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Uruguay’s leading poet and Latinamerican writer dies in Montevideo

Famed Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti

Mario Benedetti, Uruguay’s leading poet and one of Latinamerica’s most read authors died Sunday in Montevideo at the age of 88. He became famous in the Spanish speaking world in 1960 with his landmark novel La Tregua (The truce) which years later served as the script for a much praised film.

A prolific writer, his novels and poems reflect the idiosyncrasies of Montevideo’s middle class. Called “Don Mario” by his friends, the moustachioed author penned more than 60 novels, poems, short stories and plays, winning honours including Bulgaria's Jristo Borev award for poetry and essays in 1985, and Amnesty International's Golden Flame in 1986. In 1999 he won the Queen Sofia prize for Iberoamerican poetry.

The son of Italian immigrants Benedetti was born in Paso de los Toros in 1920 and soon moved with his family to Montevideo. He was a journalist who worked for a renowned left wing weekly Marcha and later for an evening newspaper El Diario which broke all circulation records in Uruguay.

From 1973 to 1985, when a military dictatorship ruled Uruguay, Benedetti lived in exile in Buenos Aires, Lima, Havana and Spain.

With the return of democracy he divided his time between Montevideo and Madrid. He was granted Honoris Causa doctorates by the Universidad de la República, Uruguay’s main university; Alicante University, Spain; Valladolid University, Spain and on June 2005 he was named as the recipient of the Premio Menendez y Pelayo, one of the main acknowledgements of the Spanish literature.

“I don't think we should be talking of a loss, because he will be with us forever,” Culture Minister Maria Simon told local media on Sunday.

Benedetti's 1960 novel “The Truce” was translated into 19 languages and along with “Thank You for the Fire” (1965) heralded his inclusion in the Latinamerican literary boom in the 1960s along with Colombia's Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Peru's Mario Vargas Llosa and Mexico's Carlos Fuentes.

Among his other major works were “Wind from Exile,” “Montevideans” and his essay “The Latin American Writer and the Possible Revolution.”

Benedetti was also an active militant of the Broad Front, a match-all left wing coalition born in 1971 which reached government in 2005. He was the most visible character of the “March 26 Movement”, which was then identified as the political branch of the urban guerrilla movement Tupamaros, MLN-T.

With over eighty titles he had become one of the most read Latinamerican authors of recent decades.