TOMÁS CARRASQUILLA NARANJO: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE, WORKS, PHRASES - BIOGRAPHIES - 2025

Tomás Carrasquilla Naranjo (1858-1940) was a Colombian writer, novelist and storyteller whose work was oriented towards the history and culture of his native Antioquia. The literature that this author developed was characterized by being manners in terms of content and modernist in relation to aesthetics.

Carrasquilla's work stood out for being reflective, critical and analytical. The writer used a cultured and expressive language in which he avoided the excessive use of rhetoric and other literary devices to embellish the text. In his works, words typical of the towns and provinces of Colombia were evident.

Tomás Carrasquilla. Source: Benjamín de la Calle, via Wikimedia Commons

The best known titles of Tomás Carrasquilla Naranjo were Simon the Magician, On the Right Hand of God the Father, Dimitas Arias, Homilies, The Rifle and the Marchioness of Yolombó. The author devoted his whole life to writing and in it he reflected his simple, honest, kind, fair and respectful personality.

Biography

Birth and family

Tomás Carrasquilla Naranjo was born on January 21, 1850 in the town of Santo Domingo in Antioquia, where he came from a cultured family with a good economic position. His father was a mining engineer named Raúl Carrasquilla Isaza and his mother was Ecilda Naranjo Moreno, who influenced Tomás' taste for literature.

Studies

Shield of the University of Antioquia, where Tomás Carrasquilla studied, although he could not graduate. Source: Horacio Rodríguez., via Wikimedia Commons

Carrasquilla's childhood and early years of education were spent in his hometown. She studied at the main school in Santo Domingo and at the same time learned literature with her mother. In 1866 he went to Medellín to finish high school and enter the University of Antioquia, but due to the civil war he did not complete his training.

Back to his land

With the closure of the University of Medellín in 1877, the young Carrasquilla returned to Antioquia. There he dedicated himself to working as a secretary and public official and also worked in the tailoring area.

At that time, Tomás also invested time in reading and developing some writings. Such was his dedication and passion for literature that in the company of some friends he founded the public library in his native Santo Domingo.

Beginning of his literary career

Tomás Carrasquilla took his first steps as a writer in 1888 when Carlos Restrepo - future president of the Colombian nation - invited him to be part of El Casino Literario. Two years later, his work Simon the Magician was published in a collection of the aforementioned literary organization.

Many of the members of El Casino maintained that there were no elements to write novels in the provinces, including Antioquia. For such comment, Carrasquilla undertook the task of demonstrating the contrary with the publication of Frutos de mi tierra in 1896.

The aforementioned work dealt with family relationships and conflicts arising from quarrels and envy. Carrasquilla managed with this letter to dismiss the comments against the province and claim the name of her beloved Antioquia.

Rejection of the country's capital

The success and good reception of Frutos de mi tierra brought him to Bogotá for the first time. There the novel was well received and sold for 45 cents; the writer was related to intellectuals of the time such as José Asunción Silva and Baldomero Sanín Cano. Carrasquilla did not fit into the dynamism of the city, so she returned to her town.

Back to the province

The author settled again in Antioquia, where he frequently made trips to Medellín and other areas where he was closely related to the idiosyncrasies of the towns. At that time, Carrasquilla fell from a horse and was prostrate for two months. He managed to recover and went to Santo Domingo, where he got a throat disease.

Other productions

Carrasquilla had to spend time at his house in Santo Domingo due to a sore throat, but he wasted no time and took the opportunity to write. So in 1897 she developed several works: Dimitas Arias, Blanca and En la right hand of God father.

Church of Santo Domingo, the birth town of Tomás Carrasquilla. Source: XalD, via Wikimedia Commons

During the subsequent six years, the writer greatly increased his literary production, to which he added the following works: San Antoñito, El anima sola, Salve regina and El padre Casafús.

Economic problems

Tomás Carrasquilla's economy declined in 1904 after the collapse of Banco Popular de Medellín. To survive, he went to work as an administrative official in the San Andrés mines from 1906 to 1909. Then he returned to Medellín and dedicated himself to attending literary meetings.

Professional advancements

In 1910 the intellectual resumed his professional career. On that date he released the novel Grandeza, inspired by the daily life of Medellín. Four years later, Carrasquilla began working for the newspaper El Espectador and soon after he went to live in Bogotá to work in Public Works.

In 1915, Bogotans enjoyed his writings due to the expansion of El Espectador. After living for five years in the Colombian capital, the writer returned to Medellín. He returned to cultural life and continued to expand his literary work; at that time Ligia Cruz wrote.

His best work

The author was active in the 1920s. In those years he wrote the novel La Marquesa de Yolombó, a story about social classes and the reconstruction of towns. It was published in 1928 and has been considered by critics as his best work, both for its content and for its realism.

Last years and death

Carrasquilla spent the last two decades of his life dedicated to writing. Although his health began to deteriorate due to a paralysis that prevented him from fending for himself, the author did not stop producing. To achieve his purpose, he made use of assistants to whom he dictated the content of his works, the following stand out among these: Rogelio and Ago Times.

Tomás Carrasquilla died on December 19, 1940 in Medellín due to gangrene.

Style

The literary style of Tomás Carrasquilla Naranjo was characterized by the use of a simple and expressive language, many times loaded with popular words of the time. His work had traditional, modernist and realistic features. The theme of his texts was social, cultural and historical, with a marked presence of nature.

Plays

Brief description of some of his works

Simon the magician

It was the first publication of this Colombian writer. In it he made an evocation to the past and to the childhood years, having certain autobiographical features. The story was narrated in the first person by Toñito, who is the protagonist. Carrasquilla reflected in the work the beliefs and superstitions of the time in an ironic way.

Fragment

Fruits of my land

It was a novel by Carrasquilla that was born because of the discussions in El Casino Literario, where some members believed that novels were not made in the provinces. With this work, the author showed that the Colombian peoples did have stories to tell. At first, the writer titled it Jamones y Solomillos.

Tomás Carrasquilla was in charge of publicizing two provincial stories. The first was about the Alzate family and its economic boom, while the second was about the love that Martín Galán felt for a young woman named Pepa Escandón. They were stories of envy, heartbreak, deceit and passions.

Fragment

The Marchioness of Yolombó

It was one of the most famous novels by Tomás Carrasquilla Naranjo, which had historical content. The work was inspired by the reestablishment of the town of Yolombó in Antioquia. The writer was in charge of portraying reality through precise and critical language.

The Colombian author made a detailed description of the social classes that prevailed in Yolombó at the end of the 18th century. It was a novel of transformations and perspectives on people. Carrasquilla emphasized the traditional, religious and cultural.

Fragment

Fragment of

In the previous paragraph of the story Dimitas Arias de Carrasquilla Naranjo you can see the use of a colloquial language, typical of the peoples of Colombia in the 19th century. The use of archaic words was an approach to the culture and particularity of the regions, with the aim of enriching and giving more realism to the text.

Fragment of

Phrases

- "If all values ​​are included in gold, all virtues are included in simplicity."

- “Being a clown or a commissioner had always seemed like great trades to me; but from that day on I said to myself: What a clown or anything! As a witch there are none! "

- “Just as I tell you! And everyone who is a devotee of Our Lady of Mercedes, even if she is the most inveterate sinner, will have a holy death: because the Divine Lady not only redeems the captives of infidels, but also tears away the souls that the devil already has.

- “My parents were between poor and wealthy, between peasants and lords and whiter than the king of Spain, according to my four grandparents. All of them were patriarchal people, very fearful of God and very good neighbors ”.

- “The upper and civilized classes are more or less the same in all chickpea lands. They do not, therefore, constitute the differential character of a particular nation or region. That exponent will have to be found in the middle class, if not in the people ”.

- "When it comes to reflecting in a novel the character, the nature of a particular people or region, the written dialogue must rigorously adjust to the spoken dialogue, reproduce it as far as possible…".

- “The writer has ample opportunity when narrating, to exhibit grammatical and syntactic mastery, without having to 'mess with' the characters' dialogues. And whoever achieves a profitable mixture of these two elements, alternating the typical expression of the characters, with the purity of the author's addiction, achieves a most gratifying success in terms of strength and variety ”.

- "This merchandise with a foreign brand name cannot take root in Colombia." (In relation to European literary currents).

References

1. Tomás Carrasquillo Naranjo. (2017). Colombia: Banrepcultural. Recovered from: encyclopedia.banrepcultural.org.
2. Tamaro, E. (2019). Tomás Carrasquilla. (N / a): Biographies and Lives. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com.
3. Tomás Carrasquilla. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.
4. Grajales, D. (2014). Tomás Carrasquilla, portraying Antioquia. Colombia: El Mundo.com. Recovered from: historico.elmundo.com.
5. Tomás Carrasquilla. (S. f.) Cuba: Ecu Red. Recovered from: ecured.cu.