Florencio Sánchez
Encyclopedia
Florencio Sánchez was a Uruguay
an playwright, journalist and political figure. His artistic work unfolded in the River Plate
region (Argentina and Uruguay). He's considered one of the founding fathers of theater in the River Platean area.
and later to Minas
, where he began his studies at an elementary school. At a very young age, he published a few satirical articles in a newspaper. It was around this age which he participated as actor and author in some family musicals (with staged representations).
After having abandoned his high school career, Sánchez alternated his life between Montevideo
, Buenos Aires
and Rosario
. His intense works in journalism and theater unfolded in these cities. In Montevideo he joined the International Center for Social Studies (a literary organization). In Rosario he was a secretary for the writing department of La República ("The Republic"), a publication led by Lisandro de la Torre
. His first writings of a social and political nature were published in La República. The critical and scathing realism was apparent in his literary work for the newspaper; this writing style would later characterize his theatrical productions.
Sánchez decided to move to Buenos Aires
, Argentina
in 1892 after spending some time in Rosario
, a city in Santa Fe
, Argentina. He would remain there for two years. After his return to Montevideo in 1894, he began working as a journalist for the newspapers El Nacional ("The National"), La Razón ("The Reason"), and El Siglo ("The Sign" or "The Century"). He published interviews and wrote political articles which he adorned by incorporating dialogues from its protagonists. It was during his settlement in Buenos Aires that he began to acquire a name for himself as a journalist. He started to participate in intellectual circles and extravagantly enjoy the Buenos Aires night life.
In 1897 when the civil war broke out in Uruguay, he returned to his home country and fought under the ranks of Aparicio Saravia
in continuation of his family's history of political inclination. It was during this phase of his life which he came into contact with certain outstanding intellectuals, such as Eduardo Acevedo Díaz
. Shortly after his time fighting in the war, his political affiliation with anarchy
would begin. He would write in La Protesta ("The Protest") and in the magazine El Sol ("The Sun"), the latter being led by Alberto Ghiraldo. Sánchez's plays Ladrones ("Thieves") and Puertas adentro ("Doors Within") would be written within the anarchist model.
On August 13, 1903, his first play, M'hijo el dotor, was put to show in the Comedy Theater of Buenos Aires. It had great success and was followed by a short but intense period of playwriting, all of which had similar success in both Buenos Aires and Montevideo. These included a farce entitled La gente honesta ("The Honest People") and perhaps his most famous play, Canillita ("The Newspaper Vendor"), both also written in 1903. Canillita has been interpreted by a Spanish operetta company.
It was the success of M'hijo el dotor which led Sánchez to marry Catalina Raventos on September 25, 1903 after being in a relationship with her since 1897. His unorganized economic life caused him to sell his plays to several impresarios and theater actors for very little money during a time of financial hardship. He frequently accepted advances on his pay for plays which he had not yet finished or begun writing. This led to further problems and he sometimes had to avoid his creditors and write a few plays hurriedly, giving them away without an appropriate revision.
In 1906, Sánchez settled down in La Plata
, where he worked for the Office of Anthropometric Identification, which was funded by Juan Vucetich
. His uncaring night life may have led to his catching tuberculosis
, which was spreading rapidly during the late 1880s and early 1900s. It was colloquially abbreviated tisis and a person with tuberculosis
was viciously called tísico (male) or tísica (female). The infectious disease is highly contagious and affects the ability to breathe, gradually ruining the lungs' surfaces. A victim of tuberculosis
would cough frequently and expel blood through saliva from the lungs, which was the first symptom needed to diagnose someone with the disease.
For many years he had had the intention of travelling to Europe to create a both socially and economically successful play. In 1909 he found an opportunity to go and boarded the Italian ship Principe di Udine on September 25, arriving in Genova on October 13. In Italy, he dedicated himself principally to search for a manner to connect himself with the theater companies and for an opportunity to have his plays put on in Spain and France. Sánchez's behavior was completely unusual; upon receiving 3000 Francs in 1910 for the representation of his play Los muertos, he spent all of his money in just a few days in Niza
on women and by gambling in casinos.
After having traveled through much of Italy and southern France, he went to Milan, an important center for theater activity, to place himself in contact with some important theater impresarios. Nonetheless, his disease was affecting his health rapidly and he was hastily ordered to travel to Switzerland because it was believed that the pure air from the Alpine mountain area would help his health. After arriving in Switzerland by train he was only turned down from hotels and hospitals; no one would admit him because of his contagious disease. His only option was to return to Milan. He was finally admitted into a hospital in Milan on November 2 and died on November 7 at the age of thirty-five.
A passionate observer, Sánchez's favorite themes for his plays were family, the tenament and immigrants; he also represented different social classes on both sides of the Silver River (Río de la Plata
), displaying through the everyday life of and dialogue between his characters both the misery and hope of the working class.
. He sided with Saravia in the Uruguayan Civil War
of 1897, but disillusioned by its aftermath, Sánchez became an anarchist
and wrote for the anarchist periodical La Protesta (Protest).
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
an playwright, journalist and political figure. His artistic work unfolded in the River Plate
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
region (Argentina and Uruguay). He's considered one of the founding fathers of theater in the River Platean area.
Biography
Florencio Sánchez came from a large family; he had eleven siblings and his parents moved his family to the city of Treinta y TresTreinta y Tres
Treinta y Tres is the capital city of the Treinta y Tres Department in eastern Uruguay. It is located on Route 8, on the north banks of Olimar Grande River...
and later to Minas
Minas, Uruguay
Minas is the capital of the Lavalleja Department in Uruguay. It is located in the south of the department, on the intersection of Route 8 with Route 12. The city is situated between hill ranges and the basins of the streams Arroyo San Francisco and Arroyo Campanero. Its status was elevated to...
, where he began his studies at an elementary school. At a very young age, he published a few satirical articles in a newspaper. It was around this age which he participated as actor and author in some family musicals (with staged representations).
After having abandoned his high school career, Sánchez alternated his life between Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and Rosario
Rosario
Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....
. His intense works in journalism and theater unfolded in these cities. In Montevideo he joined the International Center for Social Studies (a literary organization). In Rosario he was a secretary for the writing department of La República ("The Republic"), a publication led by Lisandro de la Torre
Lisandro de la Torre
Lisandro de la Torre was an Argentine politician, born in Rosario, province of Santa Fe.De la Torre became a lawyer in 1890. His thesis about municipalities and communes, as well as other works of his, gave rise to the idea of municipal autonomy in Argentina, which was included in the Argentine...
. His first writings of a social and political nature were published in La República. The critical and scathing realism was apparent in his literary work for the newspaper; this writing style would later characterize his theatrical productions.
Sánchez decided to move to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
in 1892 after spending some time in Rosario
Rosario
Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....
, a city in Santa Fe
Santa Fe Province
The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...
, Argentina. He would remain there for two years. After his return to Montevideo in 1894, he began working as a journalist for the newspapers El Nacional ("The National"), La Razón ("The Reason"), and El Siglo ("The Sign" or "The Century"). He published interviews and wrote political articles which he adorned by incorporating dialogues from its protagonists. It was during his settlement in Buenos Aires that he began to acquire a name for himself as a journalist. He started to participate in intellectual circles and extravagantly enjoy the Buenos Aires night life.
In 1897 when the civil war broke out in Uruguay, he returned to his home country and fought under the ranks of Aparicio Saravia
Aparicio Saravia
Aparicio Saravia da Rosa was a Uruguayan politician and military leader...
in continuation of his family's history of political inclination. It was during this phase of his life which he came into contact with certain outstanding intellectuals, such as Eduardo Acevedo Díaz
Eduardo Acevedo Díaz
Eduardo Acevedo Díaz , was a Uruguayan writer, politician and journalist.-Early life:...
. Shortly after his time fighting in the war, his political affiliation with anarchy
Anarchy
Anarchy , has more than one colloquial definition. In the United States, the term "anarchy" typically is meant to refer to a society which lacks publicly recognized government or violently enforced political authority...
would begin. He would write in La Protesta ("The Protest") and in the magazine El Sol ("The Sun"), the latter being led by Alberto Ghiraldo. Sánchez's plays Ladrones ("Thieves") and Puertas adentro ("Doors Within") would be written within the anarchist model.
On August 13, 1903, his first play, M'hijo el dotor, was put to show in the Comedy Theater of Buenos Aires. It had great success and was followed by a short but intense period of playwriting, all of which had similar success in both Buenos Aires and Montevideo. These included a farce entitled La gente honesta ("The Honest People") and perhaps his most famous play, Canillita ("The Newspaper Vendor"), both also written in 1903. Canillita has been interpreted by a Spanish operetta company.
It was the success of M'hijo el dotor which led Sánchez to marry Catalina Raventos on September 25, 1903 after being in a relationship with her since 1897. His unorganized economic life caused him to sell his plays to several impresarios and theater actors for very little money during a time of financial hardship. He frequently accepted advances on his pay for plays which he had not yet finished or begun writing. This led to further problems and he sometimes had to avoid his creditors and write a few plays hurriedly, giving them away without an appropriate revision.
In 1906, Sánchez settled down in La Plata
La Plata
La Plata is the capital city of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and of La Plata partido. According to the , the city proper has a population of 574,369 and its metropolitan area has 694,253 inhabitants....
, where he worked for the Office of Anthropometric Identification, which was funded by Juan Vucetich
Juan Vucetich
Juan Vucetich was a Croatian-born Argentine anthropologist and police official who pioneered the use of fingerprinting.-Biography:...
. His uncaring night life may have led to his catching tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, which was spreading rapidly during the late 1880s and early 1900s. It was colloquially abbreviated tisis and a person with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
was viciously called tísico (male) or tísica (female). The infectious disease is highly contagious and affects the ability to breathe, gradually ruining the lungs' surfaces. A victim of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
would cough frequently and expel blood through saliva from the lungs, which was the first symptom needed to diagnose someone with the disease.
For many years he had had the intention of travelling to Europe to create a both socially and economically successful play. In 1909 he found an opportunity to go and boarded the Italian ship Principe di Udine on September 25, arriving in Genova on October 13. In Italy, he dedicated himself principally to search for a manner to connect himself with the theater companies and for an opportunity to have his plays put on in Spain and France. Sánchez's behavior was completely unusual; upon receiving 3000 Francs in 1910 for the representation of his play Los muertos, he spent all of his money in just a few days in Niza
Niza
Niza is:*Spanish for the city of Nice, France*Niiza, Saitama, Japan*Marcos de Niza, a 16th century Franciscan friar...
on women and by gambling in casinos.
After having traveled through much of Italy and southern France, he went to Milan, an important center for theater activity, to place himself in contact with some important theater impresarios. Nonetheless, his disease was affecting his health rapidly and he was hastily ordered to travel to Switzerland because it was believed that the pure air from the Alpine mountain area would help his health. After arriving in Switzerland by train he was only turned down from hotels and hospitals; no one would admit him because of his contagious disease. His only option was to return to Milan. He was finally admitted into a hospital in Milan on November 2 and died on November 7 at the age of thirty-five.
A passionate observer, Sánchez's favorite themes for his plays were family, the tenament and immigrants; he also represented different social classes on both sides of the Silver River (Río de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
), displaying through the everyday life of and dialogue between his characters both the misery and hope of the working class.
Works
Sánchez is regarded as Uruguay's leading playwright. His dramatic plays include:- La gente honesta [English: The Honest People] Farce; premiere- June 26, 1903. Retitled Los curdas.
- M'hijo el dotor [English: My Son, the Doctor] Comedy in three acts; premiere- August 13, 1903
- Canillita [English: The Newspaper Vendor]Farce; premiere- October 2, 1903
- Cédulas de San Juan [English: San Juan's Warrant] Farce in two acts; premiere- August 7, 1904
- La pobre gente [English: The Poor People] Comedy in two acts; premiere- October 1904
- La gringa [English: The Foreigner (female)] Comedy in four acts; premiere- November 21, 1904
- Barranca abajo [English: Downwards Gully] Tragedy in three acts; premiere- April 26, 1905
- Mano santa [English: Holy Hand] Farce; premiere- June 9, 1905
- En familia [English: In Family] Comedy in three acts; premiere- October 6, 1905
- Los muertos [English: The Dead] Comedy in three acts; premiere- October 23, 1905
- El conventillo [English: The Tenement] Traditional Spanish Operetta in one act; premiere- June 22, 1906
- El desalojo [English: The Vacancy] Farce; premiere- July 16, 1906
- El pasado [English: The Past] Comedy in three acts; premiere- October 22, 1906
- Los curdas [English: The Kurds] Farce; premiere- January 2, 1907
- La tigra [English: The Tigress] Farce; premiere- January 2, 1907
- Moneda falsa [English: False Coin] Farce; January 8, 1907
- El cacique Pichuelo [English: The Pichuelan Boss] Traditional Spanish Operetta; premiere- January 9, 1907
- Los derechos de la salud [English: Health Rights] Comedy in three acts; premiere- December 4, 1907
- Nuestros hijos [English: Our Children] Comedy in three acts; premiere- June 1908
- Marta Gruni Farce; premiere- July 1908. Utilized as a text for an opera written by Juarés Lamarque Pons in 1967
- Un buen negocio Comedy in two acts; premiere- May 2, 1909
Political activities
Sánchez was a supporter of the conservative nationalist leader Aparicio SaraviaAparicio Saravia
Aparicio Saravia da Rosa was a Uruguayan politician and military leader...
. He sided with Saravia in the Uruguayan Civil War
Uruguayan Civil War
The Uruguayan Civil War, also known as "Guerra Grande", was a series of armed conflicts that took place between the Colorado Party and the National Party in Uruguay from 1839 to 1851...
of 1897, but disillusioned by its aftermath, Sánchez became an anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
and wrote for the anarchist periodical La Protesta (Protest).
See also
- List of Uruguayan writers
- Anarchism in the Americas