Alejo Carpentier Valmont

He was a Cuban novelist and narrator who notably influenced Latin American literature during his famous period of prominence. He is considered one of the fundamental writers of the twentieth century in the Spanish language, and especially one of the architects of the renewal of Latin American literature, in particular through his notable writing style that incorporates various dimensions and aspects of imagination in his creation of reality. These are the elements that contributed to his formation and use of the Marvelous Real. In his career he was even proposed for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Carpentier was also a journalist for much of his life and a musicologist as well—he organized several new music concerts and undertook serious research on music; however, his literary works were what gave him the universal fame he acquired.

Carpentier, as he himself considered it, was a man of his time. He decided to approach American reality by discovering in all its fantastic existence the majesty of a continent where the marvelous could be found at every turn, from unstoppable Haiti, to the Great River (Orinoco), including, of course, all the expressive richness of Cuba and the Caribbean, the main settings of his novels.

A universal writer, he provided through his appropriation of America, by way of the marvelous real and his baroque writing, a new creative line that makes him transcend in his narrative, indicating new paths in the Latin American novel. Journalist, musicologist, art critic, he enabled communication between the Old Continent and America in matters of culture.

Carpentier was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, although for a long time it was believed he had been born in Havana. However, after his death, his birth certificate was found in Switzerland. His father, Jorge Julián Carpentier, French, an architect; his mother, Lina Valmont, a language professor, of Russian origin. Alejo Carpentier had a life marked by a mixture and cultural duality. His maternal language was French. His father was very interested in the Spanish world; he was "convinced of European decadence and yearned to live in a young country." He grew up in Cuba with white and black Cuban peasants, "malnourished men, burdened with misery, prematurely aged women; malnourished children, covered in diseases." The reality of what Carpentier's life was like appears clearly in his works.[8]

From a very young age he has inclinations toward music. He spends his early years on a farm on the outskirts of the city of Havana.

In 1917 he enters the Institute of Secondary Education in Havana and studies music theory. Already in 1921 he prepared his entrance into the School of Architecture of the University of Havana, although he later abandons his studies.

His connection to journalism begins in 1922 at La Discusión, a career that will accompany him for the rest of his life. He joins the Minority Group in 1923 and is part of the Protest of the Thirteen. In 1927 he signs the Minority Manifesto and in July of that same year he suffers imprisonment for seven months, accused of communism. He stars in 1928 in a surprising escape to France with the passport of French poet Robert Denos. In France he works as a journalist, collaborates with important publications and it is at this time that he decides to study America in depth, a fact that takes eight years of his life.

He writes ballet librettos. He begins his work on the radio at Poste Parisien, the most important station of the time in Paris.

He publishes his first novel ¡Écue-Yamba-O! in Madrid. From 1933 to 1939 he directs the Foniric studios. In 1939 he returns to Cuba and produces and directs radio programs until 1945. In 1942 he is selected as dramatist of the year by the Association of Printed Radio Chronicles.

He travels to Haiti with his wife Lilia Esteban and Louis Jover; it was a trip of discovery of the American world, of what he called the marvelous real. After his trip to Mexico in 1944 he undertakes important musical research. He publishes Music in Cuba in Mexico (1945).

1949 is the year he publishes The Kingdom of This World in Mexico. On June 1st he begins the Letra y Solfa section in El Nacional of Caracas that will remain until 1961. The Lost Steps (1953) is printed in Mexico, for many his consecrating work. With this book he wins the award for the best foreign book, awarded by the best literary critics of Paris.

El acoso is published in Buenos Aires (1956). He publishes War of Time in 1958. He returns to Cuba in 1959 to show his eternal commitment to the Cuban Revolution. He is appointed Deputy Director of Culture of the Revolutionary Government of Cuba (1960).

The Century of Lights comes out in Mexico in 1962. He is appointed minister counselor of the Embassy of Cuba in Paris. He publishes Literature and Political Consciousness in Latin America in Paris, which includes the essays of Tientos y diferencias with the exception of "The City of Columns."

In 1972 The Right of Asylum is published in Barcelona. Baroque Concert and The Recourse of Method are published in Mexico in 1974. It is in that same year that he receives an extensive tribute in Cuba for his seventieth anniversary.

He receives the title of Doctor Honoris Causa in Spanish Language and Literature, awarded by the University of Havana on January 3, 1975. He is awarded the Cino del Duca World Prize and donates its monetary value to the Communist Party of Cuba.

In 1976 he is conferred the highest distinction granted by the Governing Council of the Society of Spanish and Hispanic-American Studies of the University of Kansas, the title of Honorary Fellow.

He is elected deputy to the National Assembly of the People's Power of Cuba.

In 1978 Spain's highest literary distinction, the Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra Prize, is received by Carpentier from the hands of King Juan Carlos. He donates the material value of the prize to the Communist Party of Cuba.

Siglo XXI Editorial publishes The Consecration of Spring in 1979.
The Harp and the Shadow is published in Mexico, Spain and Argentina.

He receives the Foreign Medicis Prize for The Harp and the Shadow. It is the highest recognition with which France honors foreign writers.

He dies in Paris on April 24, 1980.

Works and Awards

Music
Although Carpentier is primarily known as an author, he is also a musicologist. Music was a very present element in his family; his grandmother was a pianist, his mother played piano and his father was a cellist. Carpentier studied music theory at the Lycée Jason de Sailly in Paris and at the Institute of Secondary Education in Havana; he was a pianist. During his time in France, Carpentier entered Parisian musical circles and collaborated with several composers, resulting in the production of poems, librettos and texts of various musical works:

Yamba-Ó, burlesque tragedy, music by M.F. Gaillard, premiered at the Théâtre Beriza, Paris, 1928.
Poèmes des Antilles, nine chants on texts by Alejo Carpentier, music by M.F. Gaillard, Martine Edition, Paris, 1929.
Blue, Poem, music by M.F. Gaillard, Martine Edition, Paris.
La Passion Noire, cantata for ten soloists, mixed chorus and loudspeakers, music by M.F. Gaillard, premiered in Paris, July 1932.
Two Afro-Cuban Poems, Mari-Sabel and Juego Santo, for voice and piano, music by A.G. Caturla, Maurice Senart Edition, Paris, 1929.

Narrative
¡Écue-Yamba-O! (1933), novel
Journey Back to the Source (1944), short stories
The Kingdom of This World (1949), novel
The Lost Steps (1953), novel
War of Time (1956), short stories
The Chase (1958), short novel
The Century of Lights (1962), novel
The Road to Santiago (1967), short stories
The Silver Guests (1972), tale
Baroque Concert (1974), short novel
The Recourse of Method (1974), novel
The Consecration of Spring (1978), novel
The Harp and the Shadow (1979), novel

Essays
Music in Cuba (1946)
Tristan and Isolde on Solid Ground (1949)
Tientos y diferencias (1964)
Literature and Consciousness in Latin America (1969)
The City of Columns (1970)
Latin America in Its Music (1975)
Letra y solfa (1975)
Reason for Being (1976)
Americanist Literary Affirmation (1979)
Under the Sign of Cybeles. Chronicles on Spain and the Spanish (1979)
The Adjective and Its Wrinkles (1980)
The Musician Within Me (1980)
The Latin American Novel on the Eve of a New Century and Other Essays (1981)
Lectures (1987)

Opera Libretto
Manita en el suelo, music by Alejandro García Caturla.

Filmography
Cortázar: Notes for a Documentary, directed by Eduardo Montes-Bradley, Argentina, 2001 (Testimonial participation).
The Recourse of Method, directed by Miguel Littín, Mexico, Cuba, France, 1978, adapted from his novel of the same name (1974).

Awards
In 1956 he wins the Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger for his novel The Lost Steps (France)
In 1975 he receives an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Havana (Cuba)
In 1975 he receives the Alfonso Reyes International Prize (Mexico)
He is made an Honorary Member of the University of Kansas (United States)
He receives the Prix Mondial Cino del Duca (France)
In 1977 he receives from King Juan Carlos I of Spain the Cervantes Prize (Spain)