10 Short And Very Inspiring Latin American Stories
Short Latin American stories are characterized by transmitting in very few words an accumulation of emotions and thoughts among which joy, love, despair, roots, honor, life and death stand out.
Some of the most representative authors of this literary genre are Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Rubén Darío, Augusto Monterroso, among many others that you will find in the following article.
A short story is defined as a story whose length is less than the conventional length. This includes extensions that can be very short and even ultra-short.
In constant negotiation with other literary genres, such as the poem or the short essay, from the north of Mexico to the south of Argentina we can find numerous short stories full of vitality. We will see soon a selection of 10 stories written by different Latin American authors including a brief comment about them.
1. The giraffe (Juan José Arreola)
Story by the Mexican writer Juan José Arreola, awarded with numerous awards due to his unmatched anecdotal style. The story The Giraffe belongs to the collection of stories titled “Bestiario”, published in 1972. The main character is a representation of various vital aspirations of the human being
Realizing that he had placed the fruits of a favorite tree too high, God had no choice but to lengthen the giraffe’s neck.
Quadrupeds with volatile heads, giraffes wanted to go above their bodily reality and resolutely entered the realm of disproportions. Some biological problems that seem more like engineering and mechanics had to be solved for them: a nervous circuit twelve meters long; a blood that rises against the law of gravity through a heart that functions as a deep well pump; and still, at this point, an ejecta tongue that goes higher, exceeding the reach of the lips by twenty centimeters to gnaw the buds like a steel file.
With all its waste of technique, which extraordinarily complicates its gallop and its loves, the giraffe represents better than anyone the wanderings of the spirit: it seeks in the heights what others find at ground level.
But since she eventually has to bend over from time to time to drink regular water, she is forced to perform her stunt in reverse. And she then puts herself on the level of the donkeys.
2. Someone will dream (Jorge Luis Borges)
Jorge Luis Borges was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and is recognized as one of the most representative authors of Latin American literature of the 20th century. His style is characterized by including elements of magical realism, imaginary mathematics, metaphysics and universal philosophy, among others. This micro-story speaks precisely of dream experiences mixed with the most human acts
What will the indecipherable future dream of? He will dream that Alonso Quijano can be Don Quixote without leaving his village and his books. He will dream that an eve of Ulysses may be more lavish than the poem that narrates his work. Human generations will dream that they will not recognize the name of Ulysses. He will dream dreams more precise than today’s vigil. You will dream that we will be able to do miracles and that we will not do them, because it will be more real to imagine them. He will dream worlds so intense that the voice of just one of his birds could kill you. You will dream that forgetting and memory can be voluntary acts, not attacks or gifts of chance. He will dream that we will see with the whole body, as Milton wanted from the shadow of those tender orbs, the eyes. He will dream of a world without the machine and without that suffering machine, the body.
Life is not a dream but it can become a dream, writes Novalis.
3. Love 77 (Julio Cortázar)
Of Argentine nationality and later French, although born in Belgium, Julio Cortázar is recognized as one of the authors who inaugurated new literary forms during the course of the 20th century. His style is characterized by a surreal content that goes beyond any timeline The following short story manages to convey in just two lines the content of an entire complex love story.
And after doing everything they do, they get up, bathe, powder, perfume, dress and, thus, progressively, they return to being what they are not. END
4. Tin Lamps (Álvaro Mutis)
Álvaro Mutis, Colombian poet and novelist based in Mexico until his death in 2013, is one of the most important writers of contemporary times His style is also anecdotal and the content of several of his writings reflects some of his political and personal concerns, including human pain and suffering.
My job consists of carefully cleaning the tin lamps with which the local gentlemen go out at night to hunt the fox in the coffee plantations. He is dazzled by these complex artifacts suddenly confronting him, stinking of oil and soot, which immediately darken due to the flame that, in an instant, blinds the beast’s yellow eyes.
I have never heard these animals complain. They always die prey to the astonished terror caused by this unexpected and gratuitous light. They look at their executioners for the last time like someone meeting the gods around a corner. My task, my destiny, is to always keep this grotesque brass shiny and ready for its nocturnal and brief venatory function. And I dreamed of one day being a laborious traveler through lands of fever and adventure!
Alfonso Reyes was born in northern Mexico in 1889 and not only served as an important poet and essayist, but as an influential diplomat. He grew up in the pre- and post-revolutionary context of the early 20th century and held important government positions. This same thing is reflected in some of his short stories, like the one below.
From one end of the Chamber to the other, the aristocratic deputy shouts: “You slap yourself!” And the democrat, shrugging his shoulders, answers: – Consider yourself dead in a duel!
6. Kisses (Juan Carlos Onetti)
Although he is a writer with less recognition than his work deserves, Juan Carlos Onetti, of Uruguayan origin, He has been considered one of the most original authors in Latin America His style is mainly existentialist, due to the pessimistic content and loaded with negativity, although personal and coherent.
He had known them and missed their mother. He kissed every indifferent woman who was introduced to him on both cheeks or on the hand. He had respected the brothel rite that prohibited joining mouths; girlfriends, women had kissed him with tongues on his throat and had wisely and scrupulously stopped to kiss his member. Saliva, heat and slips, as it should be. Then the surprising entry of the woman, unknown, crossing the horseshoe of mourners, wife and children, weeping sighing friends. She approached, undaunted, the very whore, the very daring one of her, to kiss the coldness of his forehead, over the edge of her coffin, leaving between the horizontality of her three wrinkles, a small carmine stain.
7. The drama of the disenchanted (Gabriel García Márquez)
Gabriel García Márquez was a writer and journalist born in Colombia in 1927. His work is closely related to magical realism and promotes critical and innovative thinking in different areas, such as the arts and sciences. Addresses topics such as loneliness, violence, culture, life and death He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.
…The drama of the disenchanted man who threw himself onto the street from the tenth floor, and as he fell he saw through the windows the intimacy of his neighbors, the small domestic tragedies, the furtive loves, the brief moments of happiness, the news of which They had never reached the common staircase, so that at the moment of crashing against the pavement of the street, their conception of the world had completely changed, and they had come to the conclusion that the life that they were abandoning forever through the false door It was worth living.
Rubén Darío was an important poet and journalist of Nicaraguan origin, recognized as one of the main exponents of modernism. His metrical style, the rhythmic adaptation of his verses, and the lexicon he uses are very particular. Among other things, his works enriched the literary creation done in Spanish.
A metallic, rhythmic noise came from a nearby house. In a narrow room, between walls full of soot, black, very black, some men worked in the forge. One moved the blowing bellows, making the coal crackle, launching whirlwinds of sparks and flames like pale, golden, tiled, resplendent tongues. In the glow of the fire in which long iron bars were reddening, the faces of the workers were seen with a tremulous reflection.
Three anvils assembled into crude frames resisted the beating of the males that crushed the hot metal, causing a reddened rain to fly. The smiths wore wool shirts with open collars and long leather aprons. You could see their fat necks and the beginnings of their hairy chests, and their gigantic arms emerged from their loose sleeves, where, like those of Antaeus, the muscles looked like round stones washed and polished by torrents.
In that blackness of the cave, in the glow of the flames, they had carvings of cyclops. On one side, a window let in just a beam of sunlight. At the entrance to the forge, as if in a dark setting, a white girl was eating grapes. And against that background of soot and charcoal, her delicate and smooth shoulders that were bare made her beautiful lily color stand out, with an almost imperceptible golden tone.
9. A patient in decline (Macedonio Fernández)
Of Argentine origin, Macedonio Fernández is recognized as a Latin American writer and philosopher of great influence on authors such as Borges and Cortázar His works are recognized for their philosophical and existential depth, perhaps a product of Macedonio’s predilection for contemplative activity and solitary life.
Mr. Ga had been so assiduous, so docile and long a patient of Doctor Therapeutics that now he was only a foot. Having successively removed the teeth, the tonsils, the stomach, a kidney, a lung, the spleen, the colon, Mr. Ga’s valet now arrived to call Dr. Therapeutics to attend to Mr. Ga’s foot, who sent for him.
The Therapeutic doctor carefully examined the foot and “shaking his head gravely” resolved: -There is too much foot, no wonder it feels bad: I will make the necessary cut for a surgeon.
10. The dinosaur (Augusto Monterroso)
We finish this selection with one of the most famous Latin American short stories. In fact, until recently, this story It was considered the shortest short story in universal literature, for the complexity and aesthetic richness it contains. Its author is Augusto Monterroso, a writer of Honduran origin, nationalized Guatemalan and living in Mexico City.
