Andres Caicedo

Luis Andrés Caicedo Estela (Santiago de Cali, September 29, 1951 - Ibidem, March 4, 1977) was a Colombian writer. He led different cultural movements in the city of Valle del Cauca, such as the literary group Los Dialogantes. His taste for cinema led him to found, in 1971, with other friends, the Cine-Club de Cali, and the magazine Watch out for Cinema. In 1970 he won the I Caracas Literary Short Story Contest with his work & # 34; Los dientes de caperucita & # 34;, he was a writer, storyteller, scriptwriter and critic, which would open the doors to intellectual recognition. He committed suicide at the age of 25. His main work is the novel ¡Que viva la música!.

Biography

Second Years

A native of Popayán, from Cali, the Valle del Cauca writer Andrés Caicedo was the youngest of four children. In 1958 his brother Francisco José was born, who would die two years later. On that date, Andrés was studying at the Colegio del Pilar, an institution he entered after passing through the Colegio Pío XII.

Between letters, theater and cinema

Along with his taste for literature, Andrés showed an interest in theater and cinema. In 1966 he would write his first play, titled Las curiosas conciencias ; The story of him & # 34; Infection & # 34; dates from that same year. A year later he directs the play The bald singer, by Eugène Ionesco, and writes the texts "The end of the holidays", "Receiving the new student", "The Sea", "The imbeciles are witness", and "The skin of the other hero"; with this last work he would win the First Cali Student Theater Festival. In 1969 he worked at the Cali Experimental Theater (TEC) under the direction of Enrique Buenaventura. At TEC, he was an actor in the play Six Hours in the Life of Frank Kulak.

In 1969 he began writing literary criticism in the newspapers El País, Occidente and El Pueblo. Also, she received several literary awards: her story & # 34; Berenice & # 34; is awarded in the story contest of the Universidad del Valle, while "Los dientes de Caperucita" ranked second in the Latin American Short Story Contest, organized by the Venezuelan magazine Imagen. She adapts and directs another work by Eugène Ionesco: The Chairs. He writes the stories "That's why I return to my city", "Empty", "The messengers", "Besacalles", " From top to bottom from left to right", "The Spectator", "Happy friends", and "Lulita who doesnt want to open the door?".

Cali Film Club

In 1971 he founded the Cine-Club de Cali together with Ramiro Arbeláez, Hernando Guerrero, Carlos Mayolo and Luis Ospina. Initially, it operated in a house or commune called Ciudad Solar, owned by Guerrero. It then moved to the TEC room, then to the Alameda Theater and finally to the San Fernando Theater.

In 1971 he adapted and directed La noche de los asesinos, by José Triana; In that same year, she wrote the story "Antígona". A year later he wrote the stories "Patricialinda", "Calibanismo", "Fatal Destinies", "Angelita and Miguel Ángel", and " 34;The pierced one". In 1972 he wrote and staged the play The Sea, an adaptation of a work by Harold Pinter inspired, in turn, by Moby Dick by Herman Melville and Narration of Arthur Gordon Pym by Edgar Allan Poe. In his posthumous archives lies a theatrical version of the novel The city and the dogs by Mario Vargas Llosa entitled The heroes at the beginning .

With his friend Carlos Mayolo he unsuccessfully tries to make a movie of a script for "Angelita y Miguel Ángel" in 1972. In number five of the magazine Ojo al cine, he published his script for a short film entitled A good man is difficult to find. The stories "The suitor", "Angelita and Miguel Ángel", and "The time of the swamp" They will be published posthumously, under the title Bogged-down Angels or stories for youngsters. "The time of the swamp" He was awarded by the Externado de Colombia University's national short story contest.

Photo of the work Stuffed angels, performed by the Teatro Matacandelas. (2003).

The trip to the United States

In 1973, Andrés traveled to Los Angeles and then to New York with the hope of selling Roger Corman two feature film scripts he had written. The titles of the scripts were The Nameless Lineage and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. A non-dialogue treatment was called Suzie Bloom's Lovers. His sister helped translate the first one. The second, she did with the help of friends in the United States. His venture was unsuccessful and Corman never got the scripts in his hands. "[...] It is a very difficult and tangled medium, and the part that is involved in Hollywood does not dare to collaborate for fear of competition [...]", he would write to his mother in a letter, regarding the failure of the. In this country, Andrés would begin to write his only novel, Long live music!, and he began writing a diary that he intended to turn into a novel, entitled Soon: Memories of a Cinesifilis; In addition, he had the opportunity to interview the film director Sergio Leone.

Last years

"Maternidad", a story written in 1974, would be considered by himself as his best work. That same year, the first issue of Ojo al cine appeared, a specialized magazine that would become one of the most important in Colombia. Ojo al cine would publish five issues. He also travels to the United States again, this time to attend the New York Film Festival.

A year later Ediciones Pirata de Calidad publishes his story "El atravesado", thanks to the financial support of his mother, achieving some success at the local level.

Suicide

Faithful to the idea that living more than 25 years was foolish, Andrés attempted suicide twice in 1976. That year, issues 3, 4 and 5 of the magazine Ojo al cine appeared. He delivered to Colcultura the final manuscript of ¡Que viva la música!, of which he was able to receive a copy published on March 4, 1977; That same day, he intentionally swallowed 60 Secobarbital pills, an act that ended his life.

Over the years, Andrés Caicedo has become a cult writer, with wide national and international recognition. His work has been republished in Latin America and has been translated into English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese and Finnish.

Analyzing his death, Alberto Fuguet says:

"Caicedo is the missing link of the boom. And the number one enemy of Macondo. I don't know to what extent he committed suicide or perhaps he was assassinated by García Márquez and the prevailing culture at that time. He was much less the rocker that Colombians want, and more of an intellectual. A super tormented nerd. He had imbalances, anguish to live. He was not comfortable in life. He had trouble standing up. And he had to write to survive. He killed himself because he saw too much.” ^{[citation needed ]}

Influence

One of the authors who took up Caicedo's line was Manuel Giraldo Magil from Ibaguero with his work Conciertos del bewilderment and Rafael Chaparro Madiedo from Bogotá with his work Opio in the Clouds, which was seen as an extreme version of several Caicedian stories. The influence of the author from Cali continues to this day with writers such as Octavio Escobar Giraldo, in his book De música ligera. Efraím Medina also returns to Caicedian black humor in parts of his novel Once upon a time the love but I had to kill him, while Ricardo Abdahllah included several Caicedian stories adapted to the nineties in his first book of stories, Burning Night. The Teatro matacandelas, on the other hand, has presented the play Bogged-down Angels, based on the author's work, for ten years. Caicedo's influence spread to other Latin American countries and inspired the Argentine Enzo Maqueira to write his celebrated novel Electronics.

Work

• My Body is a cell (2008). Bogotá: Norma.
• The Black Book (2008). Bogotá: Norma.
• The story of my life (2007). Bogotá: Norma.
• Night without Fortune / Antigone (2002). Bogotá: Norma.
• Eye to the movies (1999). Bogotá: Norma
• Receiving the new student (1995). Cali: Editorial de la Facultad de Humanidades de la Universidad del Valle.
• Fatal instincts (1984). Bogotá: Black sheep.
• Berenice / The Cross / Maternity / The Time of the Swamp (1978). Cali: Editorial Andes.
• The end of the holiday (1967).

Novels

• Let the music live! (1977)
• Night without fortune (1976. Published in the book Fatal instincts1984. Then it has been edited as an independent work).
• The statue of lead welding (1967)
• Angelitos Empantanados O Historia para Jovencitos" (1970)

Stories

Film and theater scripts

• Angelita and Michelangelo (guion for short film, 1971. Co-led with Carlos Mayolo. Fragments existing in the documentary Andrés Caicedo: a few good friends by Luis Ospina, 1986).
• Stirpe without name (guion for feature film, 1973).
• The shadow over Innsmouth (guion for feature film, 1973).
• A good man is hard to find (guion for short film, 1975).
• The curious consciences (Teatro, circa 1966).
• End of vacation (Teatro, circa 1967).
• The skin of the other hero (Teatro, circa 1967).
• Receiving the new student (Teatro, circa 1967).
• The assholes are witnessing (Teatro, circa 1967).
• The sea (Teatro, 1972).

Studies about his work have multiplied after his death, as well as audiovisual productions around his theatrical, cinematographic and literary figure. Among the main works around the universe of Andrés Caicedo, the following stand out:

• Andrés Caicedo: a few good friends (Documental. Director: Luis Ospina. Colombia, 1986).
• Calicalabozo (Documental. Director: Jorge Navas. Colombia, 1997).
• Night without fortune (Documental. Directors: Alvaro Cifuentes, Francisco Forbes. Argentina, 2011).
• Everything began at the end (Documental. Director: Luis Ospina. Colombia, 2015).
• Salsa and suicide. Andrés Caicedo: youth culture and culture of violence in Colombia (Ensayo. By: Francesco Varanini. In: Literary travel by Latin America [1998]. Barcelona, El Acantilado, 2000, pp. 345-. 373.
• Andrés Caicedo or death without sosiego (Ensay. By: Sandro Romero Rey. Editorial Norma. Colombia, 2007).
• Memorias de una cinefilia (Andrés Caicedo, Carlos Mayolo, Luis Ospina). (Exsaying. By: Sandro Romero Rey. Century of Man Editors. Colombia, 2015).