Gelman, Juan

(1930– )

   Argentine poet and journalist. Born in Buenos Aires, the child of Ukrainian immigrants—his father participated in the Russian Revolution of 1905—Gelman spent his childhood in the historic porteño neighborhood of Villa Crespo. An early member of the literary group El Pan Duro, Gelman published his first book of poetry, Violín y otras cuestiones, in 1956. In the 1970s Gelman began his career in journalism. He directed the cultural supplement of the newspaper La Nación, was editor-in-chief of the newspaper Noticias, and was the Spanish-language editor of the journal Ceres, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

   An early opponent of Peronism, Gelman abandoned the Communist Party in favor of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (FAR, Revolutionary Armed Forces), which in 1973 joined the Montoneros. He served as Montonero press secretary for Europe until his break with the organization in 1979. In 1976 the military invaded his home with orders to arrest him. Instead, they arrested his son, Marcelo, and his daughter-in-law, Claudia Irueta, then pregnant. The younger Gelman was killed in captivity, and his wife was transported to an Uruguayan prison as part of Operation Condor. There, Claudia gave birth to a daughter and was executed. Juan Gelman’s granddaughter was located and identified in Uruguay in March 2000 following the intervention of Uruguayan president Jorge Batlle Ibáñez. The filmmaker Elena Bravo’s award-winning documentary ¿Quién soy yo? (Who am I?, 2007) contains interviews with Macarena, Gelman’s granddaughter, and other children kidnapped during Argentina’s “dirty war.” Exiled in 1976, Gelman spent 12 years in several European and Central American countries. In 1989 he settled in Mexico City. In 1987 he received Argentina’s Premio Nacional de la Poesía, and in 2000 received the Premio Juan Rulfo, Latin America’s most prestigious award for poetry.

   The author of over 20 volumes of poetry translated into 10 languages, Gelman is hailed as one of Argentina’s most important contemporary poets. Themes of family and lost friends, Argentina, his beloved tango, his Jewish heritage, exile, torture, and disappearances, and an almost obsessive need to remember are all present in his oeuvre. In 1997 a compilation of his poetry, translated into English, was made available in the United States under the title Unthinkable Tenderness. He is also the author, with Mara La Madrid, of the collection of essays Ni el flaco perdón de Dios / Hijos de desaparecidos (1997).