Carlos Solórzano
Carlos Solórzano was a prominent Latin American dramatist known for his intellectually intense works that explore themes of political and religious anguish. Born into an elite family in San Marcos, Guatemala, he experienced a stark socio-economic divide that would later influence his writing. His education at Roman Catholic institutions and exposure to multiple languages shaped his worldview, while his family's history of governance added a layer of complexity to his perspective on power and society.
Solórzano's dramatic style drew from a variety of theatrical movements, including the Theater of the Absurd and expressionism, and incorporated elements from Mayan culture and pop culture. His acclaimed play, "Las Manos de Dios," is a striking example of his ability to reflect societal disparities through expressionist staging, showcasing the harsh contrast between wealth and poverty.
After completing his studies in Mexico and France, Solórzano became a significant figure in theater, serving as artistic director at UNAM and teaching for over three decades. His works often sparked controversy, particularly for their critical stance on religion, suggesting that salvation must come from within rather than through divine intervention. This bold approach led to significant discussion about the role of faith and authority in human experience.
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Carlos Solórzano
Playwright
- Born: May 1, 1922
- Birthplace: San Marcos, Guatemala
- Died: March 20, 2011
Biography
Carlos Solórzano was an intellectually intense Latin American dramatist. His presentation of characters enduring political and religious anguish was informed by his comprehensive knowledge of theater. He drew on various theatrical movements and incorporated intermixtures of them in his writing. Among the major influences his plays reveal are Theater of the Absurd, Theater of Cruelty, expressionism, medieval morality drama, the rituals of Mayan culture, pop culture, and an overlay of Aristotle’s poetics.
Carlos Solórzano Fernandez was born into an elite social class in San Marcos, Guatemala. He was the youngest of the six children of Jose Maria Solórzano, who owned large coffee plantations, and Elisa Fernandez Barrios, a spirited woman who divorced her husband and raised her children without him. Carlos attended Roman Catholic schools. A German-speaking governess raised him in a family that spoke Spanish, French, and Germany interchangeably. Carlos’s great-grandfather, Justo Rufino Barrios, governed Guatemala from 1877 to 1888.
To understand Solórzano’s upbringing and its effects on his writing, one must realize how claustrophobic Guatemalan society was. Some hundred families constituted the country’s social elite, beneath which was an impoverished and exploited population of five million Mayan peasants who spoke their own language and functioned at a subsistence level. As Solórzano was growing up, the disparities between the two groups were obvious and were early reflected in the expressionist staging of his Las Manos de Dios (the hands of god), in which the stage is dominated by a sumptuous church on the left, the sinister side, with peasant shacks crowding the background and a prison on the right side.
In 1939, Solórzano had intended to pursue university studies in Germany, but World War II prevented that. Instead, he enrolled in the Universidad Nactional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) to study architecture and literature. He remained at UNAM to complete master’s and doctoral degrees, where his thesis research examined Miguel Unamuno’s dialectics of reason. Following his work at UNAM, Solórzano and his wife, Beatrice Caso, a sculptor, spent three years, beginning in 1949, at Paris’s Sorbonne on a Rockefeller grant.
Returning to Mexico, Solórzano became artistic director of UNAM’s new theater, a position he held from 1952 to1962. He was named a professor in 1960 and continued to teach at UNAM until retiring in 1985. He served as director of the National Theater from 1977 to 1982.
Solórzano’s dramatic productions were extremely varied. Among his many forms of expression was puppetry, inspired by his studying the dramaturgy of Michel de Ghelderode. His writing ignited considerable controversy and has often been viewed as anti-Catholic. His plays clearly are meant to demonstrate that humans cannot turn to the gods for salvation, but must find it within themselves. When Las manos de Dios was performed, the Mexican congress considered deporting Solórzano, accused of defiling the faith, from Mexico. He viewed God as indifferent and religious dogma as a prison.