The directory «Plots»

García Serafín José
(1905—1985)

Serafín J. García was born in l905 in Cañada Grande (Department of Treinta y Tres). Later , his family moved to Vergara where he attended school. In l9l7 , he started learning typography, and would soon write his first poems and stories. When he was boy, his father died . For the first time, he faced the question of man's fate. These vicissitudes turned out to be the source for many of the subjects he would deal with in his works. Being still a youngster, he learned music and worked as a journalist in the local newspaper. His readership was favoured by his job as a librarian in the Social Club of Vergara. His favourite writers were Barbusse, Rolland, Andrew and Yorki, as well as, many Spanish Classics . In l934, he married Blanca Elena González, an intelligent and refined woman who would constantly encourage him althroughout his life. "Tacuruses"(Ant hills) was first published in l936 . It was a collection of gaucho poems which became a best-seller - l7 editions were made of it. He also produced other poetry and prose works, tales, fables, chronicles, essays and portrayals of local colour, and with the pen name "Simplicio Bobadilla", he wrote several humour pages. His tales for children have been adopted by the Uruguayan Education authorities as reading matter for school and high-school students. Some of his works have been translated into English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Idish. Over forty years, Serafín García won eight official and three private literary contests. His work "Piquín y Chispita" was selected as one of the best ten children's books published in 1967- 1968 in the world, for which reason he was ranked among the best writers in the "Hans Christian Andersen" Children's LiteratureWorld Contest held on April 4th., 1970 in Bologna, Italy. He won the official prizes awarded within the "Premio Rodó" contest (Uruguay), and the 1981 - 1983 Triennial Literature contest organized by the Uruguayan Ministry of Education and Culture. In 1974, he was appointed as a member of the National Academy of Literature of Uruguay, position that he occupied just only in 1983. He was then assigned an honourable seat named after Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga (a major figure in the Uruguayan history). Serafín J. García, died on April 29th., 1985 in Montevideo, just some months before the 50th. anniversary of the first edition of "Tacuruses", thanks to which he was so celebrated. The stamp depicts some illustrations from his book "Piquín y Chispita".

Uruguay, 1998, Serafin J. Garcia