5 Latin American Authors Everyone Should Know

We are excited to bring our second SEAD After Dark course, “5 Latin American Authors Everyone Should Know”, facilitated by Julia Lynch, to the gallery on Tuesday, September 12 from 7-9 PM. Julia Lynch will be discussing five authors; Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Isabel Allende, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Julio Cortázar, and Jorge Luis Borges, and how each of them have enriched her life. As we introduce the highlighted authors, we hope their stories and words resonate with you.

“It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams”

-Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, an accomplished author hailing from Aracataca, Colombia, is most known for his work Cien Años de Soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude), which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. Often considered one of the greatest Latin American writers, Garcia Marquez’s background in journalism provided him a rich background of experience, of travel, and of adventure, which can be seen in his many works, often in the form of magic realism. His incredible narratives and truths seep through the pages, influencing many and moving all.

“I want to have an epic life. I want to tell my life with big adjectives. I want to forget all the grays in between, and remember the highlights and the dark moments.”

-Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende, a Chilean native, writes with conviction, with truth, and with a sense of adventure, letting her words not only speak for herself, but for women worldwide. With over 20 works, Allende’s first novel The House of the Spirits, is the most renowned, growing out of a farewell letter to her dying grandfather. Since then however, her work has included books focusing on other significant historical events. Not only is her work about family, but social injustice, human rights, and other topics that Allende has a powerful voice in.

“I walk beneath your pens, and am not what I truly am, but what you’d prefer to imagine me.”

-Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Born in the 1650s and growing up in San Miguel Neplantla, Mexico, Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez was a poet and playwright. Her interests were many, reflecting deeply in her influential works that are still both studied and relevant today. Her work, regarded as the “first feminist manifesto” credits her to being the voice of women, even before the term feminist was coined. She was bold, she was unapologetic, she was revolutionary, she was important.

Only by living absurdly is it possible to break out of this infinite absurdity.

-Julio Cortázar

Julio Cortázar was an Argentine short story novelist, known for his exploration of surrealism in writing. Living in both Europe and Argentina, Cortázar was exposed to a variety of ideas and of culture. He was intrigued by the extraordinary, and his most famous work, Hopscotch, was revolutionary for its time, breaking barriers of what literature could look like. Also influenced by Latin America’s political strife, his writing is complex and rich, weaving our world with a world of mystery and fantasy.

“I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities I have visited.”

-Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges was a poet and short story writer, his interest in literature stemming from his Argentinian-English upbringing where he was influenced by authors such as H.G. Wells and Edgar Allen Poe. Their fantasy-filled writing molded the mind of Borges, and his writing is reflective of their words as he crafted stories to expand the mind. Known most widely for his poetry, he also wrote short stories that explore mystical pathways within the ordinary. Borges’ left a legacy incomparable to many others, his words lingering in our reality.

You must register to attend this course. To register, CLICK HERE. We hope to see you there!