Álvaro Menen Disleal was the pseudonym used by the illustrious Salvadoran journalist whose real name was Álvaro Menéndez Leal. He was born in Santa Ana on March 13, 1931.
In his life he was a short story writer, playwright, poet and newscaster. He studied journalism in Mexico, where he was a cultural attaché from El Salvador.
He was a member of the Salvadoran University Literary Circle. His remarkable career transcended the borders of his country and his works are known worldwide.
He began in literature at a very young age. In 1952 he wrote and published in the press a poem considered subversive, which earned him his expulsion from the General Gerardo Barrios military school, where he was in his third year.
In August 1953 he was arrested on charges of conspiring against Lieutenant Colonel Óscar Osorio, who was then a member of the Governing Council of El Salvador.
But the above was not enough to stop his career. In 1956 he founded the first television news program in El Salvador called Tele-Periódico.
This program had two prime-time schedules and a Sunday cultural supplement that circulated attached to a printed newspaper in Mexico.
Álvaro Menéndez Leal died in San Salvador, on April 6, 2000, at the age of 68 after suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Literary works
- The key (1962). Story.
- Short and wonderful stories (1963). Story.
- The strange inhabitant (1964). Story.
- The gymnasts (1964). Theater piece.
- The circus and other false pieces (1965). Theater piece.
- Black light (1965). Theater piece.
- City home of all (1968). Test.
- A nylon and gold rope (1969). Story.
- Three false pieces (1969). Theater piece.
- Revolution in the country that built a fairy castle (1971). Story.
- The illustrious android family (1972). Story.
- Make love in the atomic shelter (1974). Story.
- The vices of pap á (1978). Story.
- The bicycle at the foot of the wall: an act, without solution of continuity (1991). Theater piece.
Poems
- Rainbow.
- Give me your hand, Antipode.
- I'm in a hurry.
- The truth, that's all.
- Hear it: this is my voice.
- Recipes to an old bourgeoisie so that she is completely happy.
- Romance of Saint Andrew.
- Give and take.
- Prayer that helps to condemn a tyrant well.
From the latter it is valuable to rescue a small extract that indicates how critical it was of tyranny:
«Lord,
when it dies because, like the tyrannosaurus, however big and ferocious it may be, however sour and well armed it may be, it must die, and then it will be like a small volcano of bones on which the other animals of the forest will urinate with impunity.
…
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit;
in that of poets nailed to his bones;
in that of widows who bite their pillows
and in that of all the dead raising their fists, I
thank you, Lord.
Amen."
Awards obtained
- National Prize for Culture, in 1962.
- 1st prize of the Commemorative Hispano-American Floral Games of Quezaltenango (Guatemala) with the play Luz negra, in 1965.
- 2nd prize in the National Culture Contest with the essay Ciudad casa de todos, in 1967.
- 1st prize in the National Culture Contest with his book of stories A rope of gold and nylon, in 1968.
- 1st prize of the Central American Contest "Miguel Ángel Asturias", short story genre, with the work Revolution in the country that built a fairy castle, in 1971.
- 1st prize in the National Literature Contest of the University of El Salvador for the theater piece La bicicleta al pie de la wall: an act, without continuity solution, in 1991.
References
- Unfair, Á. M. (1964). The strange inhabitant: (Mexico, 3 AM). California: Department of Education, General Directorate of Publications.
- Unfair, Á. M. (1997). The illustrious android family. San Salvador: Directorate of Publications and Prints, National Council for Culture and Art.
- Eladio Cortés, MB-M. (2003). Encyclopedia of Latin American Theater. Greenwood: Greenwood Publishing Group.
- Gusils, JR (2012). Latin American Writers Index. Mexico: UNAM.
- Lockhart, DB (2004). Latin American Science Fiction Writers: An A-to-Z Guide. Greenwood: Greenwood Publishing Group.