Mario Benedetti Farrugia (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmaɾjo βeneˈðeti]; born on September 14, 1920; died on May 17, 2009) was a Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet. He was an important member of the Generación del 45. He wrote more than 80 books, and his work was published in twenty languages. However, he was not very famous in English-speaking countries. In Spanish-speaking countries, he is seen as one of the most important writers in Latin America during the second half of the 20th century.

Early life and education

Benedetti was born in 1920 in Paso de los Toros, a town in the Tacuarembó Department of Uruguay. His parents were Brenno Benedetti, a pharmacist and wine maker, and Matilde Farrugia, both of Italian heritage. Two years after his birth, the family moved to Tacuarembó, the capital of the department. Soon after, his father tried to buy a business but was tricked and lost money, leading to bankruptcy. Because of this, the family moved to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, where they faced difficult economic conditions.

Mario attended six years of primary school at the Deutsche Schule Montevideo, where he learned German. This skill later helped him become the first person in Uruguay to translate the works of Franz Kafka. However, his father removed him from the school when Nazi ideas began appearing in the classroom. For the next two years, Mario studied at Liceo Héctor Miranda. After that, he did not attend any school for the rest of his high school years. During this time, he learned shorthand, a skill he used for many years to earn a living.

At age 14, Benedetti began working. His first job was as a stenographer, and later he worked as a salesman, public official, accountant, journalist, broadcaster, and translator.

Career

He learned journalism from Carlos Quijano at the newspaper Marcha. From 1938 to 1941, he lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He worked in many jobs on both sides of the Río de la Plata, such as a stenographer. In 1946, he married Luz López Alegre.

He was part of the "Generation of 45," a group of Uruguayan writers and thinkers that included Carlos Maggi, Manuel Flores Mora, Ángel Rama, Emir Rodríguez Monegal, Idea Vilariño, Carlos Real de Azúa, José Pedro Díaz, Amanda Berenguer, Ida Vitale, Líber Falco, and Juan Carlos Onetti.

He wrote for the Uruguayan newspaper Marcha from 1945 until the military government shut it down in 1973. He was the newspaper’s literary director from 1954. In 1957, he traveled to Europe and visited nine countries as a reporter for Marcha and El Diario newspapers.

In 1960, Benedetti published his most famous novel, La Tregua (The Truce). It was translated into 19 languages and later turned into a movie in 1974 called The Truce.

From 1973 to 1985, during a government controlled by both civilians and the military in Uruguay, Benedetti lived in another country. He first went to Buenos Aires, Argentina, then to Lima, Peru, where he was detained, deported, and later given amnesty. He moved to Cuba in 1976 and then to Madrid, Spain, the next year. His time away from home was difficult because his wife had to stay in Uruguay to care for their mothers. In 1980, he moved to Palma, Majorca.

Benedetti returned to Uruguay in March 1985 after democracy was restored. He later split his time between Montevideo, Uruguay, and Madrid, Spain. He received special doctorates from the Universidad de la República in Uruguay, the Universidad de Alicante and Universidad de Valladolid in Spain.

Benedetti won many international awards for his poetry and novels. In 1986, he was honored with the International Botev Prize. On June 7, 2005, he received the Menéndez Pelayo International Prize. His poetry was used in the 1992 Argentine movie The Dark Side of the Heart (El lado oscuro del corazón), where he read some of his poems in German.

Personal life and death

During the final ten years of his life, Benedetti had asthma and moved to Madrid during winter to avoid the cold, as it was warmer there. However, as his health worsened, he eventually stayed in Montevideo. In 2006, his wife, Luz López, passed away, ending more than sixty years of marriage.

Before his death, he spoke to his personal secretary, Ariel Silva, about his final poem:

My life has been like a fraud.
My art has consisted
In its not being noticed too much.
I have been like a levitator in my old age.
The brown sheen of the tiles
Never came off my skin.

He died in Montevideo on May 17, 2009, after suffering from breathing and digestion problems for over a year. His remains are buried in the National Pantheon at the Central Cemetery of Montevideo.