10 short and very inspiring Latin American stories

Short stories created by Latin American authors who, with few words, expressed a lot.

Latin American short stories are characterized by transmitting in very few words an accumulation of emotions and thoughts, among which stand out joy, love, despair, despair, rootedness, joy, love, love, despair, despair and despair.Among them, joy, love, despair, rootedness, honor, life and death stand out.

Some of the most representative authors of this literary genre are Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Rubén Darío, Augusto Monterroso, among many others that you will find in the following article.

10 Latin American short stories

A short story is defined as a tale whose length is less than the conventional length. This includes extensions that can be very short and even ultra-short.

In constant negotiation with other literary genres, such as the poem or the short essay, from the north of Mexico to the south of Argentina we can find numerous short stories full of vitality. We will now take a look at a selection of a selection of 10 short stories written by different Latin American authors, including a brief commentary on them.including a brief commentary on them.

1. The Giraffe (Juan José Arreola)

A short story by Mexican writer Juan José Arreola, winner of numerous awards due to his unique anecdotal style. The story "The Giraffe" belongs to the collection of stories entitled "Bestiario", published in 1972. The main character is a representation of several vital aspirations of the human being..

Realizing that he had set the fruits of a favorite tree too high, God had no choice but to lengthen the giraffe's neck.

Quadrupeds with volatile heads, giraffes wanted to go beyond their bodily reality and resolutely entered the realm of disproportions. It was necessary to solve for them some biological problems that seem more like engineering and mechanics: a nervous circuit twelve meters long; a Blood that rises against the law of gravity by means of a heart that works as a deep well pump; and still, at this point, an ejectile tongue that goes higher, exceeding with twenty centimeters the reach of the belfos to gnaw the blossoms like a steel file.

With all its wastefulness of technique, which extraordinarily complicates its gallop and its loves, the giraffe represents better than anyone else the dalliances of the spirit: it seeks in the heights what others find at ground level.

But as it finally has to bend down from time to time to drink the common water, it is forced to develop its acrobatics in reverse. And then it is put at the level of the donkeys.

2. Someone will dream (Jorge Luis Borges)

Jorge Luis Borges was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and is recognized as one of the most representative authors of 20th century Latin American literature. His style is characterized by his inclusion of elements of magical realism, imaginary mathematics, metaphysics and universal philosophy, among others. This short story speaks precisely of dreamlike experiences mixed with the most human acts..

What will the indecipherable future dream of? He will dream that Alonso Quijano can be Don Quixote without leaving his village and his books. It will dream that an eve of Ulysses can be more prodigal than the poem that narrates his labors. He will dream human generations that will not recognize the name of Ulysses. He will dream dreams more precise than today's vigil. It will dream that we will be able to perform miracles and that we will not perform them, because it will be more real to imagine them. You will dream worlds so intense that the voice of a single bird could kill you. You will dream that forgetfulness and memory can be voluntary acts, not aggressions or gifts of chance. You will dream that we will see with the whole body, as Milton wanted from the shadow of those tender orbs, the eyes. He will dream a world without the machine and without that aching machine, the body.

Life is not a dream but it can become a dream, writes Novalis.

3. Love 77 (Julio Cortázar)

Of Argentine and later French nationality, although born in Belgium, Julio Cortázar is recognized as one of the authors who inaugurated new literary forms in the course of the 20th century. His style is characterized by a surrealistic content that goes beyond any time line.. The following short story manages to convey in just two lines the content of a complex love story.

And after doing everything they do, they get up, take a bath, put on their clothes, put on perfume, get dressed, and thus progressively become again what they are not. END

4. Tin Lamps (Álvaro Mutis)

Álvaro Mutis, a Colombian poet and novelist who lived in Mexico until his death in 2013, is one of the most important writers of his time. one of the most important writers of the contemporary era.. His style is also anecdotal and the content of several of his writings reflects some of his political and personal concerns, including human pain and suffering.

My job is to carefully clean the tin lamps with which the local lords go out at night to hunt foxes in the coffee plantations. He is dazzled when suddenly confronted by these complex artifacts, stinking of oil and soot, which are immediately darkened by the flame that, in an instant, blinds the yellow eyes of the beast.

I have never heard these animals complain. They always die in awe of the astonishment caused by this unexpected and gratuitous light. They look at their executioners for the last time as one who meets the gods around a corner. My task, my destiny, is to keep this grotesque brass always shining and ready for its nocturnal and brief venatorial function. And I dreamed of being one day a laborious traveler through lands of fever and adventure!

5. Mourning (Alfonso Reyes)

Alfonso Reyes was born in northern Mexico in 1889 and was not only an important poet and essayist, but also an influential diplomat. He grew up in the pre- and post-revolutionary context of the early 20th century and held important government positions. This is reflected in some of his short stories, such as the one that follows.

From one end of the Chamber to the other, the aristocratic deputy shouts: -Be slapped in the face! And the democrat, shrugging his shoulders, replies: -Give yourself up for dead in mourning!

6. Los besos (Juan Carlos Onetti)

Although he is a writer with less recognition than his work deserves, Juan Carlos Onetti, of Uruguayan origin, has been considered as one of the most important authors of his time, has been considered one of the most original authors in Latin America.. His style is mainly existentialist, because of the pessimistic content and loaded with negativity, although personal and coherent.

He had known and missed his mother. He kissed on both cheeks or on the hand every indifferent woman presented to him, he had respected the prostitute rite that forbade the joining of mouths; girlfriends, women had kissed him with tongues in the throat and had stopped wisely and scrupulously to kiss his member. Saliva, heat and slips, as it should be. Then the surprise entrance of the woman, unknown, crossing the horseshoe of mourners, wife and children, weeping sighing friends. She approached, undaunted, the very whore, the very daring, to kiss the coldness of his forehead, over the edge of the coffin, leaving between the horizontality of the three wrinkles, a small carmine stain.

7. The drama of the disenchanted (Gabriel García Márquez)

Gabriel García Márquez was a writer and journalist born in Colombia in 1927. His work is closely related to magical realism and promotes critical and innovative thinking in different areas, such as the arts and sciences. He addresses themes such as loneliness, violence, culture, life and death.. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.

... The drama of the disenchanted man who threw himself into the street from the tenth floor, and as he fell he saw through the windows the intimacy of his neighbors, the small domestic tragedies, the furtive loves, the brief moments of happiness, whose news had never reached the common staircase, so that in the instant of bursting against the pavement of the street he had completely changed his conception of the world, and had come to the conclusion that the life he was leaving forever through the back door was worth living.

8. Etching (Rubén Darío)

Rubén Darío was an important Nicaraguan poet and journalist, recognized as one of the main exponents of modernism.recognized as one of the main exponents of modernism. His metrical style, the rhythmic adaptation of his verses, and the lexicon he uses are very particular. Among other things, his works enriched the literary creation made in Spanish.

From a nearby house came a metallic and rhythmic noise. In a narrow room, between walls full of soot, black, very black, some men were working at the forge. One moved the bellows that puffed, making the coal crackle, throwing whirlwinds of sparks and flames like pale, golden, tile-like, glowing tongues. In the glow of the fire in which long iron bars were reddening, the faces of the workers looked with a tremulous reflection.

Three anvils assembled in rough frames resisted the beating of the cores that crushed the red-hot metal, making a reddening rain burst. The smiths wore woolen shirts with open collars and long leather aprons. Their fat necks and the beginning of their hairy chests were visible, and gigantic arms protruded from the loose sleeves, where, as in those of Antaeus, the muscles looked like round stones of the kind that the torrents unleash and polish.

In that blackness of a cavern, in the glare of the flames, they had carvings of Cyclops. On one side, a window let through just a beam of sunlight. At the entrance of the forge, as if in a dark frame, a white girl was eating grapes. And against that background of soot and charcoal, her delicate, smooth, bare shoulders brought out her beautiful lily-white color, with an almost imperceptible golden hue.

9. A patient in decline (Macedonio Fernandez)

Of Argentinian origin, Macedonio Fernández is known as a Latin American writer and philosopher of great influence for authors such as Borges and Cortázar.. His works are recognized for their philosophical and existential depth, perhaps a product of Macedonio's predilection for contemplative activity and solitary life.

Mr. Ga had been so assiduous, so docile and prolonged a patient of Dr. Therapeutica that now he was only a foot. Having successively removed his teeth, tonsils, stomach, kidney, lung, spleen, colon, now Mr. Ga's valet arrived to call Dr. Therapeutica to attend to Mr. Ga's foot, who sent for him.

Dr. Therapeutica examined the foot carefully and "shaking his head in a serious manner" he decided: -There is too much foot, no wonder it feels bad: I will draw the necessary cut, to a surgeon.

10. The Dinosaur (Augusto Monterroso)

We end this selection with one of the most famous Latin American micro-stories. In fact, until recently, this story was considered the shortest micro-story in world literature, due to its complexity and aesthetic richness.because of the complexity and aesthetic richness it contains. Its author is Augusto Monterroso, a writer of Honduran origin, nationalized Guatemalan and based in Mexico City.

When he woke up, the dinosaur was still there.