The Scent of Buenos Aires / Stories by Hebe Uhart

 

Hebe Uhart

Review: The Scent of Buenos Aires: Stories by Hebe Uhart

Book by HEBE UHART
Translated from the Spanish by MAUREEN SHAUGHNESSY
Reviewed by JASMINE V. BAILEY

In Argentina, the short story is not what you write until you manage to write a novel; it is a lofty form made central by twentieth-century titans like Julio Cortázar, Jorge Luis Borges and Silvina Ocampo. The form has power and prestige in the broader region as well. Hebe Uhart was a product of that literary tradition and came of age as a writer when Cortázar and Borges were at the height of their fame and literary production. At the end of her life, Uhart was recognized by a lifetime achievement award from Argentina’s National Endowment for the Arts and by the international Manuel Rojas Iberian American Award for Literature. Though she produced many volumes, including two novels and several travelogues, she is known for her short stories. It is appropriate, then, that her first work to appear in English — The Scent of Buenos Aires — is a collection of short stories (translated from the Spanish by Maureen Shaughnessy).

From Animals by Hebe Uhart / The Bird of a Thousand Songs

 

From Animals

by Hebe Uhart

Hebe Uhart’s Animals tells of piglets that snack on crackers, parrots that rehearse their words at night, southern screamers that lurk at the front door of a decrepit aunt’s house, and, of course, human animals, whose presence is treated with the same inquisitive sharpness and sweetness that marks all of Uhart’s work. Animals is a joyous reordering of attention towards the beings with whom we share the planet. In prose that tracks the goings-on of creatures who care little what we do or say, a refreshing humility emerges, and with it a newfound pleasure in the everyday. Watching a whistling heron, Uhart writes, “that rebellious crest gives it a lunatic air.” Birds in the park and dogs in the street will hold a different interest after reading Uhart’s blissful foray into playful zoology.

Cuentos completos by Hebe Uhart / Review by Ricardo Montiel

 

BOOK REVIEW

Cuentos completos by Hebe Uhart

by Ricardo Montiel

Translated by Michael Redzich

Cuentos completos. Hebe Uhart. Buenos Aires: Adriana Hidalgo Editora. 2019. 784 pages.

Cuentos completos de Hebe Uhart / Reseña

Hebe Uhart, one of Argentina’s most remarkable fiction writers, dies at 81

In the short story “Desfulanizar,” the narrator remembers one of her father’s rules: to greet the townspeople so they didn’t think she was prideful. But the narrator didn’t care what other people thought. She also didn’t care that her father told her about how once, when he was a child and didn’t say hello to someone, he knew he’d done wrong and deserved to be punished. To his daughter, this story, which she considered from a different time, went against her effort to “make people more real, to understand them in their own way, not tied to that deadly routine.” And there it is—the kernel of this piece of writing by Hebe Uhart(Moreno, Buenos Aires Province, 1936 – Buenos Aires, 2018).  It is revealed over the course of Cuentos completos [Complete Stories], published by Adriana Hidalgo Editora. “Desfulanizar” means to cleanse the subject of preconceived notions, from the mark of social stereotypes, and to get back to finding their blurred individuality, to observing, and above all, tirelessly listening. This must be done without the pretense of changing them; rather, it is a matter of recognizing their dormant complexity over the noise of “should be.”

Hebe Uhart / Her Simple, Incredible Time in Ecuador

Argentine writer Hebe Uhar

Hebe Uhart: Her Simple, 

Incredible Time in Ecuador

Hebe Uhart / Su increíble y sencilla historia en Ecuador

by Edwin Madrid
Translated by Michael Redzich

Hebe Uhart, one of Argentina’s most remarkable fiction writers, dies at 81

It was the first time that she had visited Ecuador. She called me but wrote again later: “I’m the Argentine writer, Hebe Uhart, I can’t hear you very well over the phone. I’ll arrive in Quito on Monday, March 10th at noon and I’ll stay at a hotel called ‘Mansión Real’ (capitalized because it is an impressive name). I’m going to get to know the area and if I want to, I can write something for the culture section of El Pais in Montevideo. I’ve written several travel notes for them. If you want me to bring you a book or CD from here, tell me and I’ll bring one along.” So I proposed that we meet for a talk at the FLASCO on Wednesday, March 12, and she responded: “I have a plan on Wednesday along the lines of a ‘city tour’ but that should be in the morning, and if not, I’ll make it work (and I’m flattered by your invitation). I can bring some of my books; they’re short stories. I like speaking informally, fielding questions from people. The knowledge of cultured people piques my curiosity. You don’t have to worry about putting together some massive talk. I do better, and think it’s more useful (at your discretion) if there are only a few people there, or at least not too many.” Then I told her that it would be exactly as she suggested, and that we would speak about “The kitchen of her writing” and she wrote back: “A paper in Buenos Aires asked me to answer the question, ‘Why do I write?’; I didn’t give them a serious answer. That would be my sort of presentation for that talk. Anyway, thanks for deferring to me.”

A Trip to La Paz by Hebe Uhart

 

Hebe Uhart

A Trip to La Paz

by HEBE UHART

Hebe Uhart / Un viaje a La Paz

Translated from the Spanish by ANNA VILNER

Essay appears in both Spanish and English.

Translator’s Note

Hebe Uhart’s “A Trip to La Paz” is delightfully misleading in that we never arrive at our destination; we never see the city that touches the clouds. This essay is concerned with a different kind of beauty—the getting there, the buzzing potential of travel. It encapsulates why we embark on grueling car rides, on flights, on long train journeys, in the first place.

 

Hebe Uhart, one of Argentina’s most remarkable fiction writers, dies at 81

October 12, 2018

We are profoundly sad to report that Hebe Uhart, Buenos Aires-born writer and journalist, winner of the Ibero-American Manuel Rojas Narrative Prize and the Argentina’s National Endowment of the Arts’ lifetime achievement award, has died at the age of 81.

Hebe Uhart was a remarkable writer and is remembered by Latin American writers with deep affection and admiration, as a teacher and a friend. They lovingly recall anecdotes of Uhart taking notes on the behavior of a red-backed hawk, of her special connection with plants and trees, but also of her championing of new writers, students, and small publishing houses with whom she consistently worked with.

Regarding her literary career and her place in Argentine Letters, Inés Acevedo pointed out “she is at the podium, but also among the strange ones. Hebe is the best and the strangest. After decades of writing and publishing narrations, Hebe became an author that dominated a central genre for the Argentine tradition: the short story. However, this has the geographic particularity of being transnational: when we think about stories in Argentina we think about literature created in the Río de la Plata, between Argentina and Uruguay. And that was one of the strongest nuclei in Hebe’s literary identity, by which it was not a national but an inherently rioplatense literature.”

We invite you to read Mariana Enríquez and Eduardo Carrera’s loving profile on Hebe Uhart, her youth, her profession as a teacher, and the weekly Sunday asados she hosted for her neighbors, students, and friends.

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