Uruguayan poet, writer and journalist Mario Benedetti died in Montevideo at 88. The prolific producer of Uruguayan literature, and a member of the so-called post-war "Generation of 45," he wrote: "When they bury me / please don't forget / about my pen." (See obituaries in English.)
The author of more than 80 novels, books of poetry, stories, and essays, Benedetti was the creator of memorable stories and characters, and a prolific intellectual, considered the true chronicler of the Montevideo of his time. Before becoming a writer, he was also a journalist, El Universal recalls.
AFP (in Spanish) summarizes Benedetti's trajectory: "Almost all his poetry is collected in 'Inventario', a book published for the first time in 1963. In his novels Benedetti explores human nature and portrays the middle class, especially the bureaucrats, and often doesn't circumvent or conceal his political commitment with the movements of the left." Among his novels can be highlighted: 'La Tregua' (1960), 'Gracias por el fuego' (1965), 'El cumpleaños de Juan Ángel' (1971, written in verse), 'Primavera con una esquina rota' (1982), 'La borra del café' (1992) and 'Andamios' (1996).
The sorrow over Benedetti's death has received wide coverage in the Spanish-language media. See obituaries in El País de España annd Página 12. See the following interview on Telesur, Uruguay, in which the writer stressed the importance of "defending happiness":
On the death of Mario Benedetti
Thank you for posting that tribue, Luis, on Journalism in the Americas.
Dean Graber
Knight Center
On the death of Mario Benedetti
Talking With The Poet, Mario Benedetti,
After His Death
As we sit at this particular table,
At your favorite cafe, where the kind waiter,
Miguel Braga serves us coffee or wine,
Depending on how we view love and kindness on this day...
You know, comrade, we have made a deal
Beyond Montevideo, beyond the grave where all go.
Let us always talk or banter about the tango, mate,
Salsa, and the beautiful girls we saw in Paris,
Or the women who threw themselves at us in a drunken rage.
Was it poetry that attracted them to us,
Or was it simply we took them seriously beyond their lovely eyes,
Ample breats and pouting lips?
So, now you have joined your wife, Luz, not in the clouds,
But in the beautiful earth of Uruguay...
Now, Don Mario, my dear Italian and Uruguayan friend,
It has come to be that the gentleness of nights is approaching...
Your death has not caused me grief for you will never die,
As long as ther is poetry in the hearts of the young.
Luis Lazaro Tijerina
May 19th, 2009
Burlington, Vermont
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