Horacio quiroga family

Quiroga Schedule (1878-1937), known as the master of the Latin American short story, was one of the most prolific writers in this literary genre. He knew on his own skin the grim nuances of human tragedy; however, he was able to sublimate the horror of his personal misfortunes to transform them into true jewels of narrative art.

By chance, young Horacio received an invitation that marked him forever. He ventured in the company of his teacher to photograph ruins in the thickness of the Argentine jungle; each obturation was awakening in his spirit the hunger for adventure.

Since then, he dedicated a good part of his life to capturing that vegetation and its creatures with words, capturing their rawness and tenderness in detail. Quiroga is an obligatory reference of universal letters, an indispensable author for those who wish to immerse themselves in the imaginary of the wild south.

Quiroga’s prose is sometimes tinged with the color of death, and no wonder, since it was always present in the life of this writer.

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Biography

Early years and childhood

Horacio Quiroga was the youngest son of Prudencio Quiroga and Juana Petrona Forteza. Horacio Silvestre Quiroga Forteza, was born in the city of Salto, Uruguay, on December 31, 1878. He had three older siblings: Pastora, María and Prudencio.

His father was an Argentine revolutionary whose ancestor was the famous liberal leader Facundo Quiroga, an important actor in the political history of his nation.

He served as vice consul and was also the owner of a company specialized in maritime business, also having his own boat factory.

His mother came from a family linked to the literary and artistic circles of Uruguay. Horacio learned from her to love her stories and books.

The Quiroga-Forteza family was financially and affectively consolidated. However, a black cloud covered the joy of that home: as a baby, Horacio contracted a lung condition that caused him to cough heavily.

start of tragedy

On medical recommendation, his parents went to spend a few days at a nearby farm with warm weather. Just two months after he was born, Horacio witnessed (from his mother’s arms) the accident that left him fatherless.

In a stumble when getting off his boat, a loaded shotgun fired an accurate shot in the head. This sequence of misfortunes took the life of Prudencio Quiroga in 1879.

A widow with four children behind her, “Pastora” (as her mother was called) set out to rebuild her life and finances, so she married a man from Salta named Ascencio Barcos.

Everything points to the fact that he was a benevolent and attentive stepfather with his consort’s children; however, again the shadow of mourning would cover the now home Barcos-Forteza.

another sadness

In 1896 Ascencio was the victim of a brain hemorrhage. This left him semi-paralyzed and with severe problems speaking.

These aftermath were very difficult to bear. Prisoner of despair and helplessness, he decided to end his life with a shotgun blast. This he did precisely when Horacio (already a teenager) was entering the room where his stepfather was.

jungle experience

Quiroga received part of his training at the Salto Polytechnic Institute. There he met who would be his godfather in letters, the also writer Leopoldo Lugones, born in 1898.

It was precisely he who later invited him as a photography assistant on a day of exploration to the ruins of a Jesuit construction located in the jungle of Misiones, Argentina.

The environment of the place and its beneficial effect on his health captivated the young Uruguayan, for which he later made a wooden house with his own hands on the edge of the Paraná River where he established his home.

debutant letters

Back in the city, the young Horacio entered the literary sphere. He gave signs of approaching writing with his collection of poems coral reefs in 1901.

Its main authors were the American Edgar Allan Poe, the French René Albert Guy de Maupassant and the Italian Gabriele D’Annunzio.

He learned the art of making stories in a self-taught way, making mistakes and correcting. In the midst of this experimentation, Quiroga wrote stories for periodicals.

In order to exchange knowledge and techniques, he held meetings with a group of colleagues who were fond of reading and writing, forming what they called «The Gay Knowledge Consistory». Quiroga, who also displayed journalistic inclinations, founded the Jump Magazine.

Murder

Death intervened again in Quiroga’s life. His friend, Federico Ferrando, received a call to duel with a journalist.

Horacio, worried about Fernando who didn’t know about weapons, offered to check and adjust the pistol he would use in the fight. By accident the gun went off, killing his friend instantly.

Horacio remained in prison for four days, until his innocence was determined and he was released. It was a painful experience for Horacio, who was 24 years old at the time.

Ironically, a few days before, Horace had finished one of his stories called «The Barrel of Amontillado» (Poe’s story of the same name written in his honor) in which the protagonist takes the life of his friend.

Professional life

In 1903 he began teaching as a high school Literature teacher, but gave up his attempt to teach, as the students seemed to have no interest.

He chose to earn his bread doing what he liked. In 1905 he began working as a contributor to a widely circulated weekly magazine called Faces and masks. He also wrote for other publications of the time.

These commissions had strict guidelines that had to be met in order to be published. More than an obstacle, this represents a guide to refine the narrative skills of the Uruguayan.

Nuptials

In 1909, at the age of thirty, Horacio fell in love and married his student Ana María Cieres. She inspired him to write a novel: cloudy love.

At that time, Quiroga owned a piece of land in San Ignacio, in the Misiones jungle, and the couple went to live there. At the age of two, his eldest daughter, Eglé, was born; A year later, the second son of the family, Darío, arrived.

Horacio was in charge of personally educating his children not only in academics, but also in relation to survival in the jungle and the strengthening of character.

At that time, in addition to carrying out his work as a writer, Horacio served as a justice of the peace in the town where he lived.

The village justice of the peace had functions similar to those of a civil chief; therefore, he kept records of births, deaths, and other events.

Quiroga, in his particular style, recorded these events on pieces of paper that he kept in a tin of biscuits. Everything seemed to be going well, but a new tragedy was at hand.

Suicide

Some affirm that it is due to jealousy and others maintain that it is because they cannot adapt to the jungle environment; the truth is that, in an irrational outburst, the young wife ingests an antiseptic that poisons her.

The agony lasted 8 long days, in which he regretted what he had done but there was no reversal. Maria she died of intestinal hemorrhage. On February 10, 1915, Horacio was left alone with his two children.

Shocked and depressed by what happened, and in his new and difficult condition as a widower-father, Horacio burned all the belongings and photographs of his dead wife in a bonfire.

return to the city

He left for Buenos Aires and rented a basement to live with the children. There she wrote her jungle talesa book of stories about animals with which he surely entertained and taught his little ones.

In 1916 he met the writer Alfonsina Storni. A very close friendship united them ever since. He invited her to go with him to Misiones, but she declined her offer. However, his affections remained.

After some time, Quiroga fell in love with another young woman named Ana María. At only 17 years old, the girl did not obtain permission from her parents for the relationship, who made war on the writer until they separated. This fact inspired another of his novels. past love.

In 1927 Quiroga fell in love again. This time it was from a fellow student of his daughter. The young woman’s name was María Elena Bravo and she was 30 years younger than her suitor. However, she accepted it.

Remarriage

The renowned writer married María Elena Bravo and left Buenos Aires to go to Misiones with his new wife. In 1928 his third daughter was born, María Elena, nicknamed “pitoca” by her father.

After nine years of marriage, the relationship deteriorated. María Elena abandoned Horacio and took her daughter to Buenos Aires.

disease and death

Quiroga, already consolidated as a writer, remained in Misiones despite presenting health problems; strong abdominal pains afflicted him. He was admitted to the Hospital de Clínicas in Buenos Aires, where he stayed for a long time.

Upon arrival, he learned of a patient confined in the basement with a serious degenerative disease that deformed his face. As an act of humanity, Quiroga asked to be assigned as a roommate.

From that moment on, Vicente Batistessa, as the confined man was called, became Quiroga’s friend and confidante until his life ended.

A long time passed before they revealed the diagnosis to Quiroga: he had terminal cancer in the prostate, with no possibility of intervention or cure.

The same day of the diagnosis, he asked permission to go see his daughter. She left the hospital and wandered around the city and made a purchase. She returned to the hospital at night and took the product out of the bag: a small vial of cyanide.

He poured some into a glass before the understanding look of Batistessa, who did not say a word. He drained the contents of the glass and lay down to wait. Death came again, but this time it came for him. It was February 17, 1937.

Works by Horacio Quiroga

Horacio Quiroga not only cultivated the art of writing stories, he was also a playwright and poet.

In 1888 he wrote The Tiger.
In 1901 he published his first book of poetry: coral reefs.
In 1904 and 1907 his stories came to light. the crime of the other and The feather pillow.
In 1908 he wrote his first novel. Story of a cloudy love.
In 1917 his famous Tales of love, madness and death.
In 1918 he wrote jungle tales.
In 1920 he published the stories The dead man and The wild. Also in this year she wrote the play the sacrificed.
In 1921 his collection of short stories appeared. Anaconda.
In 1924, 1925 and 1926 he wrote The desert, The slaughtered chicken and other stories and the banishedrespectively.
1929 is the year of publication of his novel past love.
In 1931 he wrote, in collaboration with Leonardo Glusberg, the reading book for children home soil.
In 1935, 1937 and 1939 he wrote Beyond, the chair of pain, Mother’s Love and nothing better than dreaming.
He also wrote theory on the art of counting in The rhetoric of the storyin his book About literatureand in his Decalogue of the perfect storytellerfollowed by some and refuted by others.

Awards received

with your writing I count without reason…