Juan Manuel Puig Delledonne (December 28, 1932 – July 22, 1990), often known as Manuel Puig, was an Argentine writer and advocate for LGBTQ rights. His most famous works include La traición de Rita Hayworth (Betrayed by Rita Hayworth, 1968), Boquitas pintadas (Heartbreak Tango, 1969), and El beso de la mujer araña (Kiss of the Spider Woman, 1976). The novel Kiss of the Spider Woman was adapted into a film released in 1985, directed by Héctor Babenco, an Argentine-Brazilian filmmaker, and later became a Broadway musical that premiered in 1993.

Early life, education and early career

Puig was born in General Villegas, Buenos Aires Province. Because there was no high school in General Villegas, his parents sent him to Buenos Aires in 1946. Puig attended Colegio Ward in Villa Sarmiento (Morón County). This is when he began to read regularly, starting with a collection of texts written by Nobel Prize winners. A classmate named Horacio, whose home Puig rented when he first moved to Buenos Aires City, introduced him to ideas from the school of psychoanalysis. The first novel he read was The Pastoral Symphony by André Gide. He also read works by Hermann Hesse, Aldous Huxley, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Thomas Mann.

Horacio also introduced Puig to European cinema. After watching Quai des Orfèvres (1947), Puig decided he wanted to become a film director. To prepare for this career, he learned Italian, French, and German, which were considered "the new languages of cinema." He was advised to study engineering to specialize in sound-on-film but did not choose this path. In 1950, he enrolled in the University of Buenos Aires Faculty of Architecture but only attended classes for six months. In 1951, Puig switched to the School of Philosophy. He was a hardworking student, though he found subjects like Latin difficult. After graduating, he was already working in film as an archivist and editor in Buenos Aires and later in Italy after receiving a scholarship from the Italian Institute of Buenos Aires. However, the world of Hollywood and the stars he had admired as a child now disappointed him, except for Marilyn Monroe and Gloria Swanson.

A note in the magazine Radiolandia about the upcoming premiere of the film Deshonra encouraged Puig to try meeting its director, Daniel Tinayre, whose comedy La vendedora de fantasías he admired. When the director refused to let him visit the set, Puig spoke to the actress Fanny Navarro, who played the main role, without Tinayre’s permission. He did not support her because she backed Juan Domingo Perón, who had banned the import of American films into Argentina. Navarro sent him to another actress in the cast, Herminia Franco, who helped him gain access. Soon after, Puig began working at Alex laboratories.

In 1953, Puig completed his mandatory military service in the Aeronautics area, where he worked as a translator.

Writing career

In the 1960s, Manuel Puig returned to Buenos Aires, where he wrote his first major novel, La traición de Rita Hayworth. Because he believed in left-wing politics and saw a rise in right-wing ideas in Argentina, Puig moved to Mexico in 1973, where he wrote his later works, including El beso de la mujer araña.

Much of Puig's work can be described as pop art. His experience in film and television influenced his writing style, which used techniques like montage and multiple points of view. He also included elements of popular culture, such as soap operas, in his stories. In Latin American literary history, Puig is considered part of the Postboom and Post-modernist schools.

Death

Manuel Puig lived in another country for most of his life. In 1989, he moved from Mexico City to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where he died in 1990. Before moving, he stopped smoking as his doctor told him to and took daily walks. However, he did not feel well because of the high altitude in Mexico. He wanted to get medical care near his home so he could be close to his mother, but because of money and limited options, he did not have access to better medical care. In his official biography, Manuel Puig and the Spider Woman: His Life and Fiction, his friend Suzanne Jill Levine wrote that Puig had been in pain for several days before being admitted to the hospital, where doctors explained what needed to be done.

On Saturday, July 21, 1990, Puig was taken to Las Palmas Surgical Center because of a risk of peritonitis, which is inflammation in the abdominal area. An emergency surgery was performed to remove his inflamed gallbladder. After the surgery, Puig began having trouble breathing because fluid filled his lungs, and he became confused. The medical team could not help him and had to restrain him to the bed. He died from a heart attack at 4:55 a.m. on July 22, 1990.

News of his death spread quickly through the media. Although Puig had a history of heart problems, the first public belief was that he had died from AIDS. Later, it was confirmed that Puig did not have HIV. However, the public had already questioned this fact multiple times.

Only six people attended his funeral, including his mother, his friends Javier Labrada and Agustín Garcia Gil, and his colleague Tununa Mercado, who was traveling to Xalapa City in Veracruz.

When Jorge Abelardo Ramos, the Argentine ambassador to Mexico, was asked about Puig’s death, he said he did not know of an Argentine named Manuel Puig who had died. Despite this, Puig’s body was sent to the Federal District of Mexico for his funeral with the Writer’s Society, and the ambassador gave a speech.

A few days later, Puig’s remains were sent to Argentina and placed in the Puig family tomb in the cemetery of La Plata.

The 2004 film Vereda Tropical, directed by Javier Torres, shows the time Puig lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the film, the writer’s role is played by actor Fabio Aste.

Work

Critics like Pamela Bacarisse separate Puig's work into two groups: his early novels, which "attracted many readers by mixing elements from mass culture into his stories"; and his later books, which "no longer attract many readers" because they show "a sad and unpleasant view of life, without the comforting aspects that mass media once added."

Three translations of his work have been reprinted by Dalkey Archive Press:

• 2009: Betrayed by Rita Hayworth
• 2010: The Buenos Aires Affair
• 2010: Heartbreak Tango

List of works

• 1968: La traición de Rita Hayworth (Betrayed by Rita Hayworth), translated by Suzanne Jill Levine, published by Dalkey Archive Press in 2009, ISBN 978-1-56478-530-5
• 1969: Boquitas pintadas; published by Seix Barral in 2004, ISBN 978-950-731-430-8 (Heartbreak Tango)
• 1973: The Buenos Aires Affair (The Buenos Aires Affair)
• 1976: El beso de la mujer araña; edited by José Amícola and Jorge Panesi, published by Fondo De Cultura Economica in 2002, ISBN 978-84-89666-45-0 (Kiss of the Spider Woman), reprinted by Random House, Inc., in 1991, ISBN 978-0-679-72449-0
• 1979: Pubis angelical (Pubis Angelical), published by Seix Barral in 1979, ISBN 978-84-322-1379-3
• 1980: Maldición eterna a quien lea estas páginas (Eternal Curse on the Reader of These Pages)
• 1982: Sangre de amor correspondido (Blood of Requited Love)
• 1988: Cae la noche tropical (Tropical Night Falling)

• 1983: Bajo un manto de estrellas. Published by Beatriz Viterbo Editora in 1997, ISBN 978-950-845-060-9 (Under a Mantle of Stars: A Play in Two Acts), published by Lumen Books in 1985, ISBN 978-0-930829-00-1
• 1983: El beso de la mujer araña (Kiss of the Spider Woman)
• 1985: La cara del villano (The Face of the Villain)
• 1985: Recuerdo de Tijuana (Memories of Tijuana)
• 1991: Vivaldi: A Screenplay (published in Review of Contemporary Fiction No. 3)
• 1997: El misterio del ramo de rosas (1987) (Mystery of the Rose Bouquet)
• 1997: La tajada; Gardel, uma lembranca