Miguel Otero Silva’s Followers (65)

Miguel Otero Silva

Born

in Barcelona, Anzoátegui, Venezuela

October 26, 1908

Died

August 28, 1985

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Miguel Otero Silva (October 26, 1908 - August 28, 1985), was a Venezuelan writer, journalist, humorist and politician. Remaining a figure of great reference in Venezuelan literature, his literary and journalistic works were strictly related to the social and political history of Venezuela. Before the establishment of democracy in 1958, he was repeatedly forced into exile; afterwards, he was elected to the Venezuelan Senate.

Born in Barcelona, Anzoátegui State, moved to Caracas at very young age, to study in the Liceo Caracas. He applied to the Universidad Central de Venezuela for studies in civil engineering. During this time, takes place his early literary activity, writing for magazines and newspapers, such as Élite and Fantoches, and othe Miguel Otero Silva (October 26, 1908 - August 28, 1985), was a Venezuelan writer, journalist, humorist and politician. Remaining a figure of great reference in Venezuelan literature, his literary and journalistic works were strictly related to the social and political history of Venezuela. Before the establishment of democracy in 1958, he was repeatedly forced into exile; afterwards, he was elected to the Venezuelan Senate.

Born in Barcelona, Anzoátegui State, moved to Caracas at very young age, to study in the Liceo Caracas. He applied to the Universidad Central de Venezuela for studies in civil engineering. During this time, takes place his early literary activity, writing for magazines and newspapers, such as Élite and Fantoches, and other university publications, besides entering journalism.

During the Student’s Week of the year 1928, Otero Silva formed part of a series of protests against the rule of then-president Juan Vicente Gómez (see Generation of 1928); in addition to this, he also became involved in a military plot to overthrow the government. Due to this, Otero Silva was forced to get into exile, in Curaçao. There, along with Gustavo Machado, Rafael Urbina López and other Venezuelan expatriates, began preparing an invasion of the mainland across Falcón State, an operation that was unsuccessfully carried out in June 1929. During this time, Otero Silva worked on his first novel, Fiebre (Fever), later published in 1939. By 1930 he had become affiliated to the Comintern, having plenty of interest for Marxist thinking.

He was able to return to Venezuela following the death of the dictator Juan Vicente Gómez in 1935. Taking advantage of the freedom of speech allowed by Gómez's successor in office, Eleazar López Contreras, Otero Silva began writing humorous poetry in newspapers, with a certain political content. Tagged soon as a communist, the government expelled him once again from the country in 1937. In these years, he went on traveling through Mexico, United States and Colombia.

Otero was permitted to return after three years of exile. Then, in 1941, he co-founded the humoristic weekly newspaper El Morrocoy Azul (The Blue Tortoise), along with Francisco José Delgado and Claudio Cedeño, besides a leftist weekly, Aquí Está (Here It Is).

With the 1943 founding of the newspaper El Nacional by Henrique Otero Vizcarrondo (his father), Otero Silva is appointed as the head of writing, coinciding with his decision for applying at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, to study journalism. In 1946, he married María Teresa Castillo, a fellow journalist, and graduated from university in 1949. Two years later, Otero left the Communist Party of Venezuela, claiming that he wasn't ready for political discipline, and to dedicate himself to writing. He spent a year in Guárico, investigating the history of the village of Ortiz, since its growth to its abandonment due to a malaria breakout. The city served as inspiration for his next novel, Casas Muertas, which was published in 1955. The novel was awarded with the Premio Nacional de Literatura, and the Premio de Novela Arístides Rojas that same year.

His newspaper, El Nacional, was suspended twice during the military rule of Marcos Pérez Jiménez. Towards the end of the dictatorship, he was arrested for editing and publishing the Manifiesto de los Intelectuales (Intellectuals Manifesto), a text attacking the Pérez Jiménez administration.

After Marcos Pérez Jiménez was overthrown in 1958, Otero was awarded with the National Prize of Journalism, and also elected to the Venezuelan Senate, representing Aragua. However, the newspaper was again the object of much pressure by the new government of Rómulo Betancourt, for the leftist ideas of Otero and its suspected support of communism. The discontent of the government was the cause for Otero to resign from the newspaper's body of writing.

His works from the period include Oficina N° 1, in 1961, and La Muerte de Honorio in ...more

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Miguel Otero Silva’s books

Average rating: 4.0 · 3,065 ratings · 345 reviews · 30 distinct works • Similar authors

	Casas muertas (Casas muertas #1) 3.98 avg rating — 1,332 ratings — published 1955 — 36 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cuando quiero llorar no lloro 3.82 avg rating — 556 ratings — published 1970 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Oficina no. 1 (Casas muertas #2) 3.86 avg rating — 365 ratings — published 1961 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	La muerte de Honorio 4.36 avg rating — 251 ratings — published 1963 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fiebre 3.97 avg rating — 132 ratings — published 1939 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Casas muertas / Oficina N.° 1 4.34 avg rating — 94 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lope de Aguirre, príncipe de la libertad 4.11 avg rating — 45 ratings — published 1979	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	La piedra que era Cristo 3.86 avg rating — 42 ratings — published 1982 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Un morrocoy en el infierno by Miguel Otero Silva, Adriano González León (prologuist) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 11 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Obra humorística completa really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 1976	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Series by Miguel Otero Silva

Casas muertas (2 books)
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Miguel Otero Silva

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Quotes by Miguel Otero Silva (?)

“...yo no soy partidario de la guerra civil como sistema, pero en el momento presente Venezuela no tiene otra salida sino echar plomo. El civilismo de los estudiantes termino en la cárcel. Los hombres dignos que han osado escribir, protestar, pensar, también están en la cárcel, o en el destierro, o en el cementerio. Se tortura, se roba, se mata, se exprime hasta la última gota de sangre del país. Esto es peor que la guerra civil. Y es también una guerra civil en la cual uno solo pega, mientras el otro, que somos casi todos los venezolanos, recibe los golpes.”
― Miguel Otero Silva, Casas muertas

tags: historical, history

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“El petróleo era estridencia de máquinas, comida de potes, dinero, aguardiente, otra cosa. A unos los movía la esperanza, a otros la codicia, a los más la necesidad.”
― Miguel Otero Silva, Casas muertas

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“—Vete, hija, a los campos petroleros, a la selva, a la Sierra Nevada de Mérida, a la séptima paila del infierno, pero no te quedes aquí de sepulturera que ese no es oficio para ti. No importa que en ese lugar donde tú quieres irte los hombres digan malas palabras, que delante de ti no las dirán. Ni que haya mujeres perdidas, que dejarán de serlo cuando tú las estés mirando.”
― Miguel Otero Silva, Casas muertas

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