Abelardo Diaz Alfaro

Abelardo Díaz Alfaro (Caguas (Puerto Rico), Puerto Rico, July 24, 1916-Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, July 22, 1999) was a Puerto Rican writer, social worker, and journalist. defender of the Puerto Rican idiosyncrasy, considered the most important storyteller of Creole themes in Puerto Rico.

Biography

His father was the pastor Don Abelardo Díaz Morales and his mother was a teacher, Doña Asunción Alfaro Prats. He completed his Bachelor of Arts at the San Germán Polytechnic Institute and obtained a license in social work from the University of Puerto Rico, specializing in sociology.

He was a social worker in the rural area of Puerto Rico, particularly in the Yaurel neighborhood of the town of Arroyo, this inspired him to write all his stories. After publishing some short stories in the magazine La Torre, in 1947 he published a collection entitled Terrazo (which he wrote as a social worker in Arroyo), which received an award from the Society of University Journalists of Rio stones. He continued to publish short stories in magazines such as Puerto Rico Evangélico, Alma Latina, La Democracia de Nueva York, El Mundo, the Magazine of the Institute of Culture among others.

In 1967 he published My Dream Island, a collection of radio scripts written for the government station WIPR.

He also wrote the programs Teyo Gracia and Retablo del solar for WIPR, in which he described typical island characters. Numerous stories were translated into different languages (English, Czech, French, etc.). In 1998, the stories gathered in Terrazo inspired the production of the film Cuentos para despertar directed by Luis Molina Casanova.

Díaz Alfaro passed away in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, on July 22, 1999. As a last will, after being held for a wake at the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, his body was taken on an ox-drawn cart to his final resting place..

Works

• Terrazo (1947)
• My dream island
• The Josco
• The Dogs
• The Eye of the Heart
• United States in Literature
• Hispanic World Tales
• Changes Global Anthology
• The Green Antilles
• Contemporary Readers
• National Catholic
• The Princeton Tiger
• Europe in France
• Santa Clo goes to the Knife
• Campo Alegre
• Jesus in briefs