Transcript Journalism and Literature” Lic. Patricia Nigro Facultad de

Artistic and Literature in Spanish
America
Tomás Eloy Martínez
Dra. Patricia Nigro
Tomás Eloy Martínez(1934-2010)
• Film critic for La Nación.
• Primera Plana and Panorama: political
magazines.
• Página 12.
• He was a teacher at Rutgers University,
New Jersey.
• Columnist for The New York Times and
La Nación.
• His most important novels are La novela de
Perón (1985) and Santa Evita (1995).
Tomás Eloy Martínez (1934-2010)
• He was born in Tucumán. He got his degree
in Latin American and Spanish Literature.
• Film critic for La Nación.(1957-1961)
• Editor in chief of Primera Plana (1962-
1969) and Panorama (1970-1972): both
political magazines.
• Director of La Opinión Literary Supplement.
(1972-1975)
• Between 1975 and 1983, he lived in exile
in Caracas, Venezuela.
Tomás Eloy Martínez (1934-2010)
• He founded two journals El Diario de
Caracas and Siglo XXI in México.
(1977- 1979)
• He also created the Cultural
Supplement of Página 12. (19911995)
• Since 1996, he became columnist
for The New York Times
Syndicate, El País (Spain) and La
Nación.
Tomás Eloy Martínez (1934-2010)
• He was a teacher at
University of Maryland.
(1984-1987)
• Since 1995 till his death, he
took a position as distinguished
professor and director of the
Latin American Studies
program at Rutgers
University, New Jersey.
Tomás Eloy Martínez: a writer
• His most important novels are La
novela de Perón (1985) and
Santa Evita (1995).
• He won the Alfaguara award for
El vuelo de la reina (2002).
• In 2009, he became a member
of National Journalism Academy.
• He was one of the teachers of
Fundación para un Nuevo
Periodismo, created by his friend
Gabriel García Márquez.
Tomás Eloy Martínez: a writer
• Santa Evita, the story of
what happened with her
body after Perón outhrown
in 1955, was translated to
32 languages and
published in 50 countries
(1995). Its Argentinian
best seller novel.
Tomás Eloy Martínez: his writing style
• La pasión según Trelew
(1974) was part of the
journalistic movement the
New Journalism because it
is a journalistic report to
find the truth of what was
called the “Trelew masacre”
(Trelew manslought)
(1972).
Tomás Eloy Martínez: his writing style
• True fiction: to take
historical people and facts
and write a novel about
them.
• New Journalism: to use
literary techniques to tell
the thruth of any fact.
• E. g. Truman Capote’s In
cold blood.
Tomás Eloy Martínez: his writing style
• A novel was, in his own words, a full freedom
statement and so a novelist can manage reality as he
needs it.
• He agrees with Hayden White that narratives could
be considered the key to work out the problem of
transforming knowledge into language.
• He tried to reach something that couldn’t be reached in
another way: the story behind the history.
• He tells fictional events as if they were real facts.
Tomás Eloy Martínez: his ideas
• His main subject is Argentinians
history, our identity, the political
events we have suffered, our
people and our leaders.
• He was trying to find who we are
and why we are by writing
novels, articles and by teaching
about our best writers.
• He did not write non fiction but
stories full of historical
characters.
Tomás Eloy Martínez: his ideas
• Every great writer of Latin
America was once a
journalist: Hernández,
Borges, Arlt, Gabriel
García Márquez
(Colombia), Juan Carlos
Onetti (Uruguay), Augusto
Roa Bastos (Paraguay),
Alfonso Reyes (México),
José Martí (Cuba)...
Tomás Eloy Martínez (1934-2010)
• Every great journalist become
sooner or later in a great writer.
• He said: “What I write is what I
am, and if I am not faithful to
myself, I can’t be faithful to my
readers.”
• “Only what is written is
historical.” (Robin Collingwood).
It means what is written is
permanent.
Tomás Eloy Martínez: his ideas
• Courage is needed to write and
to talk about reality.
• Journalism has two goals:
taking care of the language (its
tool) and its ethic.
• Journalists don’t need to
reconcile with nobody and with
nothing.
• A journalist must constantly
think about his reader. He
must be honest, research a lot,
be faithful to the truth no matter
what.
Tomás Eloy Martínez: his ideas
• Journalism is a way of thinking,
of creating, of helping people to
have a better life.
• Journalists are privileged
witnesses.
• It is important to keep calm and
to have eyes wide open.
• Justice and freedom should not
be separated. In fact, this is what
democracy means.