Amorim, Enrique (1900–1960)

One of the most important Uruguayan writers of the twentieth century, Enrique Amorim was born July 25, 1900, in Salto, where he settled and composed most of his poetry, short stories, and novels. Amorim spent much of his childhood in the Uruguayan countryside, which infuses his writing. He attended high school in Buenos Aires, where he first experimented with poetry and later taught literature. His compatriot and fellow author Horacio Quiroga encouraged him to contribute to Caras y Caretas, the most popular Rioplatense magazine of the first half of the twentieth century. He opposed the golpe de estado (coup d'etat) led by Gabriel Terra in 1933, and voiced his opposition to the 1940s government of Juan Domingo Perón in Argentina.

Amorim traveled often to Montevideo and Buenos Aires, and he made several trips to Europe. His best-known work is the novel La Carreta (1932), though it is only part of a large body of writing consisting of short story collections, including Amorim (1923); the novel El paisano Aguilar (1934); and works of nonfiction and drama. In addition, Amorim wrote screenplays and worked on documentary film projects. He died on July 28, 1960. His residence, Las Nubes, is a memorial that visitors to Salto can still see in the early twenty-first century.

See alsoUruguay: The Twentieth Century; Literature: Spanish America; Perón, Juan Domingo; Quiroga, Horacio; Terra, Gabriel.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Amorim, Enrique. El paisano Aguilar [1934]. Montevideo: Editores Asociados, 1989.

Amorim, Enrique. La carreta [1932]. Colección de Clásicos Uruguayos, vol. 172. Montevideo: Archivo General de la Nación, Centro de Difusión del Libro, 2004.

Miranda Buranelli, Alvaro, and Carlos Nodar Freire, eds. Enrique Amorim. Montevideo: Editores Asociados, 1990.

Mose, K. E. A. Enrique Amorim: The Passion of a Uruguayan. New York: Plaza Mayor, 1972.

                            William G. Acree Jr.