Mendoza pays tribute to Antonio Di Benedetto. Photo: Ramiro Gomez.
One hundred years after his birth on November 2, Mendoza is preparing a week full of events to honor the writer and journalist Antonio Di Benedetto, with an agenda that includes music, readings and analysis with the participation of various artists that invites you to tour the capital city and enjoy its culture.
Under the slogan “Di Benedetto, forever, eternal”, the General San Martín Public Library (BPGSM), the Elina Alba Room and the Independencia Theater will open their doors to share various activities that will recall the life and work of this indispensable writer from Mendoza, author of “Zama” (1956), considered one of the great novels of the twentieth century in the Spanish language.
From Buenos Aires, the bookseller, bibliographer and collector Lucio Aquilanti assured that the honoree “is one of the greatest writers of Argentina and Latin America” and that “in all of Argentina and Mendoza especially, we owe a lot to Di Benedetto” as well as to his novel ‘Zama’ “which was published in 15 languages, was published in 27 cities and 31 publishing houses and took fifty years to be published in Mendoza since it was made on the 50th anniversary of the novel”.
“It is fantastic that this is being done for him, since we Argentines are losing this wonder of literature,” lamented Aquilanti, a scholar of the Mendoza’s work and curator of the Bibliographical Collection that can be visited during these days.
Photo: Ramiro Gomez.
“If ‘Pedro Páramo’ has its Rulfo, if ‘Rayuela’ has its Cortázar, ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ its García Márquez…why doesn’t Zama have its Di Benedetto?”, he said in an “unquestionable and Tall”.
Di Benedetto was a writer, teacher and journalist from Mendoza who was born on November 2, 1922 and died on October 10, 1986 in Buenos Aires.
His works are recognized worldwide for their literary value and permanence over time, being a classic of Argentine literature and this centenary of his birth is a new opportunity to reread, comment on and spread his work, in which he delves into waiting, loneliness or the fleetingness of time.
“Our province is one of the most important cultural poles in the region, with theaters, museums, open-air spaces with artistic proposals and a grid filled with the talent of our artists,” they invite from the Culture area.
The agenda
The planned grid will begin on Friday 28 at 6:30 p.m. with the intervention of some of his stories by Rosana López and the performance of Ernesto Suárez, the presentation of the book “On the horizon of events”, by Oscar Guillén, Harvest Award 2019, and the performance of Ícaros del Azar, by Rodolfo Castagnollo and Matías Gorordo on the esplanade of the BPGSM.
There, the Mendoza actor Ernesto “Flaco” Suárez will make a intervention of stories with a puppet “to deconstruct the solemnity of the homage” to the writer whom he remembered as “a serious and introverted man” and with whom they stopped seeing each other when “they gave me the Videla scholarship and I went into exile”.
Suárez will talk about the days of Di Benedetto during the 1976 military dictatorship, when he was arrested by the de facto government and taken from the building where Los Andes and Andino, the newspapers he directed, worked, and will read an “ironic” autobiography like he was, with his acid humor like when he said that being a journalist was difficult because he didn’t like lying”.
On Saturday 29 at 7:00 p.m. it will be the turn of “Di Benedetto and the lyrics” with the presentation of the book “Escritos journalistísticos”, by Liliana Reales, in the Elina Alba Room; at 8:30 p.m. you can visit the exhibition of the Bibliographical Collection of Antonio Di Benedetto, from Aquilanti, in the auditorium of the San Martín, and at 9 pm it will be the turn of “Polyphonies with Sound Readings for violin, electronics and voice”, by Valentina Spina and Javier Piccolo in the auditorium of the same institution.
On Sunday the 30th at 7:00 p.m., young people from Mendoza will make their homage with Relatos Urbanos (literary freestyle), artistic interventions and music by DJ Rústico, also in the library.
Meanwhile in San Rafael, the Director of Culture Gustavo Bonessi He anticipated the “deserved” tribute that they will perform in that southern city in the midst of the Book Fair from November 4 to 6 and the screening of the films “Zama” and “Aballay” in the Incaa room of the Roma cinema theater.
“He was a man who was ahead of his time, he suffered kidnapping and torture in his own flesh and left us a universal literary legacy”, Bonessi valued.
Antonio Di Benedetto was born in 1922 and died in 1986.
On Monday at 7 pm, the capital grid continues with an academic meeting with the presentation of the book “Mendoza was a party”, by Rosel Albero, with the presentation of Danilo Albero and Jaime Correas in Sala Elina Alba; and at 8:30 pm Di Benedetto and his music, Piano concert, interpretation of works by Beethoven and Bach, by the soloist Leonardo Pitella and Cante Jondo, live on the esplanade.
On Tuesday at 8 pm Liliana Reales will offer the conference “Antonio Di Benedetto, an essential of Argentine literatura “, and at 9 pm there will be a talk about his filmography based on his works and presentation of the trailer for the film “Imaginary Lives”, by Federico Cardone, Mariana Guzzante, Mariana Abdala and Dámaris Rendón, in the Library Auditorium.
Wednesday at 10 will be the tribute act and centenary commemoration of the birth in the Esplanade of the institution; and at 9 pm the closing show will be by Damián Sánchez, who will offer his songs with poets from Mendoza, at the Teatro Independencia.
That closing will feature composition and artistic direction by Sanchez, while the ensemble and musical direction will be by Javier Rodriguez, and performers will be Pocho Sosa, Pepe Pitella, Pupi Sanchez, Alejandro Manino, Andres Iacopini, Dolores Miron and Guaymallen Coral.
The texts are by the poets Armando Tejada Gómez, Alfredo Bufano, Vilma Vega, Rodolfo Braceli, Pedro Salazar, Jorge Marziali, Rafael “Golondrina” Ruiz and Vicente Mirón.
Di Benedetto was released on September 4, 1977 and went into exile in the United States, France and Spain, his final return to Argentina was in 1985. He died of a stroke on October 10, 1986 in Buenos Aires.
Five years ago, the coffin of the author of “Zama” was transferred from the Pantheon of Journalists to that of illustrious personalities in the cemetery of the capital of Mendoza.
The tombstone that now identifies Di Benedetto’s final resting place bears his crucial dates: 1922-1986, and a legend, authored by the actress and writer Sonnia De Monte: “A writer. A journalist. A story. He does not rest: he walks on his books, around the world.
