Quijano, Carlos (1900–1984)

Carlos Quijano (b. 1900; d. 10 June 1984), Uruguayan journalist, writer, and political activist born in Montevideo, where he received a degree in law in 1923. He left Uruguay to study economics and political science at the Sorbonne in Paris. There he acted as a correspondent for the Uruguayan newspaper El País and cofounded the General Association of Latin American Students (AGELA). Intellectually, he came under the influence of the theoretical socialism of thinkers such as Gramsci, Sorel, and Croce, which greatly motivated his subsequent political committment when he returned to Uruguay in 1928. After returning to Uruguay, he was elected to Congress as a member of the National (or Blanco) Party from 1928 to 1931.

But Quijano's greatest influence on Uruguayan culture was through his role as founder and director of the weekly Marcha, through which he truly became mentor to a generation. For thirty-five years (1939–1974) Marcha served as a cultural reference throughout Latin America and a forum for writers and thinkers of different countries. In its pages appeared the work of Juan Carlos Onetti, Angel Rama, Emir Rodríguez Monegal, Carlos Real De Azúa, Idea Vilariño, Joaquín Torres García, Arturo Ardao, Mario Benedetti, Mercedes Rein, Cristina Peri Rossi, and Jorge Ruffinelli, among many others. In 1974, Marcha was shut down by the dictatorship, and after a brief period of imprisonment, Quijano left for Mexico along with other members of the weekly's staff. In exile he continued to work incessantly until his death, editing Cuadernos de Marcha and teaching classes at the National Autonomous University in Mexico City.

See alsoJournalism; Uruguay: The Twentieth Century; Uruguay, Political Parties: Blanco Party.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hugo R. Alfaro, Navegar es necesario: Quijano y el Semanario "Marcha" (1984).

Gerardo Caetano and José Pedro Rilla, El joven Quijano, 1900–1933: Izquierda nacional y conciencia crítica (1986).

Pablo Rocca, 35 años en MARCHA (1992).

Additional Bibliography

Traversoni, Alfredo, and Diosma Piotti. Historia del Uruguay siglo XX. Montevideo: Ediciones de la Plaza, 1993.

                                   MarÍa InÉs de Torres