Humberto Costantini

{{Short description|Argentine writer and poet}} {{Infobox writer | name = Humberto Costantini | image = Humberto_Costantini.jpg | imagesize = | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1924|04|08}} | birth_place = [[Buenos Aires]], [[Argentina]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1987|06|07|1924|04|08}} | death_place = Buenos Aires, Argentina | occupation = | period = | genre = | subject = | movement = | notableworks = | spouse = | partner = | children = 3 | relatives = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = | website = | portaldisp = }}

'''Humberto ''"Cacho"'' Costantini''' (April 8, 1924 – June 7, 1987) was an [[Argentina|Argentine]] writer and poet whose work was influenced by [[Buenos Aires]] slang ([[porteño]]).

== Biography == Costantini was born in Buenos Aires, the only child of [[Italian Jews|Italian Jewish]] immigrants who lived in the barrio of Villa Pueyrredon.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Orgambide |first=Pedro |date=1983 |title=Notas sobre un poema de Humberto Costantini |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20542092?seq=3 |journal=Hispamérica |volume=12 |issue=36 |pages=45–49 |jstor=20542092 |issn=0363-0471}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Mejía |first=Adelaida López |date=1991 |title=La visión satírica de Humberto Costantini: "De dioses, hombrecitos y policías" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29740381 |journal=Chasqui |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=86–97 |doi=10.2307/29740381 |jstor=29740381 |issn=0145-8973|url-access=subscription }}</ref> He married Nela Nur Fernandez and the couple had three children, Violeta, Ana und Daniel († 2022). A medical [[veterinarian]], he practiced near the city of Lobería, [[Buenos Aires Province]]. In 1955, he returned to the city of Buenos Aires where he worked in various jobs: veterinarian, salesman, potter, and medical researcher. Meanwhile, he worked tirelessly in off-hours, "nailed to the chair" as he said, writing and rewriting his novels.

[[Image:Humberto Costantini escribiendo.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Humberto Costantini working "nailed to the chair"]] Costantini was politically active from his youth. In his student days he confronted the Fascists of the Alianza Libertadora Nacionalista and was a member of the Communist Party until serious differences of opinion with the bureaucratic and pro-Soviet leadership caused him to leave it. He greatly admired [[Ernesto Che Guevara]]. In the 1970s he was actively engaged with the revolutionary left and was on official blacklists.

In 1976, Costantini was forced into exile in Mexico where he continued writing.<ref name=":0" /> He suffered in an exile that obliged him "to glance through the lists for his loved ones, as if the city had been hit with a typhoon." He conducted narrative workshops regularly, made programs for radio and for television, and he fell in love. As he said on his return: "In short, I lived." Costantini returned to Buenos Aires in 1983 after seven years, seven months and seven days in exile.<ref name=":0" />

An admirer of [[Osvaldo Pugliese]], Anibal Troilo ("Pichuco"), and [[Eduardo Arolas]], Constantini was a Tango singer, dancer, and amateur historian. He also composed milongas and tangos, some of which were published and recorded.

Costantini died on the morning of 7 June 1987 following an on-going case of cancer. The night before, he worked on the final novel of his trilogy, ''La Rhapsodía de Raquel Liberman.'' This work remains unpublished.

== Works == Costantini's oeuvre included short stories, poetry, plays, novels, and radio programs. His first book of stories, ''De Por Aquí Nomás'', was published in 1958. His novel ''De Dioses, Hombrecitos y Policías (The Gods, The Little Guys and the Police),'' written while in hiding from the dictatorial government, was awarded the [[Casa de Las Américas Prize]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Gods, the Little Guys, and the Police, by Humberto Costantini (Book Review) - ProQuest |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/12e0d2fc794b9b8d6518faddc9664e2d/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1821054 |access-date=2024-11-07 |website=www.proquest.com |language=en}}</ref> His unfinished work, ''Rapsodía de Raquel Liberman'', recounts the exploits of a Jewish [[prostitute]] enslaved by the sinister organization [[Zwi Migdal]] who ultimately leaves that life behind her. This work shows a fundamental theme of Costani's: "To do what is right in the eyes of [[Jehova]], meaning to fulfill one's destiny."

[[Julio Cortázar]] respected Costantini's work: "I love what Humberto Costantini does, and am full of confidence in his work. He is, for me, a very important writer."

==Bibliography== * ''De por aquí nomás'' (short stories) editions in 1958/1965/1969 * ''Un señor alto, rubio de bigotes'' (short stories) editions in 1963/1969/1972 * ''Tres monólogos'' (theater play) editions in 1964/1969 * ''Cuestiones con la vida'' (poems) editions in 1966/1970/1976/1982/1986 * ''Una vieja historia de caminantes'' (short stories) edition in 1970 * ''Háblenme de Funes'' (three short novels) editions in 1970/1980 * ''Libro de Trelew'' (epic narration) edition in 1970 * ''Más cuestiones con la vida'' (poems) edition in 1974 * ''Bandeo'' (short stories) editions in 1975/1980 * ''De Dioses, hombrecitos y policías'' (novel) editions in 1979/1984 * ''Una pipa larga, larga, con cabeza de jabalí'' (theater play) edition in 1981 * ''Eli, Eli, Lamma Sabajtani'' edition in 1983<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Costantini |first=Humberto |date=1983 |title=Eli, Eli, Lamma Sabajtani |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20542093 |journal=Hispamérica |volume=12 |issue=36 |pages=50–52 |jstor=20542093 |issn=0363-0471}}</ref> * ''La larga noche de Francisco Sanctis'' (novel) edition in 1984<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dillon |first=Alfredo |date=2017 |title=Costantini en el cine: la adaptación de La larga noche de Francisco Sanctis |url=https://publicaciones.sociales.uba.ar/index.php/lis/article/view/3865 |journal=L.I.S. Letra. Imagen. Sonido. Ciudad Mediatizada |language=es |volume=0 |issue=18 |pages=15–36 |issn=2545-658X}}</ref> * ''En la noche'' (short stories) edition in 1985 * ''Chau, Pericles'' (theater play) edition in 1986 * ''Rapsodia de Raquel Liberman'' (novel/trilogy; two of three parts completed; 1987) unpublished

=== Literary criticism === * ''[https://www.pagina12.com.ar/99013-el-norte-es-el-sur Al sur de casi todo. Humberto Costantini y su obra]''. (Hernán Fontanet, Buenos Aires, Argentina: Universidad Pedagógica Provincial, 2017.) {{ISBN|9789873805226}}. * ''In Praise of Tears: The Quest for Identity in Humberto Costantini's Poetry''. (Hernán Fontanet, Porto Alegre, Brazil: Editoria da Pontifícia Universidade Católica do [[Rio Grande do Sul]], 2016.) {{ISBN|9788539707607}}.

==References== {{Reflist}}

== External links == {{commonscat}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080702044147/http://www.elortiba.org/hconst.html ElOrtiba.org] (cuentos y poemas de Costantini). * [http://www.prtarg.com.ar Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores de Argentina] * [http://www.pagina12.com.ar/355828-la-novela-de-costantini Pagina12 | Rosario12: Televisión "La novela de Costantini"] (20.07.2021) * [http://www.pagina12.com.ar/274824-humberto-costantini-pervive Pagina12 | Humberto Costantini pervive] (27.06.2020) * [http://www.pagina12.com.ar/99013-el-norte-es-el-sur Pagina12 | Radar Libros: "Humberto Costantini - El norte es el sur"] (04.03.2018) * [http://www.pagina12.com.ar/38984-un-heroe-cotidiano Pagina12 | Radar Libros: "Humberto Costantini - Un héroe cotidiano"] (28.05.2017) * [http://www.conti.derhuman.jus.gov.ar/areas/institucional/humberto-constantini.php Centro Cultural de la Memoria Haroldo Conti] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803000549/http://www.conti.derhuman.jus.gov.ar/areas/institucional/humberto-constantini.php |date=2022-08-03 }} (2008. Pág.82.) * [http://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/06/books/those-in-the-driver-s-seat.html?searchResultPosition=3 New York Times: "THOSE IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT" by Margery Resnick] (06.10.1985) * [http://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/29/books/the-poets-and-the-death-squad.html?searchResultPosition=2 New York Times: "THE POETS AND THE DEATH SQUAD" by Lydia Hunt] (29.04.1984)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Costantini, Humberto}} [[Category:1924 births]] [[Category:1987 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century Argentine poets]] [[Category:20th-century Argentine male writers]] [[Category:20th-century Sephardi Jews]] [[Category:20th-century Argentine Jews]] [[Category:Argentine male poets]] [[Category:Argentine Sephardi Jews]] [[Category:Writers from Buenos Aires]] [[Category:Jewish Argentine writers]] [[Category:Jewish poets]] [[Category:Argentine people of Italian-Jewish descent]] [[Category:Argentine people of Italian descent]] [[Category:Argentine expatriates in Mexico]]