Glory and shadow of ‘Boom’ legends

That moment is often quoted, and that jumped out too Carlos Fuentesstick to both of these principles literary phenomenon and then Gabo’s best friend, like the date Boom exploded!!! Yet five years ago, in the bureaucratic uncertainty of the time, Cuban Writers GuildA black mass came into effect, ending the Revolution’s international prestige and putting dynamite on the friendly, fraternal relations of all of them until then. ‘Padilla’s case‘ separated them, still silent, but the light that brought them together gradually dimmed, almost disappeared..

It was as if they had to leave with serious injuries, on old friends whose scent bombs had been dropped. The hole made by Fidel Castro. After this indictment (“Everything with the Revolution, nothing against the Revolution”), the commander broke the idea that his country was a paradise for writers and was on the verge of death. literary phenomenon based on the quality of its componentsbut above all in the insistence of friendship.

much more The fist, the most visible part of that split between Vargas and GaboThe ‘Padilla Incident’ had already undermined the most visible essence of the writers’ friendship who were part of the quartet that made Boom’s shared home great. Heberto Padilla returned from abroad from different jobs provided by Devrim. He thought it was time to give him a scolding. Fidel Castro His compatriot’s accusations hurt him, and it was followed by the arrest of the poet whose book “Out of the Game” would become the cornerstone of Castro’s anger.

Scandal

The scandal that followed the Padilla case deeply affected the USA. The survival of the prestige gained by the revolution, at its inception, among the international intellectuals of the time. Until Jean Paul Sartre He came out to denounce the disgrace achieved by intolerable self-criticism. Boom was also fatally injured at least in the field of friendship, which until then was at the core of its foundations. Boom was unshakable, because it had already done the best in its history, but the enthusiasm that those writers got together was already becoming part of a sometimes broken but always bitter silence.

Forced to retract that book and anything he said that might be counter-revolutionary material, Heberto Padilla appeared before his friends for self-criticism as required by the Stalinist canons. And in that sinister place where the session room had become, the poet did not leave a puppet with a head, starting with his own figure, reportedly throwing on him all the filth that the prison guards had piled up. State Security for him.

Padilla aroused international astonishment, the revolution began to be written in lowercaseand all Cuban writers, still in Havana and long gone, Guillermo Cabrera InfanteThey received the same share of threats that were already common in Castroism’s dealings with intellectuals. Inside the boom, from that friendly relationship, a pimple began to develop that became a disease that would last forever.

Vargas Llosa, Juan Goytisolo and Jorge Edwards. (Author of ‘Persona non grata’, harshest document against revolutionary hypocrisy) and other intellectuals of the time who were not yet disturbed casteismdecided to gather signatures against Padilla’s persecution, which wounded almost all his colleagues, especially Cabrera Infante, with his openly Stalinist self-criticism. He was not among the heroes of Boom, he was already living in exile in London, where he was persecuted by Padilla’s guards. He called him ‘Guillermito’ in his criticism of himself.

Revolution

As can be seen in the film, in which Padilla’s statement is featured in its entirety, this painful appearance dynamited the candid and literary confidence that united what has been stated here. Louis Hars In ‘our’ book as privileged residents The new great house of Latin American literature. Other greats of the time are featured in this book, for example Juan Carlos Onetti or Juan Rulfobut prominent are the youth (“ours”) who came to revolutionize the Spanish narrative in Latin America Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. Moreover, they are now the living protagonists of a book that honors them as friends and geniuses.

Literature brought them together, made friends common interest in literature each other and now they are ‘heroes’Boom’s letters’ (Alfaguara) is much more than a book. As if the time of that friendship stood still in that book, to freeze the vibrant relationship the four of them had, cross letters like old and continuing light nowbecause reading it creates the joy of knowing that they are friends, of sharing what they do without envy or apparent jealousy.

With the frenzied activity of Fuentes, who does not stop traveling the world and the literary generosity of all, the respective works of the four of them began to circulate in their own countries and immediately through publishers and agencies in Spain and abroad, and the manuscripts of each began to be published as if they were the result of a collective of activity. They were happy to be together, young inside and out and on their books. And in your letters.

happy time

Julio Cortazar hadn’t released ‘Rayuela’ yet, that it was celebrated by all of them with letters that soon became part of many common accolades; “The City and the Dogs” Mario Vargas Llosa From them he also received the support that the powerful Peruvian literature deserved; ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ aroused general enthusiasm. Gabriel Garcia Marquezand also ‘Historia de un deicide’ by Vargas Llosa, a strange hug for his friend… Carlos FuentesIn addition, she was right in her books, and all four of them enjoyed the joint congratulations that Boom kept in the healthy state he was born into. They were happy times. Hispanic American willing to write.

This correspondence, followed by texts from each of them to the other, can be considered as the best testimony Boom left, as well as a pictorial mirror of the period. tremendous literary contribution that the four of them are each separated by their own particular names. The work was compiled with patience and intelligence by Carlos Aguirre, Gerald Martin, Javier Munguia and Augusto Wong Campos. We owe this patience and admiration to all of them, because in a way, reading these cross-correspondences now creates a wonderful beam of light and friendship at a time when words like friendship do not merge with literature. A luminous book, immortal like the story it represents.

A melancholic light too, because The events after the first flash left them all amicably severely injured.. Padilla’s case and then the famous punch iced the Boom kids’ backpacks. Neither Vargas Llosa nor Fuentes have truly been able to re-establish their relationship as mutually influential former comrades as they once were, nor friends whose relationships with the other inhabitants of the Boom astonish world literature with the joy of the authors who made them, and especially their books.

This book adds to the feeling that it hasn’t been lost because it was written, but now it’s inevitable to look to Cuba and that episode with Padilla to find the essence of this nostalgia.Explosion CardsIt makes up for those who still see the joy it was born for in the 20th century in that literary department. the strongest phenomenon of literary creation in our language.

Not even Padilla’s shadow marked with . Stalinism that no longer leaves Cubanor can that fist in Mexico erase the words the four of them said to each other as the already indelible essence of their own literature was discovered.