The Latino Literary Cultures Research Cluster presents:

Manlio Argueta is a Salvadoran writer, critic, and novelist born in 1935. Although he considers himself first and foremost a poet, he is known in the English speaking world for his book Un día en la vida, One Day of Life.

Argueta was born in San Miguel, El Salvador, on November 24, 1935. Argueta has stated that his exposure to “poetic sounds” began during his childhood and that his foundation in poetry stemmed from his childhood imagination. Argueta’s interest in literature was strongly influenced by the world literature he read as a teenager. Argueta began his writing career by the age of 13 as a poet. He cites Pablo Neruda and Federico García Lorca as some of his early poetic influences. Although he was relatively unknown at the time, Argueta won a national prize for his poetry around 1956, which gained him some recognition among Salvadoran and Central American poets. As he became more involved with the literary community of El Salvador, Argueta became a member of the “Committed Generation”. Because of his writings criticizing the government, Argueta was exiled to Costa Rica in 1972 and was not able to return to El Salvador until the 1990s. Argueta currently lives in El Salvador where he holds the position of Director of the National Public Library.

Jorge Argueta– Born in El Salvador, Jorge immigrated to San Francisco, California in 1980.  He is a prize-winning poet and author of many bilingual children’s books and poetry books.  His first book for Children’s Book Press, A Movie in My Pillow / Una película en mi almohada, received numerous awards including the 2002 Américas Book Award for Latin American Literature, the IPPY Award for Multicultural Fiction–Juvenile/Young Adults, and the Skipping Stones Honor Award for Multicultural and International Books.  Jorge’s books have been published by pretigious editorial houses in Canada (Groundwood Books), the United States (Children’s Book Press) and Spain (Alfaguara). His books have been beautifully illustrated by well-known Latin- American illustrators.

Jorge makes presentations and holds poetry workshops throughout the United States and Central America – in public and private schools, universities, cultural centers, community centers, museums, festivals, hospitals and youth
guidance centers.  In 2009, he was invited to participate in the John F. Kennedy Multicultural Book Festival in Washington, DC. Jorge is active in the cultural life of the city in which he resides and also works with humanitarian organizations to assist families and children in El Salvador.  Jorge Argueta is also the Director of “Talleres de Poesia” a literary organization based in the US, that launched and organized the First Annual Children’s Poetry Festival in El Salvador (November 2010).

Staff support provided by the Institute for Humanities Research.