Eduardo Caballero Calderón

Eduardo Caballero Calderón (b. 6 March 1910 - d. 3 April 1993) was a Colombian journalist and writer. As journalist, he worked to the main Colombian newspapers, such as El Tiempo and El Espectador. Also he was a diplomat from Colombia in Peru, Argentina, Spain and France. Caballero was elected as congressman two times for the department of Boyacá and was major of Tipacoque.

Calderón began writing in the 1940s and rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. His most known books are El Cristo de espaldas (Backwards Christ) (1952), Siervo sin tierra (Landless servant) (1954), La penúltima hora (The hour before the last) (1955), and Manuel Pacho (1962), which are mainly depictions of events related with the bipartisan violence in Colombia (La Violencia). Other works are Cain (1969), El buen salvaje (The good savage) (1963), book that won the Nadal Prize in 1965 and Historia de dos Hermanos (Two brothers' history) (1977) among others.

Although Caballero is one of the most recognized Colombian writers, his writing is mainly focused in the essay style, as showed in the next fragment extracted from his short story "Tale of little princess Isabel" written for the teaching of history to children:

Spanish: " Desde hace un tiempo vaga por los caminos de Europa, golpeando a las puertas de los poderosos, un hombre alto de cuerpo, rubicundo, pecoso, de ojos encandilados por una extraña quimera. Este hombre que digo es dueño de un secreto que desempolvó en pergaminos italianos y conoció de labios de marinos portugueses. Cuando pasó una noche en el convento de La Rábida a donde llegó a pedir posada por el amor de Dios, le dijo al prior: Puesto que la tierra es redonda, si contorneamos el mar tenebroso en dirección al poniente, por fuerza hemos de llegar al fabuloso reino de las especies. "

English: " Since a long time ago, a tall, red faced, freckled man with the eyes lightened by a weird chimera is knocking to the doors of the powerful ones. This man owns a secret he discovered in ancient Italian parchment and in the talk of Portuguese seamen. One night he spent in La Rabida Monastery for pity's sake, he said to the prior: given that the earth is round, if we go around the creepy sea towards the west, we will arrive necessarily to the fabulous kingdom of spices. "

See also

• Literature of Colombia

References

• http://www.colombialink.com/01_INDEX/index_personajes/periodismo/caballero_calderon.html
• http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/c/caballero_calderon.htm

Further reading

• Brushwood, John S. (1975). The Spanish American Novel: A Twentieth-Century Survey. Univ. of Texas Pr. ISBN 978-0292775152.