
Where did Mario Benedetti go to school?
the Deutsche Schule MontevideoMario completed six years of primary school at the Deutsche Schule Montevideo, where he also learned German, which later allowed him to be the first translator of Franz Kafka in Uruguay. His father immediately removed him from the school when Nazi ideology started featuring in the classroom.
Why was Mario Benedetti exiled?
He was active in a leftist movement in the early 1970s and wrote political editorials. His politics put his life in danger after the 1973 military coup in Uruguay, so he went into exile and lived in Argentina, Peru, Cuba and Spain.
What is Mario Benedetti famous for?
Mario Benedetti, who has died aged 88, was the poet of that moment, becoming famous throughout Latin America for the direct style of his verses of love, anger, and resistance. Benedetti was born in the small town of Paso de los Toros.
What did Mario Benedetti write?
Benedetti's best known works included the novels “The Truce” (1960) and “Coffee Grinds” (1978); the short story collection “The Montevideans” (1959); and the poetry collection “Winds of Exile” (1981).
Where was Mario Benedetti born?
Paso de los Toros, UruguayMario Benedetti / Place of birthMario Benedetti Farrugia was born in 1920 into an Italian immigrant family in the cattle town of Paso de los Toros, in central Uruguay.
When was Mario Benedetti born?
September 14, 1920Mario Benedetti / Date of birthMario Benedetti, (born Sept. 14, 1920, Paso de los Toros, Uruguay—died May 17, 2009, Montevideo), Uruguayan writer who was best known for his short stories.
What is the Benedetti Foundation?
ABOUT THE BENEDETTI FOUNDATION We put on transformative orchestral and musicianship-based workshops for young people, students, teachers, and adults that showcase what Music Education at its best can look and feel like.
What is the theme of little stones at my window?
“Little Stones at My Window” by Mario Benedetti In this poem, Bendetti explores feelings of joy, anxiety, and repression through the metaphor of little stones being thrown at a window. This quick poem provides a personal yet relatable account of how it feels to experience yet avoid our full range of emotions.
Does Nicola Benedetti have a partner?
EDITOR'S BRUNCH: NICOLA BENEDETTI AND LEONARD ELSCHENBROICH Amati Magazine Article by Jessica Duchen Amati is delighted to present a substantial interview with Nicola Benedetti and her partner, cellist Leonard Elschenbroich – the first non-filmed one they have given together.
What is the theme of little stones at my window?
“Little Stones at My Window” by Mario Benedetti In this poem, Bendetti explores feelings of joy, anxiety, and repression through the metaphor of little stones being thrown at a window. This quick poem provides a personal yet relatable account of how it feels to experience yet avoid our full range of emotions.
Does Nicola Benedetti have a partner?
EDITOR'S BRUNCH: NICOLA BENEDETTI AND LEONARD ELSCHENBROICH Amati Magazine Article by Jessica Duchen Amati is delighted to present a substantial interview with Nicola Benedetti and her partner, cellist Leonard Elschenbroich – the first non-filmed one they have given together.
What did Benedetti do?
The young Benedetti decided early on that he would like to be a writer, even though he had to undertake a variety of jobs to survive financially. After several years spent in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, he returned to Montevideo in the early 1940s and launched himself as a poet – with La víspera indeleble (The Indelible Night Before, 1945) – and as a journalist, joining Marcha in 1945.
What did Benedetti feel about exile?
Although he acknowledged positive aspects of it – meeting new people, exploring different surroundings and achieving a wider reputation, he felt he could never return home. "When you are out of your country, you feel wounded, alien, and when you return you still feel exiled, because you have changed and the country has changed," he once said. He explored the pain and challenge of exile in return in one of his most moving books, El desexilio y otras conjeturas (Dis-exile and other Conjectures, 1984).
What was the role of Benedetti in the 1960s?
He wrote political articles in Marcha calling for radical change, and was instrumental in helping set up the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) movement, which sought to bring together all the leftwing groups in Uruguay.
What was the first book that Benedetti wrote?
Here, as in his first popular book of poetry, Poemas de la oficina (Poems from the Office, 1956), Benedetti shows his sympathetic understanding of the slow, unspectacular life of the Montevideo middle classes, caught up in their small world of everyday struggles and tensions. In 1960 he published La Tregua (The Truce), by far his most successful novel, which was made into a film that was nominated for an Oscar in 1974.
Who is Mario Benedetti?
Mario Benedetti is one of Uruguay's most prolific writers. He excels in all literary forms: novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, political articles, and songs. His seemingly inexhaustible creative power parallels his constant
What is the significance of Benedetti's exile?
Exile Benedetti's writing in exile had the further important function of informing the rest of the world of what was happening in his country, a painful personal and collective experience. This latter work is characterized by its hybrid nature. Testimonial writing is linked with fiction. Poetry and prose are strongly united—the poems as long epigraphs contain the essence of the stories that follow them. Contemporary literature is characterized by the removal of the traditional generic borders. These equally important “experimental” writings show that not only the subject of exile but the experience itself are such complex realities that their transformation into literature overflows the traditional divisions of genres.
When did Benedetti publish his office poems?
In 1956 he published Office Poems, a book that would change Uruguayan poetry with its unlikely focus on the office as a subject. This kind of poetry was not popular in Latin America in 1956, but the novelty and themes ensured its success. Office Poems also initiated Benedetti's period of literary maturity and, with the three works that followed, made him the most-read Uruguayan author in the country and abroad.
Did Benedetti live in Uruguay?
Benedetti lived and wrote in a most revolutionary time for Uruguay. But the country has a history of unrest that reaches much further back than the coup d'état of 1973. Research political unrest in Uruguay during the coup, and consider the ways in which those earlier periods have been reported. Were the times chronicled by literary figures? Were the newspaper circuits the sole method for communicating events? Is there currently any evidence of journals, underground papers, or other writings that reveal the history as Benedetti and his fellows revealed the conditions in the 1970s?

Overview
Works in Biographical and Historical Context
- Urban Uruguay and Class CoverageBenedetti was born on September 14, 1920, in Paso de los Toros, a small rural city in Tacuarembó, Uruguay. His parents were Breno Benedetti, the son of an established Italian grape grower and chemist, and Matilde Farrugia Benedetti, the daughter of a Spaniard and a French woman. The family moved to the capital, Monte...
Works in Literary Context
- Urban Characters and Concerns Benedetti transformed historical, social, personal, and collective events into literature. Defining himself as one of the Montevideanos, his early work is essentially urban. In a country where half of the population lives in a single city, it would seem difficult not to be urban. Yet, until the end of the 1930s, Uruguayan literature had been primarily rural. Uruguaya…
Influences
- Through his literary work, as well as through the works of other Latin American writers formerly or now in exile, Benedetti has evoked in the Hispanic people a growing interest in Latin America and in the problems of the Southern Cone countries of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and the southernmost parts of Brazil. He has achieved this by way of his own influences. Driven by prefe…
Works in Critical Context
- Benedetti has been called the most representative author of the “Generation of 1945,” or “the critical generation.” These terms, unanimously accepted by critics, identify a group of writers who by 1945 were using literature as one of the ways to show the inherent contradictions of reality. Literature by these writers, especially the narrative form, came to be written in an objective and r…
Responses to Literature
- To get a better understanding of the localist nature of Benedetti's writing, conduct group research on Uruguay and its capital city Montevideo. Consider its population, geography, and history, and...
- Class distinctions are an important part of Uruguay's history and a major feature in many of Benedetti's works. Find an example of a historical event where two classes were in oppositio…
- To get a better understanding of the localist nature of Benedetti's writing, conduct group research on Uruguay and its capital city Montevideo. Consider its population, geography, and history, and...
- Class distinctions are an important part of Uruguay's history and a major feature in many of Benedetti's works. Find an example of a historical event where two classes were in opposition, such as t...
- Put Benedetti in the larger context of Uruguayan literature. What literary movements were significant to this culture? What other writers are included in his time, area, and genres? What kinds of l...
- Benedetti lived and wrote in a most revolutionary time for Uruguay. But the country has a hist…
Bibliography
- Books
Hayden, Rose Lee. An Existential Focus on Some Novels of the River Plate. East Lansing, Mich.: Latin-American Studies Center, 1973. Rodríguez Monegal, Emir. “Las ficciones de un testigo implicado: Mario Benedetti.” In Narradores de esta América. Montevideo, Uruguay: Arca, 1961, p… - Periodicals
Bach, Caleb. Interview with Mario Benedetti. Americas(August 1998): 38. Polk, James. Review of Blood Pact and Other Stories. New York Times Book Review(August 17, 1997): 16. Zeitz, Eileen M. “Entrevista a Mario Benedetti.” In Hispania(May 1980): vol. 63: 417–19.