Julio Ramón Ribeyro
Julio Ramón Ribeyro Zuniga, born in Lima, Peru, in 1929, was a prominent Peruvian writer renowned for his short stories that vividly depict urban life in Peru. Educated at the Catholic University of Lima and furthering his studies in Spain and France, Ribeyro's literary career flourished alongside his roles in journalism and cultural diplomacy. He served as a cultural attaché and later as Peru's ambassador to UNESCO, reflecting his deep engagement with cultural affairs. His acclaimed body of work includes the four-volume short story collection "La palabra del mudo: Cuentos 52/92," which explores the lives of the urban poor. Ribeyro's narratives often blend realism with elements of the fantastic, showcasing the struggles and resilience of his characters against the backdrop of societal change. He received several prestigious awards for his contributions to literature, cementing his legacy as a master storyteller. Ribeyro passed away in 1994, leaving behind a rich literary heritage that continues to resonate in Peruvian culture.
Subject Terms
Julio Ramón Ribeyro
Peruvian novelist, playwright, and short fiction writer.
- Born: August 31, 1929
- Birthplace: Lima, Peru
- Died: December 5, 1994
- Place of death: Lima, Peru
Biography
Julio Ramón Ribeyro Zuniga was born in Lima, Peru, in 1929, the son of Julio Ramón and Mercedes Zuniga Ribeyro. He attended the Catholic University of Lima before taking a journalism course in Spain. He also attended the Sorbonne in Paris, where he studied French literature, and then studied German literature in Berlin. He married Alida Cordero in 1966 and the couple had one son.
Ribeyro was the director of cultural affairs for the University of Huamanga, Peru, from 1958 to 1960. He was a journalist for the France-Presse Agency from 1960 to 1970, a cultural attaché for the Peruvian embassy from 1970 to 1980, and served as Peru’s ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 1985 to 1990. Ribeyro died in 1994.
Ribeyro is highly regarded in Peru for his accurate portrayal of Peruvian urban life in his short stories and for Prosas apatridas, a memoir of sorts documenting Ribeyro’s thoughts during the time he spent in France. His work records the movement and changes of Peruvian society as it moves from rural to urban settings.
Critics have called Ribeyro a master of the short story. His popular four-volume short story collection, La palabra del mudo: Cuentos 52/92, was written between 1973 and 1992. In it, he examines the lives of the Peruvian urban poor who are so downtrodden that they have come to believe they have no voice. While Ribeyro utilizes Peruvian settings for most of his work—including the jungle, the Andes Mountains, and the cities—other geographical areas also serve him well in his use of both the realistic and the fantastic. In his realistic story, “Los gallinazos sin plumas,” an evil grandfather victimizes his two grandsons by failing to care for them and making them gather food from the city’s dumps to feed his pig. In time, the grandsons realize they are better off fending for themselves. In his fantastic story, “La insignia,” a man finds a magic badge in the garbage and in choosing to wear it changes his life forever.
Numbered among Ribeyro’s awards are the Premio de Cuentos Jose Maria Cantilo, 1953; Premio de Cuentos en los Luegos Florales de la Universidad Mayor de San Marcos, 1956; the Premio Nacional de Teatro for his play Vida y pasion y de Santiago el Pajarero; and the Premio Internacional Juan Rulfo, 1994.
Author Works
Drama:
Vida y pasion de Santiago el Pajarero, 1966
Teatro, 1975
Atusparia, 1981
Long Fiction:
Crónica de San Gabriel, 1960
Los geniecillos dominicales, 1965
Cambio de guardia, 1976
Nonfiction:
La caza sutil, 1975
Prosas apatridas, 1975 (revised as Prosas apatridas/aumentadas, 1978; and Prosas apatrida completas, 1986)
Dichos de Luder, 1989
La tentación del fracaso, 1992–1995
Cartas a Juan Antonio, 1996–1998
Short Fiction:
Los gallinazos sin plumas, 1955
Cuentos de circunstancias, 1958
Las botellas y los hombres, 1964
Tres historias sublevantes, 1964
Los cautivos, 1972
El próximo mes me nivelo, 1972
La palabra del mudo: Cuentos 52/92, 1973–1992 (4 volumes)
Silvio en El Rosedal, 1977
Sólo para fumadores, 1987
Relatos santacrucinos, 1992
Marginal Voices, 1993 (translated by Dianne Douglas)
Bibliography
Choi, Eunha. "The Precarity of Literary Form: Julio Ramón Ribeyro and His Fabled Narratives." Confluencia: Revista Hispánica de Cultura y Literatura, vol. 32, no. 2, 2017, pp. 91–104, doi:10.1353/cnf.2017.0007. Accessed 29 June 2017.
Higgins, James. A History of Peruvian Literature. Francis Cairns, 1987.
Ribeyro, Julio Ramón. Interview. Itineraries of a Hummingbird, http://www.itinerariesofahummingbird.com/julio-ramon-ribeyro.html. Accessed 29 June 2017. English translation of a Spanish-language interview published in Hispamerica in 1994.
"Ribeyro, Julio Ramón." Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900–2003, edited by Daniel Balderson and Mike Gonzales, Routledge, 2005, pp. 491–92.