Luis Sepúlveda
Luis Sepúlveda was a Chilean writer, film director, journalist and political activist.
He studied theatre production at the National University. In 1969, Sepúlveda was given a five-year scholarship to continue his drama studies at the Moscow University, but it was withdrawn after five months on account of 'misconduct' (he attended a party with a Politburo Officer's Wife, which was considered high ofense).
Luis Sepúlveda was politically active first as a leader of the student movement and in the Salvador Allende administration in the department of cultural affairs where he was in charge of a series of cheap editions of classics for the general public. He also acted as a mediator between the government and Chilean companies.
After the Chilean coup of 1973 which brought to power General Augusto Pinochet he was jailed for two-and-a-half years and then obtained a conditional release through the efforts of the German branch of Amnesty International and was kept under house arrest.
He managed to escape and went underground for nearly a year. With the help of a friend who was head of the Alliance française in Valparaíso he set up a drama group that became the first cultural focus of resistance. He was rearrested and given a life sentence (later reduced to twenty-eight years) for treason and subversion.
The German section of Amnesty International intervened again and his prison sentence was commuted to eight years of exile, and in 1977 he left Chile to fly to Sweden where he was supposed to teach Spanish literature. At the first stopover in Buenos Aires he escaped and managed to enter Uruguay. Because the political situations in both Argentina and Uruguay were similar to those in his home country, Sepúlveda went to São Paulo in Brazil and then to Paraguay. He had to leave again because of the local regime and finally settled in Quito in Ecuador guest of his friend Jorge Enrique Adoum. He directed the Alliance Française theatre, founded a theatrical company and took part in a UNESCO expedition to assess the impact of colonization on the Shuar Indians.
During the expedition he shared the life of the Shuars for seven months and came to an understanding of Latin America as a multicultural and multilingual continent where the Marxism-Leninism he was taught was not applicable to a rural population that was dependent on its surrounding natural environment. He worked in close contact with Indian organizations and drafted the first literacy teaching plan for the Imbabura peasants' federation, in the Andes.
In 1979 he joined the Simón Bolívar international brigade which was fighting in Nicaragua and after the victory of the revolution he started working as a journalist and one year later he left for Europe.
He went to Hamburg in Germany because of his admiration of German literature (he learned the language in prison) especially the romantics as Novalis and Friedrich Hölderlin and worked there as journalist traveling widely in Latin America and Africa.
In 1982 he came in contact with Greenpeace and worked until 1987 as a crewmember on one of their ships. He later acted as co-ordinator between various branches of the organization.
“Un profesional vive solo. Para aliviar el cuerpo, el mundo le ofrece un montón de putas. Siempre había respetado a rajatabla esa consigna misógina. Siempre. Hasta que la conocí.”
“I veri amici condividono i sogni e le speranze.”
“I veri amici si prendono sempre cura uno dell’altro.”
“I veri amici condividono anche il silenzio.”
“Nessun uccello vola appena nato, ma arriva il momento in cui il richiamo dell’aria è più forte della paura di cadere e allora la vita gli insegna a spiegare le ali.”
“Un amico si prende sempre cura della libertà dell’altro.”
“Se é certo que a vida é breve e frágil, também é verdade que a dignidade e a coragem lhe conferem a vitalidade que nos faz suportar os seus enganos e desditas”
“A Cobiça será sempre como uma agulha de gelo nas pupilas”
“We've learnt to appreciate and respect and love someone who's different from us. It is very easy to accept and love those who are like us, but to love someone different is very hard, and you helped us to do that.”
“Duras são as sementes do Cusculí, mas irão trazer para os seus sonhos as bocas ansiosas que receberam o seu sabor agridoce no tempo do amor. Ásperas são as sementes do Urucuzeiro, mas a sua polpa vermelha adornou as caras e os corpos das eleitas. Dolorosas são as sementes da Yahuasca, porque talvez assim disfarcem a doçura do licor que produzem e que bebido, com a ajuda dos velhos sábios, dissipa o tormento das dúvidas sem entregar as respostas, antes enriquecendo a ignorância do coração”
“ Tudo é como devia ser. A noite aperta a polpa dos frutos, desperta o desejo dos insectos, acalma a inquietação das aves, refresca a pele dos repteis, põe os vaga-lumes a dançar. Sim. Tudo é como devia ser”
“Um morto é um escândalo, mil mortos são uma estatística, afirmou Goebbels”
“Никто не в силах захватить и присвоить себе раскат грома. Никто не может отобрать небеса у другого человека. Никто не может забрать небо с собой при расставании.”
“In a right-angled triangle, the hypotenuse is the side opposite the right angle". A sentence that later flabbergasted the inhabitants of el Idilio, who took it to be a wird tongue twister or a mysterious incantation".”
“-İyi akşamlar.-Bu tartışılabilir.”
“İnsanlar korku içinde ve korku için yaşıyorlardı. Bu korkuyla çıkışı olmayan bir dolambaç oluşturuyorlardı, konuşmalarına ve yemeklerine korku eşlik ediyordu. En önemsiz olayları bile uygunsuz bir önlemle donatıyorlardı; geceleri, daha iyi günleri ya da geçmişi düşlemek için değil de, karanlık ve yoğun bir korku bataklığına atılmak için yatağa giriyorlardı; gün doğarken onları yataklarından gözlerinin altında mor halkalarla ve daha da ürkmüş olarak kaldıran ölü saatler korkusu.”
“-Ama biz ne yaptık ki kardeş?-Belki de tek çocuklara kardeş dedik.”
“Vola solo chi osa farlo.”
“He often heard that wisdom comes with age, and he waited, trusting that this wisdom would bring him what he most wanted; that ability to guide his memories and not fall into the traps that they often set for him.”
“Antonio José Bolivar ôta son dentier, le rangea dans son mouchoir et sans cesser de maudire le gringo, responsable de la tragédie, le maire, les chercheurs d'or, tous ceux qui souillaient la virginité de son Amazonie, il coupa une grosse branche d'un coup de machette, s'y appuya, et prit la direction d'El Idilio, de sa cabane et ses romans qui parlaient d'amour avec des mots si beaux que, parfois, ils lui faisaient oublier la barbarie des hommes.”
“-Sí, al borde del vacío comprendió lo más importante - maulló Zorbas.-Ah, sí? Y qué es lo que comprendió -preguntó el humano.-Que sólo vuela el que se atreve a hacerlo - maulló Zorbas.”
“Il possédait l’antidote contre le redoutable venin de la vieillesse. Il savait lire.”
“La libertà è uno stato di grazia e si è liberi solo mentre si lotta per conquistarla.”
“Se la vita avesse uno sceneggiatore, dovrebbe predisporre incontri senza cambiamenti percettibili in modo che, come dice il poeta Juan Gelman, gli anni invecchino con me, invece di riempirsi di dubbi che la ragione sulle prime si rifiuta di accettare incolpando gli occhi innocenti della verità che ha davanti”
“It was the purest love without purpose other than love itself. Without tenure or jealousy.”
“I am the shadow of what we were, and while there is light we exist.”
“Il est dit que tout homme doit découvrir quelque chose qui justifie sa vie.”
“Only those who dare may fly”
“Nunca confies na memória porque está sempre do nosso lado: suaviza a atrocidade, dulcifica a amargura, põe luz onde só houve sombras. A memória tende sempre à ficção.”