Jorge Edwards, the writer who revealed to the world what Castro’s Cuba was like, dies

The Chilean-born writer George Edwardsawarded among many other distinctions with the National Literature Prize in 1994 and the Cervantes Prize in 1999, has passed away today in Madrid. He was 91 years old.

Writer, lawyer, journalist, diplomat… Edwards, considered one of the great representatives of the Latin American literary boomHe had a fruitful and varied professional life. He studied Law at the University of Chile and later completed a postgraduate degree at Princeton University in the United States, although he never became a lawyer. On the other hand, he did make a career as a diplomat and between 1957 and 1973 he held different positions as a representative of Chile. For example, he was the business manager of the Chilean embassy in Cuba in Fidel Castroafter being appointed in December 1970 to that position by the government of Salvador Allende.

He was only three months in that position. Upon his return to Chile, Edwards published Persona non grata (1973), a work in which he attacked Castro’s Cuba and which was banned by both the Cuban and Chilean governments. That writing, the first criticism of a Latin American intellectual against the Castro regime, unleashed a strong controversy, made Edwards at odds with the left and earned him many attacks from writers. “That Jorge Edwards is my friend, but I don’t want to see him,” he said, for example. Julio Cortazar.

However, especially with the passage of time, Persona non grata It has also garnered glowing praise…

“If you asked me to name just two titles from the Latin American 20th century that I was personally certain would transcend their time, I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment: one hundred years of solitude and Persona non grata”, wrote in 2017 the Venozalano writer Juan Carlos Chirinos.

“This book is one of the truly vibrant classics of modern Latin American literature, in the words of Octavio Paz.

Upon his return from Cuba, Edwards was again sent as embassy secretary to Paris, where he worked under Pablo Neruda. The last novel published by Edwads –oh evil2019- is precisely about the love between Pablo Neruda and the Burmese Josie Bliss.

Exile in Barcelona

After the coup of Augusto Pinochetthe writer had no choice but to abandon the diplomatic career. He went into exile in Barcelonawhere he was working at the Seix Barral publishing house, dedicating himself to literature and journalism.

But in 2010 he managed to become a diplomat again, after being appointed ambassador in Paris by the government of sebastian pinerapolitician to whom Edwards had publicly supported it during the election campaign. In that same year, he was granted Spanish nationality.

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Edwards, a man with a sharp sense of humor, leaves an important literary work made up of a dozen novels, newspaper articles, essays… His career as a writer has been awarded with important prizes. And also his diplomatic career It has earned him recognition especially for his commitment to democracy and human rights.

Edwards published the first volume of his memoirs, the purple circles, in 2013. Shortly before, in November 2012, he announced that at the age of eleven he had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a priest from the Jesuit school San Ignacio de Chile, where he studied as a child. The second volume of his autobiography is entitled Slaves of the slogan (2018).

The Chilean-born writer George Edwardsawarded among many other distinctions with the National Literature Prize in 1994 and the Cervantes Prize in 1999, has passed away today in Madrid. He was 91 years old.