Juan Gelman

Juan Gelman (3 May 1930 – 14 January 2014) was an Argentine poet. He published more than twenty books of poetry between 1956 and his death in early 2014. He was a naturalized citizen of Mexico, where he arrived as a political exile of the Process, the military junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983.

In 2007, Gelman was awarded the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the most important award for Spanish-language literature. His works celebrate life but are also tempered with social and political commentary and reflect his painful experiences with the politics of Argentina.

Biography Juan Gelman Burichson was born on 3 May 1930 in the Villa Crespo neighborhood of Buenos Aires to Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. As a boy, he read Russian and European literature widely under the tutelage of his brother Boris. His father, José Gelman, was a social revolutionary who participated in the Russian Revolution of 1905; he emigrated to Argentina, went back shortly after the October Revolution, and then returned to Argentina for good, disillusioned. He also had a long career as a journalist, writing for the Argentine newspaper Pagina/12 until his death.

Gelman included Uruguayan police officer Hugo Campos Hermida in a legal suit lodged in Spain for the "disappearance" of his daughter-in-law in Uruguay.

His granddaughter At the beginning of the 21st century, Uruguayan president Jorge Batlle Ibáñez ordered an investigation and Gelman's granddaughter, Macarena Gelman, was found. Macarena, who had lived as an adopted child, took the surnames of her parents and started a career as a human rights activist.

Death Gelman died at age 83 of complications with preleukemia at his home in the Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City. His granddaughter, Macarena, flew in from Uruguay to attend the funeral. Three days of national mourning was declared by Argentina's president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Personal papers Juan Gelman's archive, which includes drafts of writings and a collection of files he kept pertaining to his human rights investigations, is available for research at the Manuscripts Division in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Princeton University in the United States.

Works

Published in English translation Unthinkable Tenderness: Selected Poems, trans.: Joan Lindgren, University of California Press, 1997 The Poems of Sidney West, trans.: Katherine M. Hedeen & Victor Rodríguez Nuñez, Salt Publishing, 2009 Between Words: Juan Gelman Public Letter, trans.: Lisa Rose Bradford, CIAL, 2010 Commentaries and Citations, trans.: Lisa Rose Bradford, Coimbra Editions, Poetry in Translation, 2011 Nightingales again, trans.: J. S. Tennant, in MPT Review, Series 3 no. 11 Frontiers, 2011 Com/positions, trans.: Lisa Rose Bradford, Coimbra Editions, Poetry in Translation, 2013

Published in Spanish Poetry Violín y otras cuestiones, Buenos Aires, Gleizer, 1956. El juego en que andamos, Buenos Aires, Nueva Expresión, 1959. Velorio del solo, Buenos Aires, Nueva Expresión, 1961. Gotán (1956-1962), Buenos Aires, La Rosa Blindada, 1962. (Neuauflage 1996) Cólera Buey, La Habana, La Tertulia, 1965. (Neuauflage 1994) Los poemas de Sidney West, Buenos Aires, Galerna, 1969. (Neuauflage 1995) Fábulas, Buenos Aires, La Rosa Blindada, 1971. Relaciones, Buenos Aires, La Rosa Blindada, 1973. Hechos y Relaciones, Barcelona, Lumen, 1980. Si dulcemente, Barcelona, Lumen, 1980. Citas y Comentarios, Visor Madrid, 1982. Hacia el Sur, México, Marcha, 1982. Com/posiciones (1983-1984), Barcelona, Ediciones del Mall, 1986. Interrupciones I, Buenos Aires, Libros de Tierra Firme, 1986. Interrupciones II, Buenos Aires, Libros de Tierra Firme, 1988. Anunciaciones, Madrid, Visor, 1988. Carta a mi madre, Buenos Aires, Libros de Tierra Firme, 1989. Dibaxu, Buenos Aires, Seix Barral, 1994. Salarios del impío, Buenos Aires, Libros de Tierra Firme, 1993. Incompletamente, Buenos Aires, Seix Barral, 1997. Tantear la noche, Lanzarote, Fundación César Manrique, 2000. Valer la pena, Buenos Aires, Seix Barral, 2001. País que fue será, Buenos Aires, Seix Barral, 2004. Mundar, Buenos Aires, Seix Barral, 2007. De atrásalante en su porfía, Madrid, Visor, und Buenos Aires, Seix Barral, 2009 El emperrado corazón amora, Barcelona, Tusquets und Buenos Aires, Seix Barral, 2011

Anthologies Poemas, Casa de las Américas, La Habana, 1960. Obra poética, Corregidor, Buenos Aires, 1975. Poesía, Casa de las Américas, La Habana, 1985. Antología poética, Vintén, Montevideo, (1993). Antología personal, Desde la Gente, Instituto Movilizador de Fondos Cooperativos, Buenos Aires, 1993. En abierta oscuridad, Siglo XXI, México, 1993. Antología poética, Espasa-Calpe, Buenos Aires, 1994. De palabra (1971-1987). Prefazione di Julio Cortázar, Visor, Madrid, 1994. Oficio Ardiente (2005), Patrimonio Nacional y la Universidad de Salamanca. Fulgor del aire (2007), LOM Ediciones, Santiago de Chile De palabra: Poesía III (1973-1989) (2008), Visor Libros, Madrid Bajo la lluvia ajena (2009), Seix Barral, Barcelona

Prose Prosa de prensa, Ediciones B, España, 1997 Ni el flaco perdón de Dios/Hijos de desaparecidos (coautore con Mara La Madrid), Planeta, Buenos Aires, 1997 Nueva prosa de prensa, Ediciones B Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1999 Afghanistan/Iraq: el imperio empantanado, Buenos Aires, 2001 Miradas, Seix Barral, Buenos Aires, 2005 Escritos urgentes, Capital Intellectual, Buenos Aires, 2009 Escritos urgentes II, Capital intellectual, Buenos Aires, 2010 El ciempiés y la araña, ilustraciones de Eleonora Arroyo, Capital intellectual, México, 2011

Criticism of his works The Reasoning behind the Act of Striking a Spent Match / Hernán Fontanet, 2019. Juan Gelman y su tiempo: Historias, poemas y reflexiones / Hernán Fontanet, 2015. Gelman. Un poeta y su vida / Hernán Fontanet, 2015. Juan Gelman : esperanza, utopía y resistencia / Pablo Montanaro, 2006 La escritura del duelo en la poesía de Juan Gelman / Geneviève Fabry, 2005 El llamado de los desaparecidos : sobre la poesía de Juan Gelman / Edmundo Gómez Mango, 2004 Juan Gelman y la nueva poesía hispanoamericana / Miguel Correa Mujica, 2001 Juan Gelman : poesía de sombra de la memoria / Elena Tamargo Cordero, 2000 Acercamientos a Juan Gelman / José Bru, 2000 Palabra de Gelman : en entrevistas y notas periodísticas / Pablo Montanaro, 1998 La poesía de Gelman: cuando surgen las palabras / Daniel Freidemberg, 1997 Juan Gelman : las estrategias de la otredad : heteronimia, intertextualidad, traducción / María del Carmen Sillato, 1996 Como temblor del aire : la poesía de Juan Gelman, ensayos críticos / Lilián Uribe, 1995 Juan Gelman : contra las fabulaciones del mundo / Miguel Dalmaroni, 1993 Conversaciones con Juan Gelman : contraderrota, Montoneros y la revolución perdida / Roberto Mero, 1987 La poesía de Juan Gelman o la ternura desatada / Hugo Achugar, 1985 Juan Gelman, poeta argentino / Beatriz Varela de Rozas, 2004

Documentary The finding of Gelman's disappeared granddaughter is portrayed in Jorge Batlle: entre el cielo y el infierno, a 2024 documentary directed by Federico Lemos.