Enrique Lafourcade

Enrique Lafourcade

Enrique Lafourcade Valdenegro is a Chilean writer, critic and journalist who was born in Santiago, Chile, on October 14, 1927.

Brief Biography

Representative of the so-called "Generation of the 50s", a term suggested by Lafourcade himself in 1954 to describe authors born between 1920 and 1934 who began to flourish in the 1950s and broke apart in content and style from the previous regional style known as "Criollismo"; and more widely within the "boom generation" in Latin America, also known as Latin American Boom, a generation of writers who produced an explosion of works in the mid 20th century and decades that followed, which included four Nobel Prize winners Miguel Ángel Asturias (Guatemala) in 1967, Pablo Neruda (Chile) in 1971, Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia) in 1982, and Octavio Paz (Mexico) in 1990, and several other influential intellectual authors such as Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar in Argentina and Mario Vargas Llosa in Peru.

Lafourcade the Writer

As a writer, Lafourcade has published at least 24 novels (over 30 by some accounts) and over a dozen anthologies and collections of short stories and essays. His novel Palomita Blanca (1971) sold over a million copies, making it one of the all-time best sellers in Chile. This novel was translated to several languages and brought to the screen by Chilean-French director Raúl Ruiz. Lafourcade's latest novel, El Inesperado (2004), imagines the life of French poet Arthur Rimbaud in Africa, and though a work of fiction, it is inspired by the letters of the poet and three years of additional research. The novel was launched on October 20, 2004, matching the 150th anniversary of the birth the poet.

Other titles include (not an exhaustive list): Pena de Muerte (1952), Para Subir al Cielo (1959), la Fiesta del Rey Acab (1959), El principe y las Ovejas (1961), Invencion a Dos Voces (1963), Novela de Navidad (1965), Pronombres Personales (1967), Frecuencia Modulada (1968), En el Fondo (1973), Salvador Allende (1973), Variaciones sobre el tema de Nastasia Filippovna y el Principe Mishkin (1974), Tres Terroristas (1977), Buddha y los Chocolates Envenenados (1977), Adios al Führer (1982), El Gran Taimado (1984), Los Hijos del Arco Iris (1985), Las Senales van Hacia el Sur (1988), Pepita de Oro (1989), Hoy Esta Solo mi Corazon (1990), Mano Bendita (1993), Cristianas Viejas y Limpias (1997).

Lafourcade has been the recipient of various literary awards in his country, such as the prestigious Municipal Prize, the Gabriela Mistral Prize and the Maria Luisa Bombal Prize, awarded to the best novel of the year.

Lafourcade the Journalist

Self-described as "a sentimental anarchist and catholic in a state of wilderness", it is as a journalist and critic that Lafourcade is best known. For years he has written an editorial for the newspaper El Mercurio (the largest in the country), focusing on literature but with incursions into politics, cultural issues and subjects of impact upon the nation. Some of his most critical articles, written in an often mordant style, have produced the ire of dictators and politicians in Chile and other Latin American countries and occasionally generated diplomatic apologies.

He has appeared in numerous television programs, both as guest and as part of recurring panels of cultural critics. His ironic and often sarcastic style as well as his impudent way of offering opinions on just about everything and everybody has more than once produced a commotion in the country, making "Lafourcade" a household name in Chile. Numerous anecdotes surround his name, including engaging in a fist fight with another journalist during a live television program. For some time he wrote a gastronomic review under the name of "Conde de Lafourchette" ("fourchette" meaning "fork" in French) in the journal El Mercurio, where he gave his uncensored opinion about restaurants and their food, reason for which he is feared by restaurant owners across the country. Allegedly, waiters are instructed to call upon the owner or general manager as soon as they see Lafourcade walking in. In 1997 he published the book "La cocina erótica del conde Lafourchette (The Erotic Cuisine of Count Lafourchette)".

He has publicly declared himself an "unrelenting enemy of ignorance and incompetence." He is believed to have just as many enemies as he has friends, to the point that for years rumors circulated of a group of people gathering signatures to "expel Lafourcade from Chile".

Lafourcade the Family Man

According to public records, Enrique Lafourcade was married three times: with Chilean-born Canadian artist Maria Luisa Segnoret; with Chilean writer and journalist Marcela Godoy Divin; and recently with Chilean painter Rossana Pizarro Garcia, with whom allegedly has lived for nearly 20 years now. He also had a long relationship with Chilean writer and journalist Marta Blanco, with whom he lived together for seven years and were assumed to be married.

He is the father of three children, Dominique, Octavio and Nicole.

He is followed, ostensibly, by a family of writers and musicians, where his cultural influence is undeniable. Octavio is a classical musician (lute and guitar), member of the group of ancient Spanish music "Capella de Ministrers". His daughter Nicole is a poet and literary translator, member of Café Literarte. His brother Gaston Lafourcade is a musician (harpsichord) and instructor at the Universidad Autonoma de México; and his niece, Natalia Lafourcade (Gaston's daughter), born in Mexico, has become a famous rock pop star.

Additional Sources

• "Memoria Chilena: Portal de la Cultura de Chile"
• Archivos del diario El Mercurio (paper form) plus El Mercurio
• Letralia
• Escritores y Poetas en Español (e.g., Letras)

Plus numerous other sources.