Andrés Caicedo

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Luis Andrés Caicedo Estela (September 29, 1951 – March 4, 1977) was a Colombian writer born in Cali, the city in which he spent most of his short life.

In 1964, when he entered third grade, he wrote his first story - "El Silencio" (The Silence). From this moment on, Caicedo wrote several short stories and theatre plays, and started his first novel.

In 1973 Caicedo travelled to the US, and started what is often taken to be his best novel - ¡Que viva la música!. In 1974, he wrote the short story Maternidad, which he himself considered his masterpiece. In the same year, Caicedo published the first edition of the magazine "Ojo al cine" (Eye on cinema). In 1975 the final version of ¡Que viva la música! was ready, and Caicedo gave it out to Colcultura to publish it.

In 1976, the publishing house Crisis, of Buenos Aires, bought the printing rights of ¡Que viva la música!. In this same year Caicedo attempted suicide for the first time. Finally, at the age of 25, Andrés Caicedo died of a deliberate drug overdose; he said "life is not worthwhile after 25 years". Closer to his death he was trying to finish his most ambitious project, Noche sin fortuna, this teen-angst ridden novel with gothic overtones intended to be a unifying tale for most of his previous characters.

His works reflect the violence and the huge problems of the teenagers living in a big city like his native Cali, like drugs, alcohol, and insanity. Despite his early death, he left a lasting legacy to the Colombian literature that can be seen in the works of authors such as Rafael Chaparro, Efraim Medina Reyes, Manuel Giraldo, Octavio Escobar and Ricardo Abdahllah.

[edit] Main Works

• "Angelitos empantanados"
• "¡Que viva la música!"
• "Noche sin fortuna"
• "El atravesado"
• "Los dientes de caperucita"
• "Calibanismo"

[edit] External links

• andres_caicedo.page, a detailed site about Caicedo's life and works (in Spanish).