Fray Mocho

Fray Mocho

Fray Mocho , actually José Sixto Alvarez (born August 26, 1858 in Gualeguaychú province Entre Ríos , † August 23, 1903 in Buenos Aires ) was an Argentine journalist and writer.

Life

José Sixto Alvarez - occasionally also José Ciriaco Alvarez - came to Buenos Aires for the first time in 1876 at the age of 18. He was enthusiastic about the possibilities the city offered him and three years later he settled in this city and stayed there until the end of his life.

He began to write for various newspapers ( La Nación , La Razón or La Patria Argentina ) and magazines ( El Ateneo , La Colmena Artística or Fray Gerundio ). Due to his direct nature as a journalist and his way of life, his colleagues soon called him "Fray Mocho" (little monk bluntly) and Alvarez soon began to publish only under this pseudonym .

In addition to his journalistic work, Alvarez also tried his hand at literary works and was able to successfully debut as a writer with his anthology Esmeraldas in 1885 . In 1898 he founded the magazine Caras y Caretas , which he directed until his death. In addition to many colleagues, José Ingenieros , Roberto Payró and Horacio Quiroga can be mentioned here.

José Sixto Alvarez died three days before his 45th birthday in Buenos Aires and was buried there.

reception

Alvarez is considered a representative of modernism , which he had always seen as the answer to European fin de siècle . In his literary works he also repeatedly used Lunfardo ; by his own admission, deliberately as a counterpoint to the Castilian language . His most important work is En el mar Austral , in which he describes life on an Argentine whaling ship during a year-long voyage.

Agustín Cuzzani named one of his theaters Teatro Fray Mocho in his honor .

Works (selection)

Novels and short stories

• En el mar Austral . Vaccaro, Buenos Aires 1920.
• Galería de ladrones de la capital . 1887.
• Esmeraldas. Cuentos mundanos . 1885.
• Los costumbristas del 900 (Capitulo; vol. 34). Centro Editorial de América, Buenos Aires 1980.
• Memorias de un vigilante . 1897.
• Un Viaje al país de los matreros . Vaccaro, Buenos Aires 1920.
• Salero criollo . Vaccaro, Buenos Aires 1920.

Work edition

• Cuentos de Fray Mocho . Editorial Universal, Buenos Aires 1963 (illustrated by Hector Basaldua).

literature

Essays

• Alberto Comas Alcantara: Fray Mocho y el criollismo . In: Revista de lengua y literatura , Vol. 9/11 (1997), pp. 129-136, ISSN  0327-1951
• Carlos O. Nallim: Fray Mocho. Cuento, humor y realidad argentina . In: Revista de literaturas modernas , Vol. 14 (1981), pp. 7-18, ISSN  0556-6134
• Fray Mocho . In: Dieter Reinhardt: Author Lexicon Latin America . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1992, ISBN 3-518-40485-7 .

Monographs

• Pedro L. Barcia: Fray Mocho deconocito (Textos y Contextos; Vol. 2). Mar de Solis, Buenos Aires 1979.
• Felix Lima, Nemesió Trejo: Fundadores de la cultura porteño. Fray Mocho (Cuadernos de crisis; Vol. 27). Editorial del Noroeste, Buenos Aires 1976.
• Marta I. Spagnuolo: Fray Mocho. El estilo matrero . Editorial de Entre Ríos, Paraná 1994.

Web links

• Fray Mocho at Biografías y Vidas .
• José Sixto Alvarez at Enciclopedia de escritores clasícos .
• Teatro Fray Mocho