american literature in my life as a writer

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This article was downloaded by: [Universitat Politècnica de València] On: 29 October 2014, At: 05:27 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vanq20 American Literature in My Life as a Writer Carlos Hugo Aparicio Published online: 24 Mar 2010. To cite this article: Carlos Hugo Aparicio (1997) American Literature in My Life as a Writer, ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 10:2, 11-13, DOI: 10.1080/08957699709602266 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08957699709602266 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

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Page 1: American Literature in My Life as a Writer

This article was downloaded by: [Universitat Politècnica de València]On: 29 October 2014, At: 05:27Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK

ANQ: A Quarterly Journalof Short Articles, Notes andReviewsPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vanq20

American Literature in My Lifeas a WriterCarlos Hugo AparicioPublished online: 24 Mar 2010.

To cite this article: Carlos Hugo Aparicio (1997) American Literature in My Life as aWriter, ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 10:2, 11-13,DOI: 10.1080/08957699709602266

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08957699709602266

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all theinformation (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform.However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness,or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and viewsexpressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, andare not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of theContent should not be relied upon and should be independently verified withprimary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for anylosses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages,and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of theContent.

Page 2: American Literature in My Life as a Writer

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan,sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone isexpressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found athttp://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Page 3: American Literature in My Life as a Writer

Spring 1997, Vol. 10, No. 2 1 1

The political power flows from the people, and it will come. But why wait to be forced to see the many-colored HispanosLatinos who are now already neighbors? Let’s invite people to look at the art, read the stories, smell and savor the food, dance to the music, understand and acknowledge that there are many Americas, many communities, not just one. And let us put the fear of each other aside. Don’t just tolerate people, love people. All good flows from that.

RUDOLF0 ANAYA United States

American Literature in My Life as a Writer

My knowledge of U.S. literature and my admiration for it come from my childhood in La Quiaca (Province of Jujuy, Argentine Republic), undoubt- edly moved and urged by the magazines and movies with their westerns and detective serials, and their mythical and magic worlds of Chaplin, Lau- rel and Hardy, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Tom Mix, Buffalo Bill, Super- man, among many others. By that time I had begun to read Mark Twain’s and Jack London’s wonderful stories.

Afterward, when I was thirteen years old, in Salta (Province of Salta, Argentina) I devoted myself to the joy of reading every day. I almost fran- tically read novels-translated into Spanish-of cowboys and detectives (my favorite), mystery, adventures, etc. At the age of fifteen, in the Public Library of Salta, I found the fascinating sagas of John Steinbeck; all these readings, which taught me about the social context, the dreams, the vitali- ty, love, and also death in U.S. life, led me to other authors. So I began to read Ernest Hemingway’s and Edgar Allan Poe’s works. Poe, as we all know, is a magnificent craftsman of the short story, and his work struck me then and still strikes me now.

Soon I got in touch with U.S. poetry. When I read Walt Whitman’s poetry, I realized its tremendous influence on South American poets I often read and mostly admired: Chilean Pablo Neruda and Argentinean (born in Salta) Manuel J. Castilla. Later on everything about my knowl- edge of U.S. literature was natural and inevitable, though always gradual, disorderly, and incomplete: Brett Harte, Ambrose Bierce, Herman Melville, Carl Sandburg (poetry in the streets, in the middle of people); Gertrude Stein, Sara Teasdale, and Edna St. Vincent Millay (poetry of high and profound lyricism); Henry James, 0. Henry, Sherwood Ander- son, Ezra Pound, Karl Shapiro, John Cheever, Tennessee Williams, Robert Lowell, Truman Capote (his In Cold Blood is a masterpiece and

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Page 4: American Literature in My Life as a Writer

12 ANQ

one of the novels I always reread), Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, Ray Bradbury, and above all William Faulkner (the effect of his literary work on Latin American narrative is well known), and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

In truth, since those days of my childhood I have never stopped read- ing U.S. writers and poets. Through them I found-more than in any other thing-the soul that harmonizes with the main region of art and life: the universal soul of human beings. By reading their works I felt their peoples’ pains and joys, tears and hopes; I dreamt their dreams, I tasted their ambitions and failures, suffered joyfully the beauty and lone- liness of their daily struggles and of their landscapes; I was the cop and the fugitive, the outlaw and the sheriff, the heart imprisoned behind the bars of dust and rain of reality, but free on account of its love and imag- ination, its creative spirit; I experienced the wounds of time and absence, agonized till death, revived, succeeded, failed, cried, laughed, loved, hated. In short, I lived their comedies, dramas, tragedies as if they were mine; I drank in the essence of immensity, the solitude of those far lands; I breathed the sad smoke of their cities, so remote and alone despite their crowds, but because of its writers, they all vividly appeared in my heart and in my memory to stay there forever.

When I visited the U.S. in 1987, I took Light in August by Faulkner with me. It is one of the books I like best; I took it with me without know- ing that on an unforgettable weekend I was to read it in the very sunlight of Oxford, Mississippi, in its own atmosphere, surrounded by its own peo- ple and scenery, beside the great writer’s grave, close to his famous man- sion (today it is a museum, and the University of Mississippi is in charge of it).

Of course, my visits to Oak Park, Illinois, where Ernest Hemingway spent his childhood and youth; Hannibal, Missouri, still full of Mark Twain’s spir- it; Oxford, William Faulkner’s city; and the Memphis, Tennessee, of Elvis Presley were my best and most moving experiences in the U.S.

Indeed, all this great literature-however partial and even scarce my knowledge of it-has influenced my dreams, my imagination, and my lit- erary works. It has put realism and the romance of human life-maybe its moral and aesthetic synthesis, immortal life through the grace of its beau- ty and poetry, undeclining beauty, and all the multiple and intricate plots of passion-into my heart, my memory, and my deepest emotions. In a word, it has put poetry from its two fundamental sources, love and death, into my whole existence.

That is why the poetics-both human and artistic of all U.S. literature, as in any other great literature-can perhaps fit in the fist of poems The Daughters of Blum by Charles Wright (b. 1935, Pickwick Dam, Ten- nessee):

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Page 5: American Literature in My Life as a Writer

Spring 1997, Vol. 10, No. 2 13

The daughters of Blum Are growing older. These chill winter days, Locking their rooms, they Seem to pause, checking. Perhaps, for the lights, The window curtain, Or something they want To remember that Keeps slipping their minds. You have seen them, how They stand there, perplexed, -And a little shocked- As though they had spied, Unexpectedly,

From one corner of One eye, the lives they Must have left somewhere Once on a dresser- Gloves waiting for hands.

CARLOS HUGO APARICIO Argentina

An Erotic (Con)Quest Relations between U.S. literature in English and Hispanic literatures vary according to literary periods and geographic region. It is well known, for example, that Poe, Hemingway, and Faulkner, among others, were vital influences on Spanish-American narrative, as were Miller, O’Neill, and Tennessee Williams on Spanish-American theater. Since the late nineteenth century, some major US. poets such as Whitman and Eliot have greatly influenced Spanish-American poetry. I consider that I have followed this tradition, as Whitman and Eliot-whom I first read in excellent Spanish translations-had a tremendous impact on me during my youth. For exam- ple, my Sacred Heresies includes some techniques used by Eliot in The Wasre Land. It was, however, ten years later, after coming to the U.S. in 1980 and polishing my English, that I was able to read Whitman and Eliot in the original.

In the late ’sixties, a Cuban-Spanish translation of Ginsberg’s Howl cir- culated secretly among Cuban writers. The manuscript reached my hands and had a great impact on me. The tone, the openness, the everyday words and phrases, the sound and fury of his “howl”-which was not only his but

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