| Laura Restrepo | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1950 Bogotá, Colombia |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Genres | Mix of reality and fiction |
Laura Restrepo is a Colombian author. She was born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1950 and after about 25 years she began to write her first serious works, mainly political columns.[1] Her first fiction novel, Isle of Passion, is based on historical facts from Clipperton Island.[1]
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Laura Restrepo was born in 1950, in Bogotá, Colombia the older of two daughters. Her grandfather was completely self-educated but still managed to learn six languages. Her father was very similar except he actually did go to school, but left at the age of 13 to work and eventually became a businessman. Although he believed in education, he thought it should be learned by experience rather than traditional schooling. According to Restrepo, her father would take her, her mother, Helen, and her sister, Carmen, everywhere he went on business. They went by car due to his hatred of flying and they never stopped long enough for her and her sister to attend a full year of school. Once she went to a public school in California for only one day because her father took the family somewhere else the next day. When she was around ten years old her formal education consisted of six months at a ceramics night school in Denmark. When she and her family went to Madrid the school did not accept her because she failed the admission tests for arithmetic, grammar, sewing, and embroidery, which were considered requirements. So instead, she followed a flamenco guitar teacher. No matter what happened her father still took the family everywhere he could, such as visiting museums, theaters, ruins, and to climb volcanoes and watch the geysers. Furthermore, he made them listen to composers such as Bartók, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. By the time she was 14 she had read several books but still did not know the full multiplication table.[2]
When she was 15 and moved back into Colombia, she had to work extremely hard to earn a High School degree since she had not taken required subjects. For weeks on end she and her father studied and a few months later she received her diploma—the first time that a member of her father's family received a diploma. Soon after she got her diploma she enrolled at the University of the Andes, Colombia. In her sophomore year in college, at the age of 16, she was accepted to be a literature teacher where she ran from her morning college classes to her afternoon teaching classes. The students were all older than she was and taught her a lesson that changed her life: "that beyond the nuclear family and the land of wonders that is high culture, there lay a whole universe to be explored that was broad and remote, fierce and exciting." When she decided to explore that world she cut ties with her father and never saw him again because a few years afterward he died. She gave up her teaching job and joined the revolution and entered the life of politics beginning in Colombia then later she joined the Socialist Workers Party in Spain, then soon went to Argentina for four years where she was part of the underground resistance that opposed the military dictatorship. After three years with the Socialist Workers Party in Madrid she became a journalist.[2]
Laura Restrepo technically began writing when she was nine years old. Although it may have only been a story about peasant people it was the beginning to her journey into a career of writing. It took Laura 25 years to begin writing seriously because of her father’s death. She began writing in love, memory, and just to get the feeling of being close to him again. She returned to Colombia after three years in the Spanish Socialist Workers Party and began writing for Semana, a magazine, in the national and international politics section. During this time she traveled to different places including Grenada to report on the invasion and to the Nicaragua-Honduras border to report on the war between the Sandinistas and the Contras. During her time working for Semana she met Gabriel García Márquez. Although feeling lucky to be acquainted with him she also criticized him for his writing style of magic realism.[2] Over time she became the political editor of Semana and wrote about ongoing peace negotiations. Restrepo voiced her opinions loudly over the failing peace treaties and the conflict that was going and received death threats and was forced into a six year exile in Mexico. Many of the investigations she did ended up as plots or ideas in many of her novels.[3]
Her first novel was Isle of Passion which uses her normal style of investigative journalism and fiction to create a sense of wonder while it is being read. She wrote this novel while she was in Mexico, seeing as she missed Colombia so much she decided to begin a story. Leopard in the Sun was Restrepo’s second novel. This novel started with a story that Restrepo had been sent to cover a story about two families trying to kill each other. Eventually she finds out they were involved in the drug cartels in Colombia. She says "she never used the word 'drugs' in the novel, because she is convinced that 'all readers read between the lines'". Dulce Compañia is a non-traditional Restrepo novel. She uses religious beings in this novel when in fact she never had formal religious training. Restrepo has won several awards for this novel.[3]
In 1982 Belisario Betancur, the president of Colombia at the time, added Restrepo to the negotiating commission to negotiate peace with the M-19 guerrillas. Restrepo’s experience as a commissioner of peace ended up making her leave the field of journalism. As a result of her efforts, Restrepo received death threats and was forced into exile to Mexico for six years.[2] Her book called Story of a Fascination is written as a firsthand account from Restrepo and deals with aspects of the peace negotiations that the media would not show. This caused her to give up on journalism and move into politics.[3]
Laura Restrepo graduated with a degree in philosophy from the University of the Andes, Colombia and earned a post-graduate degree in political science. She often appears as a guest speaker at political forums and universities, such as Cornell University. Her novels are widely used in academic institutions for courses ranging from humanities to social sciences.[4] Restrepo has a son from her first marriage. She is also teaches months every year at the University of Seville. When she is not teaching, she is usually writing and speaking at academic institutions or forums.
Laura Restrepo tried to find a style of writing that fit her, eventually developing a mix of reality and fiction to create a style she calls "report style". In her work, she uses history and investigative journalism woven together. Restrepo says, "I needed a formula that would allow me to slightly violate the verifiable facts so that my personal interpretation would not be offensive, and this explains the dual character of the chapters, some strictly investigative, others with license to lie a little." In basic terms, she wrote political non-fiction.[2]
Restrepo places most of her novels in Colombia during times of political struggle. She intertwines mystery, love, and relationships to capture the interest of her readers. She writes about the daily struggle to survive in a country where society is damaged by war and corruption. Her novels have at least one obstacle to overcome where the main character must show strong will in order to battle their obstacles; however, sometimes it is easier for them to do so with help from a loved one.
Laura Restrepo’s biggest influences are those that were important to her father. In an interview with Jaime Manrique she recounted how her father read her stories from these authors. William Saroyan, John Steinbeck, and Nikos Kazantzakis are some of her most important influences. She explains that these authors are ones that are concerned with the dignity of others, the ability to show empathy even though times are tough, and "the solidarity and ironbound links of clan." [2] Restrepo uses a theme of tragedy in many of her novels.[2]
In 1997, Restrepo won the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize at the Guadalajara International Book Fair for her novel The Angel of Galilea. In 2002 she won the Arzobispo San Clemente Award for her novel Leopard in the Sun. In 2004 Restrepo won the VII Premio Alfaguara de Novela for Delirium. She won the Grinzane Cavour Prize in Italy for best foreign fiction in 2006. In 2007 she won the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.[9] Her novel Dulce Compañía won the Prix France Culture in France.