Mariano Picón Salas

Mariano Picón Salas
Born	January 26, 1901(1901-01-26) Mérida, Mérida State, Venezuela
Died	January 1, 1965(1965-01-01) (aged 63) Caracas, Venezuela
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Mariano Federico Picón Salas, an influential Venezuelan diplomatic, cultural critic and writer of the 20th century, was born in Mérida (Mérida State) on January 26, 1901 and died in Caracas on January 1, 1965. Among his books, his collection of essays on history, literary criticism and cultural history are remarkable. He travelled a lot through the Americas. His work is also important because of his wide perspective, studying the culture of the entire continent. He left Venezuela, under the political persecution of dictator Juan Vicente Gómez. Living for a large period in Chile, he studied History gaining the degree of “Profesor de Historia” and later the Doctorate on Philosophy and Letters.

He came back to Venezuela in 1936, working as a professor and author. He founded the Asociación de Escritores de Venezuela (Writers Association from Venezuela), and worked for the Ministry of Education.

His studies on "Barroco de Indias" (the term that he coined to talk about the baroque from Hispanic America) are very influential among the general study of Baroque.

He received the National Prize for Literature in 1954. He taught at Columbia University, New York.

He was twice married. First to Isabel Cento, with whom he had a daughter named Delia Isabel Picón de Morles Hernández, and to socialite Beatriz Otáñez.

Works

• Las nuevas corrientes de arte (1917)
• Buscando el camino (1920)
• Mundo imaginario (1927)
• Hispanoamérica: posición crítica, literatura y actitud americana: sentido americano del disparate y sitio de una generación (1931)
• Registro de huéspedes (1934)
• Intuición de Chile y otros ensayos en busca de una conciencia histórica (1935)
• Preguntas a Europa (1938)
• Cinco discursos sobre pasado y presente de la nación venezolana (1940)
• Odisea de Tierra Firme: relatos de Venezuela (1940)
• Un viaje y seis retratos (1940)
• Formación y proceso de la literatura venezolana (1940)
• Viaje al amanecer (1943)
• De la Conquista a la Independencia (México, 1944)
• Biografía de Francisco de Miranda (1946)
• Formación y Proceso de la Literatura Venezolana (1947)
• Comprensión de Venezuela (1949)
• Pedro Claver, el Santo de los Esclavos (1950)
• Dependencia e Independencia en la Historia hispanoamericana (1952)
• Los días de Cipriano Castro (1953)
• Crisis, cambio, tradición (1955)
• Regreso de tres mundos: un hombre en su generación (1959)
• Los Malos salvajes. Civilización y política contemporáneas (1962)
• Hora y Deshora. Temas humanísticos; nombres y figuras, viajes y lugares (1963)
• Tres sonetos del desengaño (1965)
• Prólogo al Instituto Nacional de Cultural (posthumous) (1965)

See also

• Venezuela
• Venezuelan literature

External links

• (Spanish) Mariano Picón Salas biography
• (Spanish) Mariano Picón Salas website

Persondata
Name	Picon Salas, Mariano
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	January 26, 1901
Place of birth	Mérida, Mérida State, Venezuela
Date of death	January 1, 1965
Place of death	Caracas, Venezuela