Antonio Acevedo Hernández
| Pedro Antonio Acevedo Hernández | |
|---|---|
| Born | Tracacura, Angol (Chile). |
| Died | 1 December 1962 (aged 76) |
| Resting place | Campo Santo |
| Occupation | Writer and playwright |
| Nationality | Chilean |
| Genre | Dramaturgy and Narrative |
| Literary movement | Realism |
| Notable works | Chañarcillo, Joaquín Murieta, Pedro Urdemales |
Antonio Acevedo Hernández (8 March 1886 – 1 December 1962) was a Chilean writer. Hernández was a self-taught novelist, playwright and writer whose works include theater, novels, short stories, literary and journalistic chronicles, essays, poetry and popular Chilean folklore. He created over 840 works, including the plays Almas perdidas, El Vino triste, La Sangre, and El Rancho. He was awarded the Premio Nacional de Teatro in 1936. His work, along with that of authors like Germán Luco Cruchaga and Armando Moock, marked the beginnings of Chilean dramaturgy.
Hernández was the son of Juan Acevedo Astorga (one of the soldiers of the War of the Pacific) and Maria Hernández Urbistondo. After having spent his early years in Tracacura, he moved to Temuco. When he was a little over 10 years, he went into the woods in the area, where loggers taught him mastery of weapons. He was illiterate until he moved to the city of Chillán, where he entered the Escuela Taller, studying the art of carpentry. However, his precarious economic situation forced him to work carrying out multiple trades (woodcutter, charger, vendor fairs and carpenter). He stayed in school for a year and learned to read and write.
At sixteen years old Hernández decided to move to Santiago. To achieve this, he walked four days without eating until reaching Linares, where an acquaintance of his father gave him a passage to the capital. At that time, in Santiago the 900 literary generation flourished, which involved important Chilean literary figures such as: Pedro Antonio González, Carlos Pezoa Veliz, Fernando Santiván, Pedro Prado and Juan D'Halmar. However, Hernández did not become linked so much with this generation as with the movement driven by Luis Emilio Recabarren.
As a result of the commitment he made with this social movement, in 1903 he participated in the port strike in Valparaíso, then, in a railway strike in Caleta Abarca, and another in 1905, in the capital. It was within these movements that he met, in 1913, Domingo Gómez Rojas, who read his work and was excited to present it in theaters. This would be the initial step in a progressive massification of his dramaturgy.
While writing and offering his works to theaters, he had to continue working as a clerk in stores, at the Civil Registry and even doing some boxing matches. However, he was afterwards hired by the Pellicer theater company to sweep dressing rooms, run errands for artists, to be a prompter, vigilante, "text arranger", or whatever was needed. From then on, every year his productions increased, as well as the advancement of the Chilean theater in the country.
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