Francisco "Paco" Urondo (January 10, 1930 in Santa Fe – June 17, 1976 in Mendoza) was an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

writer and member of the

Montoneros Montoneros (, MPM) was an Argentine far-left politics, far-left Peronism, Peronist, Camilism, Camilist and Catholic Church, Roman Catholic revolutionary Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla organization, which emerged in the 1970s during the "Argentine ...

guerrilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...

organization. Urondo published multiple collections of poetry, short stories, theatrical works, and a novel, as well as ''La patria fusilada'', his famous interview with the survivors of the massacre at Trelew, and his critical essay ''Veinte años de poesía argentina''. He also collaborated in the writing of movie scripts such as ''

Pajarito Gómez ''Pajarito Gómez'' is a 1965 Argentine comedy film directed by Rodolfo Kuhn. It was entered into the 15th Berlin International Film Festival. It was also selected as the Argentine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 38th Academy Aw ...

'' (which includes a cameo appearance) and '' Noche terrible'', and adapted for television

Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...

's ''

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'',

Stendhal Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, , ), was a French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' ('' The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de Parme'' ('' T ...

's '' Le Rouge et le Noir,'' and Eça de Queiroz's ''

Os Maias :''If you are looking for the 2014 Portuguese film see Os Maias (Alguns) Episódios da Vida Romântica'' ''Os Maias: Episódios da Vida Romântica'' (; "The Maias: Episodes of Romantic Life") is a realist novel by Portuguese author Eça de Qu ...

''. In 1968 he was named General Culture Director for the

Santa Fe Province The Invincible Province of Santa Fe (, , lit. "Holy Faith") is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco Province, Chaco (divided by the 2 ...

, and in 1973 Director of the Literature Department of the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature of the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821 ...

. As a journalist, he collaborated in several national and international media, among them ''

Primera Plana ''Primera Plana'' was a weekly glossy political, cultural and current affairs magazine published in Buenos Aires, Argentina, between 1962 and 1973. The magazine was very influential in shaping the journalism tradition in the country. History an ...

'', ''Panorama'', ''Crisis'', ''

La Opiníon LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music *La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smit ...

'' and '' Noticias''. On June 17, 1976, he was assassinated by Argentine Security Forces in an ambush.

Intellectualism and Militancy

At 18, Urondo left home to study chemistry, then law, and then philosophy and letters, but none of these satisfied him. He abandoned academics and went to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

where he led a thriving social life and was known among his friends for his lively and intellectual personality. He practiced puppeteering there for a short while. His writing career developed with the production of his first collections, ''La Perichole'' and ''Historia Antigua'', in the 1950s. Too, his militancy grew, first with his participation in the Argentine guerrilla organization FAR, and later the

. For Urondo, his writing and his militancy were inseparable, despite a mutual mistrust among the two groups.

Juan Gelman Juan Gelman (3 May 1930 – 14 January 2014) was an Argentine poet. He published more than twenty books of poetry between 1956 and his death in early 2014. He was a naturalized citizen of Mexico, where he arrived as a political exile of the Proc ...

, a fellow poet and friend, remembers Urondo as saying once that he “took up arms because he was looking for the right word.” Along with Gelman and poets

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and

Mario Benedetti Mario Benedetti Farrugia (; 14 September 1920 – 17 May 2009), was a Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet and an integral member of the Generación del 45. Despite publishing more than 80 books and being published in twenty languages, he ...

, Urondo developed a conversational style of writing in the 60s and 70s simultaneous with the increasingly strained dynamic between the corrupt state and its people. They wrote with frankness and accusation, resisting collective silence by exposing difficult social and political truths—though devoting their words to art and lyricism above all else. Urondo was imprisoned in 1973 but released; that same year, he published ''La Patria Fusilada'' which recounts through interview the stories of the three survivors of the

Trelew massacre The Trelew Massacre was a mass execution of 16 political prisoners, militants of different Peronist and leftist organizations, in Rawson prison by the military dictatorship of Argentina. The prisoners were recaptured after an escape attempt and s ...

. Due to his militancy Urondo had to enter into a clandestine life, taking great pains to disguise himself in public and adopting a pseudonym, Ortiz, after Juan L. Ortiz. He was aware of the danger he was in and had obtained cyanide pills for himself so that, in the event of a compromise, he would not be taken and tortured and forced to betray his friends. Though he held a position of responsibility within the

, in 1976 Urondo found himself demoted for internal political reasons and had to be transferred. He asked to not be sent to Santa Fe or to Mendoza because he was well known in both places, but nevertheless they placed him as head of the Mendoza column. Out of options, Urondo left for Mendoza in the beginning of May, 1976 with his then-companion Alicia Raboy and their one-year-old child Angela.Ibid
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Death

On his death, Argentine writer

Rodolfo Walsh Rodolfo Jorge Walsh (January 9, 1927 – March 25, 1977) was an Argentine writer and journalist of Irish descent, considered the founder of investigative journalism in Argentina. He is most famous for his '' Open Letter from a Writer to the Milit ...

wrote:

Reparations

Urondo's assassins were convicted in 2011. Juan Agustín Oyarzábal Navarro, Eduardo Smahá Borzuk ("Ruso"), Alberto Rodríguez Vázquez (“Pájaro Loco”), and Celustiano Lucero (“Mono”) received the maximum sentence. Dardo Migno received 12 years in prison. From the trial it was determined that Urondo did not commit suicide by swallowing a cyanide pill, but rather died from a skull fracture caused by a blow to the head with a gun handle that policeman Celustiano Lucero administered. Lucero confessed to this act during the defense.

Work

*''Historia Antigua'', poetry, 1956. *''Breves'', poetry, 1959. *''Lugares'', poetry, 1961. *''Nombres'', poetry, 1963. *''Todo eso'', short-stories, 1966. *''Veraneando y sainete con variaciones'', play, 1966. *''Al tacto'', short-stories, 1967. *''Del otro lado'', poetry, 1967. *''Adolecer'', poetry, 1968. *''Veinte años de poesía argentina'', essay, 1968. *''Larga distancia'', poetry, Madrid, 1971. *''Los pasos previos'', novel, 1972. *''La patria fusilada'', interviews, 1973. *''Cuentos de batalla'', poetry, 1998. *''Poemas'', poetry, Visor. *''Obra poética'', poetry, Hidalgo, 2006.

About Francisco Urondo

* ''The Unfinished Song of Francisco Urondo: When Poetry is Not Enough'' (Hernán Fontanet, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2014) . * ''Francisco Urondo y su poesía: un arma cargada de futuro'' (Hernán Fontanet, Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta - Hispanic Monographs, 2012) .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urondo, Paco 1930 births 1976 deaths People from Santa Fe, Argentina 20th-century Argentine poets 20th-century Argentine male writers Argentine male poets Argentine male novelists People killed in the Dirty War 20th-century Argentine novelists