of his stay in Chile to reconnect with family and friends.
Bolaño was arrested in November 1973 by military forces when he traveled to the city of Concepción to meet with a childhood friend. His imprisonment was a consequence of the coup d'état that took place on September 11 of that same year. Then Roberto was released a week later and decided to return to Mexico..
Roberto set foot on Mexican territory in early 1974, and promptly forged a friendship with the poet Mario Santiago Papasquiaro. The following year, Bolaño and Papasquiaro, together with other intellectuals, created the literary movement called infrarealism. He opposed the stylistic and content guidelines of Mexican poetry of the time..
On the other hand, the nascent writer devoted himself intensely to developing his poetry. At the same time, Bolaño met with various intellectuals from Mexico and his country to exchange knowledge, some of them were: Efraín Huerta, Poli Délano and Hernán Lavín Cerda. It was in the mid-seventies that her parents separated.
The infra-realism movement was consolidated in 1975 after a gathering that was held in the center of Mexico City, specifically in the house of the Chilean intellectual Bruno Montané. The meeting was led by Roberto in the presence of more than forty people.
The infra-realists sought to establish themselves as a poetic avant-garde movement, which sought to break into the dominant literary scene in Mexico in the mid-1970s. They sought greater lyrical freedom, a connection with personal experiences and a greater exposure of daily experiences.
The first publications of Roberto Bolaño were produced within the parameters of infra-realism. The poet released a first work entitled Sparrows gaining height (1975) in co-authorship with Montané. But it was in 1976 when Roberto brought to light his first poetic work Reinvent love, with which he made his career as a writer official.
Bolaño decided to leave Mexico to move to Spain, perhaps motivated by the end of his love affair with a young woman named Lisa Johnson. The writer settled in Catalonia in 1977, where his mother had been living for a few years. At that time the poet went through a severe economic crisis.
Roberto worked as a watchman, salesman, dishwasher, bellboy, among other tasks to face his misery. But he remained faithful and constant to the development of his literary works. Bolaño began to separate from infrarealism during his early years in Spain with the intention of focusing more on his prose texts..
The writer moved to the city of Gerona in Spain in the early 1980s in search of better opportunities. There he participated and won several municipal literary competitions. In addition, the poet had the opportunity to meet love in the person of Carolina López, a twenty-year-old girl employed by the social service.
Bolaño published his first novel Advice from a Morrison disciple to a Joyce fan in 1984, with which he obtained the Literary Field award. The writer had the opportunity to publish that same year the narrative work The path of the elephants with which he was awarded the Félix Urabayen Prize.
Roberto and Carolina married in 1985, after having lived together for a year. Later, the newlyweds moved to the town of Blanes where Bolaño worked as a salesman in his mother's store. As a result of the love relationship, two children were born, Lautaro and Alexandra.
Although Bolaño had to carry out various jobs to support his family, he never strayed from his literary vocation, not even when he was diagnosed with a serious liver disease in 1992. So the writer published two of his most important works in 1993, which were: The ice rink Y Romantic dogs.
Roberto won the "Ciudad de Irún" and "Kutxa Ciudad de San Sebastián" awards in 1994 for his collection of poems Romantic dogs. However, Bolaño achieved prestige and recognition two years later with the publications of the novels. Nazi literature in America Y Distant star, both got good reviews from literary critics.
Roberto Bolaño reached his consolidation as a writer in 1998 with the publication of the novel The wild detectives. In this work, the intellectual captured many of his experiences represented by an alter ego named Arturo Belano. The success of this narrative work was such that it was consecrated with the "Rómulo Gallegos" and "Herralde de Novela" awards..
Bolaño returned to Chile after more than two decades of absence. The first trip was made in 1998 after being invited by the magazine Paula to be a judge in a story contest. The writer took advantage of the visit to his native country to publicize his literary projects in various media, such as The Nation, La Serena Y Last News.
The poet had a second and last chance to visit Chile in 1999, when he attended the Santiago International Book Fair. On that occasion, the reception of the writer was not entirely well by the literary community. The main reason was due to the criticism that the intellectual made of the Chilean literary work in an interview in Spain.
The last years of Bolaño's life passed between the development of his literary work and the advance of his liver disease. Some of his most current titles were: Tres, Antwerp, Chilean Night Y Killer whores. On the other hand, the writer became a father for the second time when his daughter Alexandra was born in 2001.
The life of the Chilean writer came to a halt on July 1, 2003, when he was admitted to the Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron for liver failure. Roberto Bolaño died on July 15 of that same year after remaining in a coma. His ashes were scattered in the sea.
Roberto Bolaño has been one of the most famous and honored Chilean writers. After his death, countless cultural and literary events have been held in his name. Statues have been erected in his honor in several cities in his native country and plaques have been unveiled. Similarly, an award named after him was established in 2006.
Roberto Bolaño's literary style was framed within the infra-realism movement, therefore his poetry enjoyed freedom, personality and creativity. The intellectual used a simple and precise language through which he described many of his personal experiences.
Bolaño wrote about life, the end of existence, values and literature itself. On the other hand, Bolaño's prose was characterized by the presence of real and authentic characters, which he led to fiction through the description of his achievements and failures..
In addition, his texts were not very descriptive and he frequently used an omniscient narrator and a first-person narrator other than the main character..
In this video you can see a brief interview with Bolaño:
- Sparrows gaining height (1975).
- Reinvent love (1976).
- Fragments of the unknown university (1992).
- Romantic dogs (1993).
- The last savage (nineteen ninety five).
- Three (2000).
- The Unknown University (posthumous edition, 2007).
- Poetry collected (posthumous edition, 2018).
- Advice from a Morrison disciple to a Joyce fan (1984).
- The path of the elephants (1984).
- The ice rink (1993).
- Nazi literature in America (nineteen ninety six).
- Distant star (nineteen ninety six).
- The wild detectives (1998).
- Amulet (1999).
- Night of Chile (2000).
- Antwerp (2002).
- A lumpen novel (2002).
- 2666 (2004).
- The third Reich (2010).
- The troubles of the true policeman (2011).
- The spirit of science fiction (2016).
- Cowboy graves (2017).
- Phone calls (1997).
- Killer whores (2001).
- The insufferable guacho (posthumous edition, 2003).
- Bar diary (posthumous edition, 2006).
- The secret of evil (posthumous edition, 2007).
- Complete stories (posthumous edition, 2018).
- In brackets (posthumous edition, 2004).
- Bolaño by himself: selected interviews (posthumous edition, 2011).
- Out in the open: journalistic collaborations, public interventions and essays (posthumous edition, 2018).
- “Writing is not normal. The normal thing is to read and the pleasant thing is to read; even the elegant thing is to read. Writing is an exercise in masochism (…) ".
- “Being a writer is not pleasant. No, nice is not the word. It is an activity that does not lack very funny moments, but I know other even more fun activities ".
- "I decided to start writing at 16 in Mexico, and also in a moment of total rupture, with the family, with everything, how are these things done".
- "I always wanted to be a leftist political writer, of course, but leftist political writers seemed infamous to me".
- "If I had been able to choose, I would probably now be a Belgian country gentleman, of iron health, a bachelor, a regular at Brussels brothels, a reader of detective novels, and who would squander, with common sense, a wealth accumulated over generations".
- “In Latin America, writers are thought of as subversive elements or fags, drug addicts and liars. Deep down, that's probably what we are ".
- "Chile is a country where being a writer and being corny is almost the same".
- “I would give an aspiring writer the advice that we underrealist youths in Mexico gave each other. When we were 20, 21, we had a poetic group, and we were young, rude and brave. We said to ourselves: live a lot, read a lot and fuck a lot ".
- “I am not clear to what extent Enrique Lihn is recognized in Chile. What I do have very clear is that Lihn is a major poet of the twentieth century in our language ".
- “There are never too many books. There are bad books, very bad, worse, etc., but never too many ".
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