Marcela Paz

Ester Huneeus Salas de Claro, better known by her pseudonym Marcela Paz (Santiago, February 28, 1902-ibid., June 12, 1985), was a Chilean writer, famous for her series of children's stories Papelucho.

Biography

He was born in Santiago on February 28, 1902 (in his biography he indicates that he was born on February 29; however, 1902 was not a leap year).

She was born into a wealthy family, the second of eight children born to Francisco Huneeus Gana and María Teresa Salas Subercaseaux. In addition, she was the granddaughter of Senator Jorge Huneeus Zegers and the great-granddaughter of the composer Isidora Zegers.

Since she was little, she took refuge in solitude and imagination, particularly after the death of Anita, her older sister, when she was 11 years old. She contributed the absence of friends her age. Ester never attended a school; her child training was in charge of governesses.

At the age of 18, she had a chance encounter with a blind woman of the same age who was begging for alms and this deeply impacted her. With her friends, through the press, she summons blind people to a meeting at the Teatro del Colegio Sagrados Corazones, thinking that 10 or 12 blind people would arrive; the call makes a total of 500 blind people and their companions…" This prompted her to get public support and private donations and she founded, in 1920, the Saint Lucia Protective Society for the Blind, of which Ester Huneeus would be her executive secretary for 25 years.

In 1929 he traveled to France, where he followed plastic arts courses for a few months.

On March 30, 1935, she married Luis Claro Montes (Santiago, 05.20.1902-Concón, 02.22.1954) in Pirque, a civil engineer whom she had known since childhood. The couple had five children: Raúl (n 1936; he was a priest until the first half of the 1960s; later he married in Germany), Marcela (1937), Paula (1939), Andrés (1940), Francisco (1942; physicist, author of popular science books).

Beginnings in Literature

Back in Chile, he slowly began his literary work, his works in sculptures and his little-known social work. Its timid appearance was through magazines such as Lectura, El Peneca, Ecran, Zig-Zag, Eva and Margarita, in addition to the newspapers La Nación, El Diario Ilustrado, El Mercurio and The Third. Ester Huneeus was already beginning to publish under her pseudonym that catapulted her to fame, Marcela Paz . She previously published under other pseudonyms such as Paula de la Sierra, Lukim Retse, P. Neka and Juanita Godoy.

In 1933 he published his first book Time, paper and pencil, receiving a good reception from critics. The same year, contradicting her idea of not getting married, she married José Luis Claro.

Paper and acknowledgments

In 1947 his most famous work was born, Papelucho, which captured the childlike essence of the time. He was presented in the literary contest organized by the Rapa Nui publishing house. The title of the work was inspired by the nickname of her husband, & # 34; Pepe Lucho & # 34;. The illustrations, which became classics, were the work of her sister, Yolanda Huneeus.

In 1954 her husband, José Luis Claro, died, being noticeably affected.

Between 1964 and 1967, he directed the Chilean section of the International Youth Book Association (IBBY). It is there that she met her friend and co-worker, Alicia Morel, co-writer of Perico climbs through Chile . In 1968 she received the Hans Christian Andersen Honorary Diploma . In 1979 she received the Gold Medal from the Providencia Cultural Institute . In addition, in 1981 she was awarded the Diploma of Honor from the Municipality of Santiago .

In 1982, he won the Chilean National Literature Award after an extensive series of works that deeply connected children's audiences with literature. The same year she was also awarded with the First Prize Children's Works Contest for television.

"He learned to capture in detail all that enchanting adventures that only a child's fantasy can live them in full. It employs a language according to the psychological nature of the child's soul, so that all of our children, like that of their parents, can enjoy their ample with such adventures and chiquilladas, for they are portrayed as a whole body."

Miguel Ángel Díaz, National Literature Awards, 1988.

Last years, death and posthumous tributes

Marcela Paz, 1982.

He passed away at the age of 83, on June 12, 1985, in Santiago, Chile. His remains rest in the General Cemetery of Santiago, patio 56.

In 1986 the Marcela Paz Prize was instituted, organized by the Editorial Universitaria.

At her funeral, in the General Cemetery, after a Eucharist, which brought together many people who accompanied her with immense affection, a nine-year-old boy read her little speech: “I am very sorry because a great writer died who stood up for the children, so Karmar School fires you, Ester Huneeus.”

On February 29, 2012, Google Chile launched a commemorative doodle for the 110th anniversary of his birth; as stated in the early years section, February 29, 1902 did not exist, and Google indicated that fact with the phrase "date given by the family of Marcela Paz".

In 2017, seventy years after the publication of Papelucho, the SM publishing house published two books from the series that Marcela Paz had written in the 1970s but never published them. The author titled them Papelucho Periodista and Papelucho Doctor, but they finally went on sale with the titles Adiós planeta, por Papelucho and Papelucho, Romelio and the castle respectively. In 2018 the same publisher published a book called My letters to Papelucho, which consists of a series of letters that a girl writes for Papelucho, her neighbor.

Works

• Time, paper and pencil (1933)
• I'm a colorine. (1935)
• Paper. (1947)
• The Turn of Sebastian (1950)
• Trasucho casi orérfano (1951)
• Light candies (1954)
• Walloon historian (1955)
• Walloon Detective (1956)
• Despite my aunt (1958)
• Trash in the clinic (1959)
• Walloon lost (1962)
• Walloon, my sister Ji (1965)
• Missionary paper (1966)
• Secret diary of Trasucho and the Martian (1968)
• Trasucho, my brother Hippie (1971)
• Trash on vacation (1971)
• Tales to sing (1974)
• Muselina Pérez Soto (1974)
• Paperucho: I am dix leso (1974)
• Perico climbing through Chile (written with Alicia Morel, 1978)
• The Pecosa (1980)
• The Red Soldier (1981)
• The secrets of catite (1982)

Posthumous

• Goodbye planet, by Trash (2017)
• Walloon, Romelio and the castle (2017)
• My letters to Trash (2018)
• Trash in History (2022)