AUTHOR
Manlio Argueta was born in Salvador on November 24, 1935. He was a member of the “Generación Comprometida,” a group of writers between 1950 and 1956, influenced by Jean Paul Sartre and dedicated to social, cultural and political activism. Argueta was first and foremost a poet. He comments that he didn’t think about writing fiction until he was in his mature years, around 30. He notes that his influences, including Sartre, were varied, the strongest being Cortázar, but that the most immediate influence that caused him to begin writing fiction was when he discovered around 1967 Salinger’s story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” in a magazine. “Salinger made me marvel and caused me to see that it’s not only in poetry that you can write ‘terrific’ things but also in fiction.” He subsequently developed other points of reference: Vargas Llosa, Carol Fuentes, and John Dos Passos.
Manlio Argueta's novels have earned him an international reputation and have endeared him to the Salvadoran people. His first two novels, El valle de las hamacas (1970) and Caperucita en la zona roja (1978), present the social instability and political repression in the country during the seventies. Caperucita en la zona roja received the Casa de las Américas Prize in 1977. His third and fourth novels, Un dia en la vida (1980) and Cuzcatian donde bate la mar del sur (1986) describe the escalating repression and rebellion in the late seventies. His fifth novel, Milagro de la Paz (1994) examines the legacy of civil strife in the lives of a Salvadoran woman and her family.
Because of his outspoken testimonies, life became increasingly difficult for Argueta in Salvador during the seventies. He was arrested and expelled from El Salvador several times for his involvement in various political causes. After the Salvadoran authorities halted the printing of Un dia en la vida and ordered confiscation of all existing copies in 1980, Argueta went into permanent exile in Costa Rica until the early nineties when he was able to resume living and publishing in El Salvador following the end of the civil war which lasted for a dozen year (1980-1992).
Manlio Argueta currently serves as the Director of Art and Culture at the national university, the University of El Salvador, in San Salvador.
Works by Manlio Argueta from Curbstone Press:
