LIACHO, LÁZARO

LIACHO, LÁZARO (1906–1969), Argentine poet, narrator, essayist, and journalist. Born in Buenos Aires, Liacho was the son of jacobo simÓn liachovitzky (1874–1937), a noted Yiddish journalist, who immigrated to Argentina in 1894, founded the first Argentine Yiddish daily, Der Tog, and the weekly Der Tsionist; in 1904 he helped to establish the Argentine Zionist Federation; he also wrote a play and short stories. Lázaro Liacho was associated with the periodicals Mundo Israelita and Judaica, but won recognition mainly as a poet. His Bocado de pan ("Morsel of Bread," 1931), Pan de Buenos Aires ("Bread of Buenos Aires," 1940), and El hombre y sus moradas ("Man and His Dwellings," 1961), reflect his outlook both as a Jew and as an Argentinean. His short stories (Sobre el filo de la vida, "On Life's Cutting Edge," 1969) deal with the Holocaust. Though he expressed his love and admiration for Israel and Zionism, he considered Jewishness as a spiritual reality that can be practiced anywhere and praised Argentina as "the new Zion" in the poems collected in Siónidas desde la pampa ("Odes to Zion from the Pampa," 1969). In his later poetry, notably Entre Dios y Satán ("Between God and Satan," 1966), Liacho turned to biblical, religious, and metaphysical themes.

bibliography:

R. DiAntonio and N. Glickman, Tradition and Innovation: Reflections on Latin American Jewish Writing (1993); R. Gardiol, Argentina's Jewish Short Story Writers (1986); N. Lindstrom, Jewish Issues in Argentine Literature (1989); D.B. Lockhart, Jewish Writers of Latin America. A Dictionary (1997).

[Paul Link /

Florinda F. Goldberg (2^nd ed.)]