Luis Sepúlveda

Luis Sepúlveda (October 4, 1949 - April 16, 2020) was born in Ovalle, in northern Chile. At the age of 15, he joined the communist youth. He studied theater directing in Santiago. In 1969, he received a five-year scholarship to the University of Moscow, but five months later, he was expelled from the Soviet Union for "misconduct" due to his friendships with dissidents. A fervent supporter of Salvador Allende, he joined Allende's personal guard in 1973. After Pinochet's coup, he was imprisoned, tortured, accused of treason, and sentenced to 28 years in prison. After two and a half years of incarceration, he was released through the intervention of Amnesty International and exiled from Chile. He sought refuge in Ecuador, where he organized a theater troupe. He wrote poems, plays, and short stories, and created theater groups in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. He lived for six months in the Amazon with the Shuar Indians as part of a UNESCO mission, gaining experiences that changed his worldview and later provided material for his first novel: "The Old Man Who Read Love Stories" (1989). In 1979, he joined the International Brigade "Simón Bolívar" and participated in the Nicaraguan liberation struggle, where, after the revolution's success, he worked as a journalist. The following year (1980), he settled in Europe and became a Greenpeace activist. He traveled the world and received numerous prestigious literary awards. His most well-known books include: "The World at the End of the World" (1989), "The Name of a Bullfighter" (1994), "Patagonia Express" (1995), "The Story of a Seagull and the Cat Who Taught Her to Fly" (1996), "Diary of a Sentimental Killer" (1996), "Hot Line, Yacaré" (1997), "The Madness of Pinochet" (2002), "The Worst Tales of the Brothers Grimm" (2004), "The Power of Dreams" (2006). In February 2020, he fell ill, was hospitalized, and lost his battle for life during the Covid-19 pandemic in Spain, where he resided. (photo: Daniel Mordzinski)