Hernando Téllez
Hernando Téllez was a prominent Colombian writer and journalist born in Bogotá in 1908. He began his writing career early, contributing to various newspapers and magazines by the age of seventeen. Téllez became known for his work in crime reporting and later covered political topics for the influential newspaper El Tiempo. His literary prominence grew in the 1940s, highlighted by his acclaimed collection of short stories, "Cenizas para el viento, y otras historias," which includes the renowned story "Espuma y nada más" ("Just Lather, That's All"). This story reflects the turbulent political climate in Colombia following the assassination of liberal leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, a pivotal event during a period known as La Violencia. Throughout his career, Téllez was also actively involved in liberal politics, serving on the Bogotá City Council and as a senator. He took on an international role as Colombia's ambassador to UNESCO in Paris before his death in 1966. Téllez's work remains significant in Colombian literature, illustrating the intersection of political turmoil and personal conflict.
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Hernando Téllez
Author
- Born: March 22, 1908
- Birthplace: Bogotá, Colombia
- Died: 1966
Biography
Hernando Téllez was born in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1908. He attended the Christian Brothers School in Bogotá and afterwards began writing for newspapers. By the age of seventeen, he was contributing to Mundo al Día. In 1927, he started working for the magazine Universidad and was a member of Los Nuevos, a group of young writers. At the age of twenty-one, he became a crime writer for El Tiempo in Bogotá, one of the most well-known newspapers in South America. The editor of the newspaper at that time was Alberto Lleras Camargo, who was to become president of Colombia in 1945.
Téllez later reported on politics for El Tiempo and eventually worked on the newspaper’s literary section. Simultaneously, he was active in liberal political activities and became a member of the Bogotá City Council in 1934. In 1937, he moved to France, where he was the Columbian consul in Marseilles until World War II broke out, at which time he returned to journalism as the deputy editor of El Liberal. He left this job in 1942, when he became a Colombian senator, and in 1947 he began editing the magazine Semana.
Téllez began to gain stature in the Colombian literary community in the 1940’s. Inquietud del mundo (1943) is a collection of literary essays that he had published earlier in El Tiempo and El Liberal. Bagatelas (1944) and Luces en el bosque (1946) similarly are collections of essays that originally appeared in Sabádo.
In 1950, Téllez published his highly regarded collection of short stories, Cenizas para el viento, y otras historias, which contains his popular short story, “Espuma y nada mas,” a masterpiece of the short-story genre. This story was translated into English as “Just Lather, That’s All,” and also was translated into other languages. The story was written shortly after the assassination of Colombia’s liberal leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan in 1948, an event that heightened the fighting between Colombian liberals and conservatives and gave way to riots, torture, and bloodshed, a time that became known as La Violencia, or The Violence.
In Téllez’s story, a revolutionary barber must decide what to do with an enemy general named Captain Torres, who walks into his barber shop for a shave. If he kills his customer, he will be viewed as a hero to the revolutionaries, but the general’s supporters will consider him a murderer. Téllez symbolically uses the razor and the shaving cream to bring both the barber and the general’s inner conflicts to light.
In 1959, Téllez was appointed an ambassador to the United Nation’s Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO )in Paris. He died in 1966.