Links

Etnias de Colombia

Irresistible fares to travel to Colombia with Avianca

Colombian Airports

Colombian Mass Media

Learn Spanish in Colombia - ih Bogotá

Fernando Botero

Fernando González Ochoa

Corporación Otraparte

Tomás Carrasquilla Naranjo: 150 Years Old

Tomás Carrasquilla: 150 Years Old

By Albeiro Rodas - Picture of Tomás Carrasquilla in 1929 by Melitón Rodríguez

2008 was declared by the Ministry of Culture of Colombia as the "Carrasquilla Year" in commemoration of the 150 years of the birth of the writer of Antioquia in Santo Domingo, a small village on the Andean mountains. However, Carrasquilla has been one of the most forgotten Colombian writers, not been the only one, and at the same time the most popular among the simple people. Praised by masters of literature like the Spaniard Federico de Onis (1885 - 1966), an author who dedicated his life to study the Hispano American literature and authors like Carrasquilla; the Chilean literature critics like Arturo Torres Rioseco and Mariano Latorre or with a regular contact with writers like Miguel de Unamuno and José Martí, Carrasquilla was ignored by the critic of his own country and well known in his native Antioquia and Paisa Region.

Which reasons lead to one of the most brilliants novelists and storytellers of Colombia to come to unknown? Carrasquilla lived among two centuries: he was born in 1858 and died in 1940, it means the second half of the 19th century and the first of the 20th century. Such is a privilege in the Colombian history, because he saw the time when the political arena of his country was still dominated by the Fathers of the Nation, the same ones that fought the Spaniards ending 300 years of colonialism and he saw the birth of the new century that meant for Colombia a turbulent time of social and political changes. 

But the changes witnesses by the Andean writer were not only of history and industrial revolutions, but also a change in literature that would play a key role in why he was almost ignored at his time: he came from the dominion of Costumbrismo (let us call it in my English "Costumbrism") and its decadence to the development of Modernism and new tendencies of literature.

Costumbrism is a time of the Spanish literature that developed both in Spain and the Hispanic America during the 19th century and that was influenced by Romanticism. What happened with Costumbrism is that it is a picture of popular traditions, a showing up a description without any further reading by psychologist, sociologist or anthropologist influences. The Costumbrist writer is interested only in a wonderful descriptions, as he were depicting a picture of reality with words. This kind of genre is very important for example for history in how people of a determine time lived or how their housing was and so on. But this genre was to become the favorite figure of attack by the new genre of literature that began to develop at the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century.

In Medellín, for example, it started with personalities like Leon de Greiff, Ricardo Rendón, Fernando González Ochoa and many others. The height of Modernism in Latin America would become in the 1960s with the so called "Boom" that brought out masters like Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, etc. 

The problem with Carrasquilla was that he was considered a Costumbrist and therefore he was ignored by the Modern critic for this reason. He was ignored at least in a wide panorama, we can say, but no by all and he was known abroad by key personalities like the ones mentioned above and by his countrymen, at least. However, for many intellectual circles of his time in Colombia, Carrasquilla was just a rustic writer of countryside and funny for simple people. By his side, Carrasquilla was not an ambitious man and like he said in 1906 to one of his friend: "I write because I am in bankrupt." (1) Moreover, Carrasquilla dedicated himself to very simple jobs such as tailor, assistant of a judge, storekeeper in a mine and worker in the Ministry of Public Works. 

The other question is if Carrasquilla can be considered Costumbrist or not. This is a current discussion among Colombian and Latin American scholars. From my point of view the question was answered by Federico de Onís in 1970:

"His literary work is equal and it has variety, different to the Costumbrist of the 19th century that described their pictures, sceneries and types under the same pattern. The equal is that has the Antioquean substance and that this unique exterior reality is always seen by his personality." (2)

It is true therefore, that the work of Carrasquilla is inspired in Costumbrism, but it is also true that his work can be classified among the Modernist stream of the 20th century due to his originality, the same Modernism that paradoxically was fight by him, like Unamuno in Spain. Moreover, Carrasquilla knew very well the new tendencies of literature, although did not want to join any kind of group like others, among them his youngest friends like Fernando González, Ricardo Rendón and León de Greiff with the foundation of Los Panidas in Medellín, a group that got his own support. Carrasquilla kept his independence and for this reason his work has a great richness and authenticity. 

He wrote novels, stories, essays, articles and letters that still to be classified. His works are far from simple Costumbrist descriptions of folklore and uses of the people, although it is well expressed in them. But his works go deep into the psychology and feelings of his characters and there is a scathing analysis of reality. Carrasquilla is like an careful observer of the human soul that mixed with the daily traditions of his people. To this, Carrasquilla concluded that the artist must be himself and the value of his work is in his originality and intimacy, as it is said by De Onís.(3)

About the language, Carrasquilla wrote always in first person, something that showed his excellence in narrative putting his own self in the work. In this case, Carrasquilla became the master of the contemporary writer and his countryman, Fernando Vallejo. For Vallejo it is necessary to write in first person, without fictions and the most human possible. Surely Carrasquilla would be agreed with him in this:

"I decided to speak in my own name, because I can not come into other minds, because there is not yet the thought reader invention." (4)

The language used by the writer is that same one of the people he knew well, the representatives of the so called "Paisas" or "Antioqueans" (antioqueños) and their cultural and linguistic particularities. In this, Carrasquilla is loyal to himself and to his origin too. He used to say that he wrote in Antioquean, rather than in Spanish. However, here we find other difference with the Costumbrists: they used to put the popular language in the mouth of their characters but as authors they used another language, that considered of the standard one. Unlikely, Carrasquilla as the author and his characters are united under the same language. There is not a "turn on - turn off" the language in his works, like a "cult" man describing the events of the "popular" ones. But Carrasquilla was a very cult man, he read all the classics, any philosophy and all of this is expressed in his work, being the most surprising and fascinating. De Onís, who knew the Latin American literature very well, found that this characteristic is unique in Carrasquilla and that it was imitated after him by modern writers in the continent. 

"The language of Antioquia, that is the base and style of Carrasquilla, is doubtless the Castilian, as it is the one of all the Spaniard America, and even we can say that it is the place (including the same Spain) where it is better spoken. But it does not mean, like it was said by Cejador and others, that it is better because that region kept the most pure Spanish due to the isolation and the attachment to traditions." (5)  

Notes

(1) Federico de Onís: Prologue to "Cuentos de Tomás Carrasquilla" (Stories of Tomás Carrasquilla), Ed. Bedout, Medellín, 1970, p.10.
(2) Idem, p.11.
(3) Idem, p.18
(4) Fernando Vallejo, cited by Sophia Vásquez Ramón in "De Fernando Vallejo", Lecturas Críticas. Link retrieved on June 15, 2008.
(5) Federico de Onís: Prologue to "Cuentos de Tomás Carrasquilla" (Stories of Tomás Carrasquilla), Ed. Bedout, Medellín, 1970, p.20.

The Lower the Latitude, the Better my Attitude!  Friday, July 04, 2008   Site dedicated to the Colombian people!

Search this site or the web powered by FreeFind Site search Web search