Joao Guimarães Rosa

João Guimarães Rosa (Cordisburgo, June 27, 1908—Rio de Janeiro, November 19, 1967) was a Brazilian doctor, writer and diplomat, author of novels and short stories in which the sertón (sertão) is the framework of the action. He was a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, and the most influential work of his is Gran Sertão: Veredas ( Grande Sertão: Veredas , 1956).

Biography

Guimarães Rosa was born in Cordisburgo, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, on June 27, 1908, the first of six children born to Florduardo Pinto Rosa (called Fulô by him) and Francisca Guimarães Rosa (nicknamed Chiquitinha).

Self-taught, he studied several languages as a child, beginning with French, when he was not yet seven years old. He became an almost improbable polyglot, as can be seen in these statements of his in an interview:

I speak Portuguese, German, French, English, Spanish, Italian, Esperanto, a bit of Russian; Swedish, Dutch, Latin and Greek (but with the dictionary by hand); I understand some German dialects; I studied the grammar of the Hungarian, Arabic, Sanskrit, Lithuanian, Polish, Tupi, Hebrew, Japanese, Czech, Finnish, Danish. But all wrong. And I think that studying the spirit and mechanism of other languages helps a much deeper understanding of the language itself. Mainly, however, studying for fun, taste and recreation.

When he was still a child, he moved to his grandparents' house in Belo Horizonte, where he finished primary school. He began his secondary studies at the Colégio Santo Antônio, in São João del Rei, but later returned to Belo Horizonte where he completed his education. In 1925 he enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Minas Gerais, when he was just sixteen years old.

On June 27, 1930, he married Lígia Cabral Penna, a girl barely sixteen years old with whom he had two daughters: Vilma and Agnes. Shortly before his wedding, he had completed his studies and began to practice in Itaguara, then in the municipality of Itaúna (Minas Gerais), where he stayed for nearly two years. It is in this town where he first came into contact with the world of the backlands , which serves as a reference and inspiration for his work.

Upon returning from Itaguara, Guimarães Rosa served as a volunteer doctor for the Public Force, in the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932, and was assigned to the Tunnel sector in Passa-Quatro (Minas Gerais) where he met the future president of Brazil Juscelino Kubitschek, then chief physician of the Hospital de Sangre. In 1933 he moved to Barbacena as medical officer of the 9th Infantry Battalion. After passing the exam for Itamaraty, the Brazilian foreign ministry, he spent some years of his life as a diplomat in Europe and Latin America.

He was unanimously elected a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1963, in his second candidacy. He did not take office until 1967, and he died three days later, on November 19, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Although the death certificate attributed his death to a heart attack, his death continues to be an inexplicable mystery, especially since it was previously announced in Gran Sertón: Veredas , a novel described by the author of & # 34; irrational autobiography & # 34;.

Work

• 1929 - Caçador de camurças, Chronos Kai Anagke, Or Highmore Hall mistress and Makiné

• 1936 - Magma

• 1946 - Sagarana

• 1947 Com o Vaqueiro Mariano

• 1956 - Dance body (2 vol)

• 1956 - Great Serton: Veredes (Great Sertão: Veredas)

• 1962 - Primeiras Estórias

• 1967 - Tutaméia - Terceiras Estórias

• 1968 - Em Memória de João Guimarães Rosa (postum)

• 1969/70 - These are Stories and Ave, Palavra (posters)

Spanish translations

• Great Serton: Veredes. Translation by Angel Crespo. Barcelona, Seix Barral, 1967 (Alianza Editorial, 1999).

• What a question (Tutaméia). Translation of Santiago Kovadloff. Buenos Aires, Calicanto, 1979.

• Manolon and Miguelín Translation of Pilar Gómez Bedate. Madrid Alfaguara, 1981.

• Urubuquaquá (dancing body). Translation of Estela dos Santos. Barcelona, Seix Barral, 1982.

• Serton Nights (Dance Body). Translation of Estela dos Santos. Barcelona, Seix Barral, 1982.

• First stories. Virginia Fagnani Wey translation. Barcelona, Seix Barral, 1982.

• General field and other reports. Translation of Valquiria Wey Fagnani. Mexico, Fund for Economic Culture, 2001.

• Sagarana. Translation by Adriana Toledo de Almeida. Buenos Aires, Adriana Hidalgo Editora, 2006.

• The opportunity of Augusto Matraga. Translation by Juan Carlos Ghiano and Néstor Krayy. Buenos Aires, Galerna, 1970.