As though they were coming from the lips of another, from a judge I carried within me without knowing it, and who made use of my own faculties to express him self, my words took such hold upon me that it frightened me to realize, as I listened to myself, how hard it is to become a man when one has ceased to be a man.
Alejo Carpentier Quotes
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| Birth: | 26th December, 1904 |
| Death: | 24th April, 1980 |
| Nationality: | Cuban |
| Profession: | Essayist, Novelist |
About
Alejo Carpentier y Valmont was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous boom period. Carpentier was born on December 26, 1904 in Lausanne, Switzerland, to Jorge Julián Carpentier, a French architect, and Lina Valmont, a Russian language teacher. In 1921, Carpentier attended the School of Architecture of the University of Havana. When he was 18, his parents' marriage broke up and his father abandoned the family. The following year, Carpentier left his studies and tried to find work to support his mother. He turned to journalism, working for the Cuban newspapers Carteles and Social. He also studied music. Carpentier was struggling with cancer as he completed his final novel, El arpa y la sombra, and finally died in Paris on April 24, 1980. His remains were returned to Cuba for interment in the Colon Cemetery, Havana.
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