Salvador Garmendia

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Salvador Garmendia

Born	June 11, 1928 Barquisimeto, Lara state, Venezuela
Died	May 13, 2001 Caracas, Venezuela

Salvador Garmendia (1928-2001) was a notable Venezuelan author. He was born in Barquisimeto, Lara state, June 11, 1928. His parents were Ezequiel Garmendia and Dolores Graterón. He graduated High school in Barquisimeto, and from then on he was largely self-educated as he was unable to continue formal education due to economic difficulties. An integral part of his formation was due to contracting tuberculosis and hence being bed-ridden for 3 years convalescing.

His literary initiation was bound to the group of the Sardio magazine and to the well-known Techo de la ballena. With Los pequeños seres (1958), his first novel, Garmedia showed his remarkable dowries of observation and his interest by the routine existence of the inhabitants of the urban centres and of the alienation that suffer in their work and with their relatives. In 1959, he received the Municipal Prize of Prose for this novel. His fine explorations in the maladjustment and the failure of the people, later extended to greater scopes in novels like: Los habitantes (1961), Día de ceniza (1963), La mala vida (1968), Los pies de barro (1973) and Memorias de Altagracia (1973). Progressively, he enriched the realism with the contribution of the fantastic sort in volatile stories like: Doble fondo (1966), Difuntos, extraños y volátiles (1970), Los escondites (1972, National Prize of Literature), El único lugar posible (1981), La gata y la señora (1987) and Cuentos Cómicos (1991), increasing the irony, impregnating a meticulous presentation of the atmospheres and personages. Among other works we can mention: El inquieto Anacobero y otros cuentos (1976), El brujo hípico y otros relatos (1979), Hace mal tiempo afuera (1986) and El capitán Kid (1989). In 1989 he received the prestigious Juan Rulfo Prize for: Tan desnuda como una piedra.