Andrés Caicedo

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Luis Andrés Caicedo Estela
Born	September 29, 1951(1951-09-29) Cali, Colombia
Died	4 March 1977 (aged 25) Cali, Colombia
Occupation	novelist, poet and playwright

Luis Andrés Caicedo Estela (1951 - 1977) was a Colombian writer born in Cali, the city where he would be the most part of his life. Although his early death, his work is considered one of the most original of the Colombian literature.^[1] Caicedo leaded different cultural movements in the city like the literary group "Los Dialogantes" (Which Speaks), the Cinema Club of Cali and the "Ojo con el Cine" Magazine (Attention to the Cinema). In 1970 he won the First Literary Contents of Caracas with his work "Los dientes de caperucita" (The Teeth of Little Red Riding Hood) that opened to him the doors to a national recognition. Some sources say that he used to say that to live more than 25 years old was a shame and it is seem as the main reason of his suicide on March 4, 1977 when he was just that age.^[2][3]

The work of Caicedo has as a context the urban world and its social conflicts, especially of the young people. Contrary to the school of magic realism, the work of Caicedo is settle completely in social reality, making that some scholars give the importance to his work as an alternative in Latin America to prominent figures such as Gabriel García Márquez, especially through the researchs of the Chilean journalist, writer and movie critic Alberto Fuguet who called Caicedo "The first enemy of Macondo".^[4] Although his fame in Colombia, Caicedo is little known in Latin America, maybe for his early death. However his work is becoming known thanks to the influence of his works in new writer generations such as Rafael Chaparro, Efraim Medina Reyes, Manuel Giraldo, Octavio Escobar and Ricardo Abdahllah.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 First years 1.2 Among pages, stages and cinema 1.3 The Cinema Club of Cali 1.4 Looking for Hollywood 1.5 Last years 1.6 The suicide 2 Influence 3 Works 3.1 Novels 3.2 Stories 3.3 Playwrights for cinema and stage 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] First years

Andrés was the youngest son and only male of Carlos Alberto Caicedo and Nellie Estella. In 1958 was born his brother Francisco José who died tree years later. By that time Andrés was studying in Colegio del Pilar, after he was in Colegio Pio XII, a "very bad establishment of Franciscans" as he said years after. Because his bad behavior in the school in Cali, he is transferred to the Colegio Calasanz in Medellín in 1964 and this was the year of his first story: "El Silencio" (The Silence). However, his academic and discipline was rather the same, a reason to be transferred again to Cali, this time to Colegio Berchmans, an institution that would influence his works. From Berchmans he was expelled to come in Colegio San Luis in 1966, again expelled and finally he could finish his high school in Colegio Camacho Perea in 1968.

[edit] Among pages, stages and cinema

Same to his passion for literature, Andrés liked cinema and stage. In 1966 who wrote his first playwright, ":as curiosas conciencias" (Curious Minds) and the first story, "Infection". A year later he directed the play "The Bald Soprano" of Eugène Ionesco and he wrote "The End of the Vacations", "Welcoming the New Student", "The Sea", "The Imbeciles are also Witnesses" and "The Skin of the Other Hero". This last work will make him to win the First Students Theatre Festival of the Theatre Department of Universidad del Valle. He abandoned the university in 1971 to join the Company of Theatre of Cali (Teatro Experimental de Cali) as an actor and where he knew the famous Colombian director Enrique Buenaventura.

In 1969 he started to write also for newspapers cinema reviews, for example in the calean newspaper El País, in Occidente and El Pueblo. He got another aware with his story "Berenice" in the Story Content of the Universidad del Valle, while his story "The Teeth of Little Red Riding Hood" won the second place of the Latin American Content of Story organized by the Caracan Image Magazine. He adapted and directed the work of Eugène Ionesco: "The Chairs". He wrote the story "For this reason I am back to my city", "Empty", "The Messengers", "Besacalles", "From Up to Down, From Left to Right", "The Spectator", "Happy Friendships" and "Lulita, that you do not want to open the door?".

[edit] The Cinema Club of Cali

His love for cinema was the motive to open in 1969 the Cinema Club of Cali with his friends Ramiro Arbeláez, Hernando Guerrero and Luis Ospona. It started its meetings in the headquarters of the Company of Theatre of Cali (Teatro Experimental de Cali), but after it moved to the Alameda Cinema and finally to the San Fernando Cinema. The Cinema Club attracted many persons among students, intellectuals and critics who used to wath the movies and after meet to comment and analyze the films with Caicedo.

In 1970 he adapted and directed "The Night of the Killers" of José Triana and in that same year he wrote a new story, "Antígona". In 1971 he wrote the stories like "Patricialinda", "Cannibalism", "Fatal Little Destinies", "Angelita and Miguel Ángel" and "El atravesado". He wrote also some essays: "The Heroes of the Beginning", an essay about the work of Mario Vargas Llosa, "The City and the Dogs" and "The Sea", an essay on the work of Harold Pinter.

His friend Carlos Mayolo tried unsuccessfully to bring to cinema his movie script "Angelita and Miguel Angel" in 1972. In that year he wrote the movie script "A Good Man is Very Difficult to Find" and the stories "The Suitor" and "The Time of the Swamp", this last one awarded by the National Contents of Story of the Universidad Externado de Colombia.

[edit] Looking for Hollywood

In 1973 Caicedo went to Los Angeles and New York. He knew enough English and had the dream to meet the legendary Roger Corman in order to sell to him four of his play scripts and that his sister translated into English.^[5] He was very optimistic thinking that Hollywood would welcome him with open hands. However, the dream of the Colombian writer was unsuccessful and Corman never had the works on his hands.^[6] About Hollywood he said:

It is a very difficult and labyrinthine world and those over there do not give support, fearing competition.^[7]

As nobody put attention in Hollywood to the writer with the face of a pop rock of the 1960s, Caicedo dedicated himself to see movies, study about blues and rock, especially the Rolling Stones and write a new story, ¡Que viva la música!, a work that was to become the most international title of Caicedo so far, for example in Italy. He began also "Memories of a Cinema Lover", a diary he intended to make into a novel.^[8] However, he could have an interview with Sergio Leone and returned to Colombia.

[edit] Last years

Caicedo considered that his best work was "Maternity", a story written in 1974. It was also the year of "Ojo al cine" (Attention to the Cinema), a magazine specialized in cinema, made by himself and that became the most important publication in that subject in Colombia. He returned to USA, but this time to participate in the International Exposition of Cinema and a year later the publishing house "Pirata de Calidad" published his story "El Atravezado" with the economical support of his own mother and getting national recognition.

[edit] The suicide

It was in his novel "¡Qué viva la música" that Caicedo mentioned that to live more than 25 years of age was madness^[9] and he was loyal to what he said then on March 4, 1977. In the afternoon he died, he received a volume of his recently published book "Qué viva la música!" and wrote a letter to his friend Miguel Marías where he mentioned that his woman just let him for a reason he did not know. Then he took 60 pills of secobarbital.^[10] Analyzing his death, Alberto Fuguet says:

"Caicedo is the missing link of the lost boom. He is the first enemy of Macondo. I do not know if he committed suicide or maybe was killed by García Márquez and the dominant culture of those times. He was less the rocker that the Colombians want and more an intellectual. a super genius tormented nerd. He had imbalances, anguish of living. He was not comfortable with the life. He had problems to stay on his foot. And he had to write in order to survive. He killed himself because he saw too much."^[11]

[edit] Influence

The first Colombian author to received the Caicedo influence was Manuel Giraldo Magil from Ibagué in his work "Concerts of Bewilderment" ("Conciertos del Desconcierto"). In the 1990s the work of Rafael Chaparro Madiedo, "Opium", was seem as a Caicedian work. Other authors like Octavio Escobar Giraldo, Efraím Medina and Ricardo Abdahllah are related to this that is becoming a real literary school. The Company of Theatre of Medellín, Matacandelas, has played for more than a decade "Angelitos empantanados".

[edit] Works

Most of the works of Caicedo were published after his death, thanks to the commitment of some of his friends. The works are divided in stories, playwrights for stage and cinema and essays. Some of his personal letters to his mother, sisters and friends, were also published. The importance of the letters is that they show the turbulence of his soul.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• andres_caicedo.page Andrés Caicedo: A detailed site about Caicedo's life and works (in Spanish).
• Andrés Caicedo (First part in YouTube: Segment of a documentary on Andrés Caicedo with interviews to some of his friends and relatives, uploaded in 2006, link retreaved on June 15, 2008.
• Andrés Caicedo A page about Caicedo's life and works (in Spanish).