The world has just lost a woman who knew how to capture in words that sense of shock, that childlike disbelief experienced when you suddenly find yourself in the middle of a war occurring right in your front yard (like she did). Ana María Matute has died, a fundamental figure in the literature of post-civil war Spain. Just months ago she finished her latest novel.

Ana María Matute

Matute was born in 1925 Barcelona to a middle class family. Her Catalan father owned an umbrella factory and her mother, a housekeeper from La Rioja, raised their five children.

At four years of age Ana María became seriously ill. She went to live with her grandparents in the village of Mansilla de la Sierra (La Rioja), where the people and landscape would greatly influence her writing; these early impressions would make up the heart of her 1961 collection of stories Historias de Artámila.  

Civil war broke out just before she turned 11. The horrors of war left an indelible impact on her life. She defined her generation as that of “the astonished children” who had to face a brutal world they didn’t understand: the war and post-war.

Ana María wrote her first novel, Pequeño teatro, at 17. The novel that caught the attention of the literary world was Los Abel (1948), inspired in the generations that followed the Biblical figures Adam and Eve. One year later her Luciérnagas (fireflies) was selected as a runner up for the prestigious literary award the Premio Nadal. The novel did not pass strict censorship in place at the time however and it didn’t even end up getting published until 1993.

This is one of those “Matute matters” (cosas de la Matute) as she would say, referring to herself in third person: either by personal design or by the whims of fate, some of her works remained dormant for extensive periods before reaching the public.  

We see one example of this literary hibernation with one of her most famous novels Olvidando rey Gudú, which sat in a desk drawer for nearly 25 years before its publication in 1996.

Ana María Matute received numerous awards: the Premio Planeta in 1954 for Pequeño teatro, the Premio Miguel de Cervantes in 2010, the Premio Nacional de Narrativa in 1959 and the Premio Nadal that same year for Primera memoria, the Premio Lazarillo de literature infantil in 1965 for El polizón de Ulises, the Premio Ojo Crítico Especial in 1997 awarded by Radio Nacional España for Olvidado rey Gudú, and the Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas in 2007… and many more.

Matute was an honorary member of the Hispanic Society of America and she became the third woman in history to be accepted to the Royal Spanish Academy.

We’ve lost a female Spanish writer with a timid voice who expressed herself with unique elegance through novels, short stories, and tales for children; a world where she still felt, at the age of 88, like an “astonished child”.  

The Boom Movement in Latin America could be the turning point that lead to an innovation in literature. Between 1960’s and 1970’s, Latin America was suffering from the authoritarian military regimes and most of the writers had to leave their countries. Their literary works became the voice and the protest of their people.

The Boom Movement became widely known in Paris and Barcelona after publishing the works of the exiled Latin American authors like Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel García Márquez. Thanks to this movement Latin American literature came into prominence and many books were translated into other languages. Some critics claim that the very finest literary examples of Latin America were written during this period and on the 50^th anniversary of the Boom, let’s remember the authors and their famous novels.

Gabriel García Marquez: Beyond doubt Marquez is one of the most notable novelists along with Llosa among the Latin American writers. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien Años de Soledad) has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and his other works are No one Writes to the Colonel (El Coronel no tiene quien le escriba) and The Autumn of Patriarchy (El Otoño del Patriarcha).

Mario Vargas Llosa:  In his first novel The Time of the Hero (La ciudad y los perros literally must be The City and the Dogs) showed an excellent narrative skill. Later he wrote The Green House (La Casa Verde), Conversation in the Cathedral (Conversación en La Catedral).

Carlos Fuentes: The Mexican writer used to travel a lot because of his diplomat father so he witnessed the difficulties of Latin American people and the experiences of Mexican immigrants in USA. He wrote The Death of Artemio Cruz (La muerte de Artemio Cruz), Where the Air is Clear (La region más transparente), Aura and Terra Nostra during Boom age.

Julio Cortázar: Must be the most famous Argentine writer after Borges and his novel Rayuela(Hopscotch) added a different perspective on literature. There are numerous ways of reading it. The author suggests two options. Either the conventional way and reading from the start to the end of chapter 56 or starting from Chapter 73 and jump to another chapter according to a table of instructions.

Augusto Roa Basto: Some theorists thought that the movement started with Paraguayan writer’s Son of Man (Hijo de hombre).

José Donoso: Chilean writer spent most of his time in exile in Mexico, US and mostly in Spain. The most known works are Hell Has No Limits (El lugar sin limites), The Obscene Bird of Night (El obsceno pájaro de la noche).
 

Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes (1547 - 1616) is world famous for his novel ´don Quichote de la Mancha´ or "The ingenious nobleman don Quichote of La Mancha. The first part of the book was published in 1605 and the second part in 1615.

By reading many chivalric novels, the ingenious nobleman becomes under the delusion that he is the chosen one to confront evil in the world. He experienced the first failure of his imagined mission after being knighted. After being beaten black and blue at an inn, he was brought back home by a peasant. However, he did not let himself be known and found a farmhand ´Sancho Panza´ willing to go with him, together with his horse ´Rocinant´. Together they experienced many imaginary adventures and became involved in one battle after another, including the fight against windmills. We all know the story of don Quixote mistaking windmills and their sails for soldiers waving weapons in their hands.

Love in a knight's novel cannot be missing, of course, and don Quixote makes the peasant girl ´Dulcinea´ his lover. When the knight and his servant return to their native village after many travels, don Quixote is felled by fever and dies.

This book by Miguel Cervantes is the most widely read book in the world after the Bible. Think before you begin because it has 1117 pages. Not surprisingly, even stamps with the image of don Quijote were issued (1998) and there are many drawings, posters, figurines, etc.

Like many other artists, Miguel Cervantes became famous and loved for his work after his death and you can find his image on the Euro coins of 10, 20 and 50 cents, for example.