Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (
December 26,
1904 –
April 24,
1980) was a
Cuban novelist, essay writer, and musicologist who greatly influenced
Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period.
Carpentier was born in
Lausanne,
Switzerland. For a long time it was believed that he was born in
La Habana where his family moved immediately after his birth, but following his death a birth certificate was found in Switzerland. His mother was a
Russian professor of languages and his father was a
French architect. At 12, his family moved to
Paris, where he began to study
music theory. When they returned to Cuba, he began a study of architecture which he never completed. He became a leftist journalist and spent some time in prison before going into exile in France. There he was introduced to the surrealists, including
André Breton,
Paul Eluard,
Louis Aragon,
Jacques Prévert, and
Antonin Artaud. While in France, he made several visits to Spain, during which he developed a fascination for the Baroque.
He returned to Cuba and continued to work as a
journalist. There, he attended a
voodoo ceremony that was to develop his interest in Afro-Cubanism. In 1943, he made a crucial trip to
Haiti, during which he visited the fortress of the
Citadelle La Ferriere and the Palace of Sans-Souci, both built by the black king
Henri Christophe.
Widely known for his baroque style of writing and his theory of "lo real maravilloso," his most famous works include
Ecue-yamba-o! ("Praised Be the Lord!", 1933),
The Kingdom of this World (1949) and
The Lost Steps (1953). It was in the prologue to
The Kingdom, a novel of the
Haitian Revolution, that he described his vision of "lo real maravilloso" or the marvelous real, which some critics interpret as being synonymous with
magical realism.
From 1945 to 1959 he lived in
Venezuela, which is the obvious inspiration for the unnamed South American country in which much of
The Lost Steps is set.
He returned to Cuba after the revolution in 1959 and served as Cuban ambassador to France. In 1975 he was the recipient of the
Prix mondial Cino Del Duca. He received the
Cervantes Prize in 1977 and the French
Prix Médicis in 1979.
Carpentier was struggling with cancer as he completed his final novel and he died in Paris on
April 24,
1980. His remains were returned to Cuba for interrment in the
Colon Cemetery, Havana.
