Readings and Conversations with Manlio Argueta and Jorge Argueta

Tuesday, May 10, 2011 – 4:00 PM
Cervantes & Velásquez Room
Bay Tree Building, UCSC

Reception to follow.
Free & open to the public.

Manlio Argueta is one of the most celebrated Salvadoran writers of the century. One of the key members of the Generación comprometida (Committed Generation) that included Roque Dalton, he embraced poetry as a tool for populist social change, writing in a distinctive Salvadoran vernacular. His 1980 novel, Un día en la vida (One Day of Life), a raw and compassionate look at the toll of civil violence on a peasant family, has been translated into 12 languages and is widely taught. He has also published many books of poetry. After returning from political exile in the 1990s, he became Director of the National Library of El Salvador, where he works to promote a national culture of peace through events like the Children’s Poetry Festival. He will discuss these projects as well as life in El Salvador since the FMLN came to power in 2010.

Jorge Argueta was born in El Salvador and now lives in San Francisco, where he directs Talleres de Poesía. An award-winning poet and author of several bilingual children’s books, he will introduce Manlio Argueta and lead the conversation in Spanish and English.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Literature and El Centro: Chicana/o Latina/o Resource Center. The Latino Literary Cultures Project/Proyecto culturas literarias latinas is a research cluster of the Institute for Humanities Research and the Chicano/Latino Research Center. Manlio Argueta’s US tour is sponsored by Talleres de Poesía and Luna’s Press.