Julio Cortázar: Storyteller who revolutionized literature in Latin America (+birth)

Published at: 26/08/2025 08:18 AM

Julio Florencio Cortázar was born in Ixelles, Belgium, on August 26, 1914.

From the age of four, he lived to maturity in Argentina, becoming a poet, intellectual, writer and renowned translator, renovating the narrative genre; especially the short story, both in structure and in the use of language. In addition, an author fully integrated into Spanish-American literature.

Creator of important novels that inaugurated a new way of making literature in the Hispanic world, breaking classic molds through narratives that escape temporal linearity. Because the contents of his work cross the border between the real and the fantastic, he is often related to magical realism and even surrealism.

Since the 1950s, he has lived in Europe. He resided in Italy, Spain, Switzerland and France, the latter being where he settled in 1951 and where he set some of his works.

His creations included: The Other Shore (1945), Bestiary (1951), End of the Game (1956), The Secret Weapons (1959), The Awards (1960), Stories of Chronopio and Famas (1962), All the Fires of Fire (1966), Octahedron (1974), Deshora (1982), Divertimento (1986-posthumous work).

Rayuela (1963), is the writer's most transcendental novel, considered to be one of the most influential in contemporary Spanish-American literature.

Mazo News Team