The Manlio Argueta Speaking Tour 2011

Talleres de Poesia presents:

The Manlio Argueta Speaking Tour 2011

Acclaimed Salvadoran Poet and Novelist, Manlio Argueta, will be visiting the San Francisco Bay Area from Monday, May 9 through Sunday May 14, 2011.

His trip is being sponsored by Talleres de Poesia, a literary organization that promotes literature in the United States and El Salvador. 

On his tour to the Bay Area, Mr. Argueta, will be discussing the following topics:

• His new projects as a writer and his recent travel experiences.

• His role as a literary leader and as Director of El Salvador’s National Library. 

• Ways to confront violence in El Salvador through literature.

• His vision for children and young adult writers in El Salvador and elsewhere.

• The importance of the recently celebrated First Children’s Poetry Festival in El Salvador.

- 5/9 UC Davis 9:30am, Sproul 915

-5/10 UC Santa Cruz 4pm, Velazquez-Cervantes Rooms, Bookstore Plaza

-5/11 "Hablando con Manlio" Piñata Art Gallery 4268 Mission St.
San Francisco, 7pm to 9pm

-5/12 San Francisco State University Humanities 512, 11am

-5/13 Recepcion en el Consulado General de El Salvador, 6pm

-5/14 Talleres de Poesia y el FMLN- NorCal presentan: "Mas alla del Volcan"
Iglesia Presbiteriana de la Mision 3261 23rd St. San Francisco




Manlio Argueta (November 24) is a Salvadoran writer, critic, and novelist born in 1935. Although he considers himself first and foremost a poet. He is one of the most celebrated writers of El Salvador and Latin America. His powerful body of work is known around the world. His most famous novel, One Day in Life, has been translated into more than twelve language. His novels are read and studied in many colleges and universities in the United States and worldwide.

Life

Argueta was born in San Miguel (El Salvador) on November 24, 1935. Argueta has stated that his exposure to “poetic sounds” began during his childhood and that his foundation in poetry stemmed from his childhood imagination. Argueta’s interest in literature was strongly influenced by the world literature he read as a teenager. Argueta began his writing career by the age of 13 as a poet. He cites Pablo Neruda and García Lorca as some of his early poetic influences. Although he was relatively unknown at the time, Argueta won a national prize for his poetry around 1956, which gained him some recognition among Salvadoran and Central American poets. As he became more involved with the literary community of El Salvador, Argueta became a member of the “Committed Generation”. Because of his writings criticizing the government, Argueta was exiled to Costa Rica in 1972 and was not able to return to El Salvador until the 1990s. Argueta currently lives in El Salvador where he holds the position of Director of the National Public Library.

Political activism

Argueta belonged to a literary group by the name of Generación Comprometida (Committed Generation, referring to political and social commitment), also known as Círculo Literario Universitario (University Literary Circle), created by Italo López Vallecillos (1932–1986). Other members of the group included Roque Dalton (1935–1975), Álvaro Menen Desleal (1931–2000), Waldo Chávez Velasco (1932), Irma Lanzas (1933), Orlando Fresedo (1932–1965), Mercedes Durand (1932–1998), Ricardo Bogrand (1932), and Mauricio de la Selva. Members of the group were revolutionary in both their writing and their political views, though some members claim that “Generación Comprometida” and “Círculo Literario Universitario” were two different groups, it's been said that “Generación Comprometida” would be formed three or four years after the “50's Generation”, a group which would be formed by those writers whom started publishing between 1950 and 1952 and had been members of the “Cenáculo de Iniciación Literaria” such as Mercedes Durand, Irma Lanzas, Orlando Fresedo, Italo López Vallecillos, Waldo Chávez Velasco, Álvaro Menéndez Leal, Mauricio de la Selva and Ricardo Bogrand. 

Works Some of Argueta’s works include 

• El valle de las Hamacas (Editorial Ariel, Buenos Aires, 1977)
• Un hombre por la patria (poetry, Editorial Universitaria, San Salvador, 1968)
• En el costado de la luz (poetry, EU, San Salvador, 1968)
• Caperucita en la zona roja / Little Red Riding Hood in the Red Light District (Casa de las Américas Prize 1977)
•  Un día en la vida / One Day of Life (1980)
• Cuzcatlán, donde bate la mar del sur / Cuzcatlán, Where the Southern Sea Beats (1986)
• Milagro de la Paz / A Place Called Milagro de Paz (San Salvador, Istmo Editores, 1995) 
• Siglo de O(G)ro (San Salvador, DPI, 1997)

 A characteristic of Argueta’s writing style present in the majority of his works is the use of Salvadoran Spanish vernacular and slang. Argueta considers this a way to express and preserve some of El Salvador’s cultural identity.

This tour is being sponsored by Talleres de Poesia, Luna's Press and UC Davis.