Background
Rómulo Gallegos was born in Caracas, Venezuela on August 2, 1884.
(Cantaclaro es una novela escrita por Rómulo Gallegos, que...)
Cantaclaro es una novela escrita por Rómulo Gallegos, que se desenvuelve en el Llano, desde las galeras del Guárico, hasta el fondo de Apure. Florentino -Quitapesares- Coronado es el protagonista, y por ser el máximo cantor de coplas llaneras, recibe el apodo de "cantaclaro" (una copla que expresa bien los sentimientos llaneros). La novela, tiene un lenguaje regionalista ya que los personajes se expresan utilizando palabras o frases propias de una determinada región, que en este caso es de los Llanos, donde usualmente las palabras que terminan con "s" se cambia por una "h" si la siguiente palabra empieza en consonante (transformando adiós en adioj y casas en casaj) y se suele perder la "d" intervocálica (melao en vez de melado; pelao en vez de "pelado", pescao en vez de pescado), incluso al final de la palabra. Es por ellos que los sufijos -ado, -edo e -ido y sus correspondientes formas femeninas - se convierten en -ao, -eo e -ío. Igualmente se muestra la regularidad con la que los llaneros buscan recortar el lenguaje hablado, y a esto se le llama apócopes. También en la novela queda reflejada la idiosincrasia de los llanos venezolanos, la particularidad de esta sociedad y queda evidenciado el temperamento aventurero, siempre dispuestos a jugársela y queriendo decirlo todo en una copla. De tal manera que podemos decir, que se impone un clima poético en la novela ya que la copla es una forma poética de cuatro versos que sirve de letra para canciones populares, lo cual es uno de los temas principales de la novela; sin embargo el escritor Rómulo Gallegos también hace mención a otro tema de índole social, que puede ser la superstición del llanero, creyente de diversos mitos y leyendas, pues en la historia el protagonista hablaba de algunos de estos mitos al recorrer la sabana, aunque él decía que la causa de estas leyendas era que los llaneros permanecían por tanto tiempo bajo el inclemente sol, que este les tostaba el cerebro
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/848280085X/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0785950095/?tag=2022091-20
("This new English translation of Canaima should be welcom...)
"This new English translation of Canaima should be welcomed by all readers of Gallegos. In addition to Kirkland's translation (based on Charles Minguet's 1991 critique of the novel in Spanish), work contains his engaging and provocative translator's essay; an informative introduction by Michael John Doudoroff; essays by five specialists and Venezuelan writers who provide varied perspectives on the novel; and a glossary of terms that readers will find invaluable"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58. http://www.loc.gov/hlas/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080612119X/?tag=2022091-20
novelist political leader teacher
Rómulo Gallegos was born in Caracas, Venezuela on August 2, 1884.
He chose secondary school teaching as his vocation and during the 1926 instructed many young men who as university students mounted a rebellion against the tyranny of Gen. Juan Vicente Gómez and later became leaders in Venezuelan politics.
It was not as a teacher or political leader that Gallegos was to achieve greatest fame. In 1921, when he was 37, he published his first novel, Reinaldo Solar. Five years later his second work, La Trepadora, appeared. But Doña Bárbara (1930) brought him worldwide attention. This fictional portrait of a typical character of the Venezuelan interior was immediately popular in Venezuela and was widely read in other Spanish-speaking countries. Among those who read and admired Doña Bárbara was Gómez, who offered Gallegos a seat in the Venezuelan Senate. However, unwilling to serve the dictator, Gallegos used an excuse to go abroad and did not return home until after the death of Gómez. Meanwhile, Gallegos continued to turn out his novels. These included Canaima (1934) and Pobre negro (1937), which, like their predecessors, dealt with various groups in Venezuelan society. What is often considered his masterpiece is Cantaclaro , concerning the adventures of a wandering cowboy minstrel in the great plains of Venezuela. As did most of Gallegos's other works, it relied heavily on local dialect and the social circumstances of preindustrial Venezuela.
With the death of Juan Vicente Gómez in 1935, Gallegos became increasingly involved in politics. In 1941 he agreed to be the party's symbolic candidate for president against the government's nominee, Gen. Isaias Medina Angarita. But Gallegos stood no chance of election. During the next few years Gallegos devoted himself principally to literary activities, but he also supported the action of his party (now called Acción Democrática) in joining with a group of young military men to seize power in October 1945. Thereafter, he served for some time as president of Acción Democrática. In December 1947 Gallegos was the successful Acción Democrática candidate for president and was inaugurated 2 months later. However, almost from the beginning his government was faced with conspiracy by some military elements who opposed civilian control of the government. They deposed him on November 24, 1948, and sent him into exile. He spent the next 9 years in Cuba and Mexico, where he wrote two new novels: La brasa en el pico del cuervo about Cuba and La brizna de hierba en el viento dealing with Mexico. Upon the fall of the military dictatorship which had succeeded his regime, Gallegos returned to Venezuela in January 1958. In accordance with the new Constitution of 1960, Gallegos held a seat in the Venezuelan Senate as a democratically elected former president. However, he seldom attended Senate sessions, since his health did not permit this.
(Cantaclaro es una novela escrita por Rómulo Gallegos, que...)
("This new English translation of Canaima should be welcom...)
He supported efforts of some of his former students to organize a nationalist left-wing party of democratic orientation, the Partido Democrático Nacional.
Venezuelan Academy of Language
Gallegos was married to Teotiste Arocha Egui, who served as First Lady of Venezuela in 1948.
