Papelucho

Papelucho is a children's literary series created by Chilean writer Marcela Paz, which narrates the daily adventures of a Chilean child.

Papelucho is based on the author's childhood experiences and the books are written in the form of a life diary written by the main character. They are the most read during school age in Chile, to such an extent that some are part of the compulsory reading plan.

The protagonist, Papelucho, is an eight-year-old boy, apparently no older, whose adventures occur mainly inside his head. His ingenuity and imagination to interpret the everyday things of life have transformed him into the most beloved and widely read children's character in Chilean narrative. One of his most notorious characteristics is the intention to want to solve problems, which, when introduced into a specific act, end up leaving things worse than they were originally.

Published for the first time in 1945, although the first work in the series has never been published by decision in the first instance of its author and later of her children. taboo at the time. Subsequently, the series lasted until 1974, although successive reissues continue until today. A peculiarity of the work is that it does not adopt a moralistic tone, very typical of the time in which it was written. The parents do not seem to be models of virtue and the child's life takes place in a climate of certain loneliness. The peculiar language of the text, the idiomatic turns and the grammatical errors give great vividness and attractiveness to your reading.

Books

The Papelucho series comprises twelve books:

• Paper. (1947)

Trasucho thinks that he has accidentally poisoned Domitila, the employee of his house, this incident motivates him to write a daily life where he begins to narrate his daily life at home, with his friends and at school.

• Trasucho casi orérfano (1951)

When the family of Trasucho must travel to the United States, his parents and his elder brother deceive him not to take him, so he ends up in a small rural town first housed in his aunt Rosario's house and then in the village priest's house, they will spend a series of adventures on the street.

• Walloon historian (1955)

He's the most regionalist of all. In this volume, Trasucho will explore the history of America and then the history of Chile recounting it in such a fun way that it breaks with the monotony of the study texts. Chilenisms in Walloon historian they are notorious since the book deals almost exclusively with Chilean history (and also in the cap you see Trasucho flying a Chilean flag), so it has been unsuccessful in the rest of Latin America and Europe.

• Walloon Detective (1957)

Trasucho becomes a witness to a crime he witnessed by mere chance. The events of the book take place between police events, but narrated from the point of view of a child.

• Trash in the clinic (1958)

The book takes place during the station of Trasucho in the clinic because of the wrong operation of appendix, where he makes his own with his imagination together with another sick old man, of which he becomes very friendly.

• Walloon lost (1960)

As the family prepares to make a train trip to Arica, Trasucho and his little sister Jimena end up taking the wrong train and end up in Osorno, where they end up living strange and absurd peripecias both in the city and in the countryside.

• My sister Ji, for Trash (1964)

Jimena, the sister of Trasucho born at the end of Walloon Detective, grows and he faces the problem of adapting to that new member of his family as he is the only person who has a genuine connection with the girl.

• Missionary paper (1966)

When the parents of Trasucho inform him that they moved to Africa, the boy decides to take advantage of the opportunity to act as a missionary once they are in the new country; there, as usual, he ends up straying as he becomes a friend of local people and animals and even ends up engaging with diamond traffickers.

• Trash and the Martian (1968)

Det, a Martian child, falls to Earth and enters into the Trashucho interior to survive. They become friends and together they decide to build a ship to return to Mars.

• My hippie brother, for Paperucho (1971)

Javier, the older brother of Trasucho has become a hippie, leaving his family dismayed for his new lifestyle.

• Trash on vacation (1971)

The father of Trasucho decides that the family travels to the south and spends their holidays camping; however, when the ill-planned vacations end up a disaster, Trasucho again ends up straying, this time in the precordillera next to a group of children who know in the place.

• Is it a dix leso? (1974)

When paper parents discover that the child suffers from dyslexia they decide to temporarily withdraw him from school. Trasucho, boring for staying at home for so long, gets in trouble again when he doesn't know a couple of car thieves. Because of this situation, in addition to a series of very absurd incidents, he and a lieutenant of carabineros end up traveling together as they flee from a criminal gang.

• Goodbye Planet, by Trash (2017)

After starting the summer holidays, Trasucho wins a new bike in a contest, however this carries a series of typical misunderstandings in which he is usually involved, so Urquieta, his roommate, decides to invite him to veranear on his plot. Unfortunately, both decide to travel to the place by their own means and without adult company, so the problems have only begun.

• Walloon, Romelio and the castle (2017)

Marcela Paz's family published this book in a posthumous manner, called at first Paper a doctorin which the character is faced with diabetes, a disease that Marcela Paz suffers. She put a lot of dedication to this job, which she didn't get to publish.

• My letters to Trash (2018)

In front of the house of Trasucho lives a girl who feels overwhelmed by her relationship with her family and her passage from childhood to adolescence, therefore begins to send letters to paper, thus beginning a friendship by correspondence where she can express her emotions and get rid of herself.

Translations

Kōdansha, one of Japan's leading publishers, published Paperucho in Japanese in 1972 with illustrations from Marcela Paz's daughter.

A French edition of the first book in the series came out in 1951 in the Collection "Rouge et Bleue" (GP publishers, translated and adapted by G. Tyl-Cambier). The text was adapted and published with color illustrations as a large-format book, which was very successful, selling 25,000 copies and a second edition appearing two years later. In 1980, a new French edition appeared and survived several changes in the publishing house: Bordas being succeeded by Pocket, then Havas Poche, until the end of the 1990s.

The Japanese house Kōdansha published in 1972 a translation into Japanese with drawings by Marcela Claro Huneeus, daughter of the author. A Greek edition was published by Kedros, Athens, 1984. And recently Anicia in Rome has published the Italian translation of four of the books.

There is also a bilingual Spanish-English version, available in Chile since late 2006, by Lina Craddock, Ailsa Shaw and Jean Paul Beuchat.

Movie

The company Cineanimadores (responsible for the animated film Ogú and Mampato in Rapa Nui) and Channel 13 carried out a film version of cartoons from the book Papelucho y el marciano. This was released on May 17, 2007.

Adaptation to digital book

In 2013, the Center for the Development of Inclusion Technologies (CEDETi), belonging to the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, with the support of SENADIS and Ediciones Marcela Paz, developed a digital adaptation of Papelucho's first book. This version is accessible for people with sensory disabilities.