Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Rest in peace Tomas Eloy Martinez

The world of Latin American literature was hit with a great loss when Argentine writer Tomas Eloy Martinez died over the weekend. The 75-year-old Eloy Martinez passed away after a painful battle against cancer.

Eloy Martinez was best-known internationally for “Santa Evita”- a novel on Eva Peron that was translated in over thirty languages around the world. Yet he was a jack of many trades throughout his life having served as a lecturer, film critic, and screenplay writer aside from being an author and journalist. It was his outspokenness against the censorship and oppression of the Dirty War-era government that forced him into exile between 1976 and 1982. In recent years he served as the director of Latin American Studies at Rutgers University and he was honored last year with the prestigious Ortega y Gassett journalism prize.

"Journalism is not an act of narcissism but an act of service to the community" said Eloy Martinez in the video below. Sage words from such a "worldly man." May he rest in peace.

Online Sources - Earthtimes, YouTube, LAHT

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