Rafael Chaparro Madiedo
Colombian writer, winner of the National Literature Prize in 1992.
Rafael Chaparro Madiedo (23 December 1963 – 18 April 1995) was a Colombian writer. He won the National Literature Prize in 1992 for his novel Opio en las nubes.
Quick Facts
- Born
- 23 December 1963
- Birthplace
- Bogotá, Colombia
- Died
- 18 April 1995
- Occupation
- Novelist
- journalist
- poet
- Language
- Spanish
- Education
- University of Los Andes
Facts from the source article.
Biography
Rafael Chaparro Madiedo came into the world on December 23, 1963, in Bogotá, as the eldest child of a family originally from Santander that had moved to the capital just before his birth. His father, Rafael Chaparro Beltrán, worked as an engineer, while his mother, Aminta Madiedo, taught school. He grew up in the Niza neighborhood, north of Bogotá, at a time when the Boulevard Niza Shopping Centre and Suba Avenue did not yet exist. This area later became a recurring subject in his journalism. At Colegio Helvetia, his love for literature showed through his involvement in theater. He was also known for his humor, love of sports and football, and his enjoyment of time with friends. After high school, he studied Philosophy and Letters at the University of Los Andes, a key step toward a writing career. There, alongside Andrés Huertas and Felipe Castañeda, he founded the magazine Hojalata. The government suspected it of revolutionary leanings and investigated him, but no charges ever came. At the university, he met Jorge Mario Eastman, who helped him land a job as cultural editor at Consigna magazine. He also became friends with Paula Arenas, who brought him into a Cinevisión project: Zoociedad, a humor and political satire show. He later worked on Quac and La Brújula Mágica with the same production company.
Works
The novel Opio en las nubes employs a rhythm and mixture of narrative techniques that have been compared to a James Joyce influenced by LSD and addicted to rock. Conservative literary criticism has harshly attacked it as banal, while many young people from Colombian underground culture have made it a cult book. Its success among the public, mainly young people, extends beyond Colombia and it is read in different parts of the world. In mid-2012 the Spanish publisher Tropo published the novel for the first time after negotiating with the writer's father, who held the sole rights. Written and revised before his death, El pájaro Speed y su banda de corazones maleantes continues Chaparro Madiedo's pursuit of a style more concerned with sensations than grammar. In this work he detaches himself from syntax and gives way to an oneiric, surreal style, appropriating language and transforming it. The book is full of a new language that rests on symbols, repetition, and the relevance of words as image. It is an experimentation with forms and language, carried out more audaciously and unbridledly than in Opio en las nubes. The book consists of fifteen short stories: "La Caída", "La lluvia, ese extraño sentimiento", "La extraña continuidad de las astromelias", "Bradbury a mil pies de altura", "El polvo de las estrellas sobre tu cuerpo", "Zaratustra come peces de vidrio en Praga", "La máquina de hacer tigres", "La orquesta roja del amanecer", "Chocolate espeso en los vapores del nirvana", "Dios no cree en novelas policíacas", "La pequeña confusión de la sangre", "John Tigres", "El pez gato que engullía pianos negros", "Las cuatrocientas espadas del brandy", "Coñac para dos perros y un gato", and "La sustancia absurda de Hendrix a las seis de la mañana".
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