Mario Benedetti Olmak

In this article entitled “Being Mario Benedetti” the writer’s educational life as well as his professional career are analyzed. From his childhood Benedetti had great interest in books and he begins to write at an early age, finding himself in the midst of a career dedicated to writing. Although he received influences from several older and contemporary writers, the most important impact on him and what was to shape his future career was the socio-political state of affairs in Uruguay. Soon Benedetti’s political tendencies reveal themselves in the articles he publishes in several periodicals, as a result of which he finds himself banished from his native land. From that time on he has to live a long, arduous life of twelve-years exile. The changes of sentiment which qualify his poetry before and after his exilic life, find expression in his poetry. On his return to Uruguay, Benedetti discerns the changes that his country has undergone, and these tides of change find reflection in his work.