Marcos Aguinis: A Passion for Literature.

AuthorBianco, Adriana
PositionLITERATURE - Critical essay

Analytical and polemic, Marcos Aguinis is the epitome of the contemporary Latin American intellectual. He is in tune with the world, always investigating, digging deeper to expose contradictions and challenges. Faithful to his humanistic and cultural heritage, Aguinis responds to problems with a universal worldview in which ethical values and human dignity are paramount. The topics he covers include the clash of cultures, violence, political changes, corruption, love, and religion.

Marcos Aguinis was born on January 15, 1935 in Córdoba, Argentina into a Jewish family that practiced the biblical traditions "but wasn't very religious." His passion for literature was born in the town library where, encouraged by his mother, he read the classics. Soon he was immersed in Jules Verne, Stefan Zweig, Joseph Conrad, and Jorge Luis Borges.

In 1995, the Argentine Society of Writers (SADE) awarded Aguinis its Gran Premio de Honor for his life's work. He has also been awarded the Spanish Premio Planet ; the Silver Plaque of the EFE News Agency; the Mexican "Fernando Jeno Literary Award"; the Swami Pranavananda Award; the National Literature Award; the National Sociology Award; the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France; and honorary doctorates from the University of Tel Aviv in Israel and the University of San Luis in Argentina.

"I have had several careers," the author confides. "I am a surgeon. I studied psychology, music, painting, and history. And I am a writer. Writing used to be the way I took a break from medicine. Now literature is my passion."

He began in 1969 with Refugiados [Refugees], a story that took him inside the life and experience of a Palestinian Muslim, but it was his novel La cruz invertida [The Inverted Cross], published in 1970, that established him internationally as a writer. Since then, he has continued to publish novels, stories, essays, and articles. Translated now into several languages, his books are often best sellers that create a stir because of their subject matter and wealth of information.

Aguinis says that La cruz invertida foretold the future of his writing. "After that novel, I dedicated myself to historical research. Many of my topics come from history and from real events of history."

As he de-mystifies history, he also puts it into the postmodern context, taking note of social transformations and multi-ethnic processes. Aguinis is inter-disciplinary; elements of sociology, psychology, and history all converge in...

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