Often, students who attend Spanish school in Buenos Aires do not take the time beforehand to learn about all of the region’s famous writers and artists. However, if you learn about these impressive figures, it will not only motivate you to master the language during the period in which you learn Spanish in Argentina, but you will also gain additional cultural and historical knowledge about the region. One famous figure that you will no doubt want to meet is Jorge Luis Borges.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1899, Borges is one of the most famous Argentine writers of all time. As a child, he and his family lived in the suburb of Palermo. Of course, if you attend a Spanish school in Buenos Aires, Palermo is an area that you can easily visit first hand. His father, Jorge Guillermo Borges, who was a lawyer, teacher and also an anarchist, greatly influenced Borges’s ideas and beliefs. When Jorge Guillermo Borges began to lose his sight, he turned to his son to take charge of his own plans to be a writer.
One of the reasons why Jorge Borges is so well known is because of his tremendous versatility. He was an essayist and also a poet. By the time he was in his early twenties, Borges had already begun publishing his work in surrealist literary magazines. Two of his most famous books were collections of short stories that incorporated magical realism and explored existential issues. Ficciones, published in 1944, and El Aleph, published in 1949. Much of Borges’ work has been translated into English. For example, Fictions and Labyrinths have been published in English by the New York press.
Like many Latin American writers, Jorge Borges was involved in politics. Borges was considered a political conservative and called himself a Spencerian anarchist. He declared that he was opposed to Marxism and communism. He even called the famous poet Pablo Neruda a “very bad man” for supporting the Soviet Union. Borges also made known his opinion that he was very opposed to Peronism.
Throughout his career, Borges held a variety of impressive positions. In 1955 Borges became director of the National Public Library of Argentina and became Professor of Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. Borges also won a variety of awards over the years, including the International Editors Award in 1961 and the Jerusalem Prize in 1971. Unfortunately, in the early thirties, Borges began to lose sight of him. As a result, he started reading as well as writing screenplays.
Jorge Borges was credited for opening the door to a variety of Spanish-American novelists, including Gabriel García Márquez. While he may not be ready to read the work of Jorge Borges when he first learns Spanish in Argentina, this is definitely a milestone he can look forward to as his Spanish improves more and more.