Early career Lemebel was born in El Zanjón de la Aguada, a poor neighborhood in Santiago on the banks of Zanjón de la Aguada, an irrigation canal that flows into the Mapocho river; to the family of Pedro Mardones Paredes and Violeta Lemebel. In the late 1980s, he chose to be identified by his mother's surname, Lemebel, as his choice for surname instead of his father's (Mardones), as is the norm in most Latin American countries. He attended an industrial school of carpentry and metal forging at the Industrial de Hombres de La Legua High School and later studied
plastic art at
University of Chile's Art School. He subsequently became a high school art teacher but was let go based on the presumption of his homosexuality. Lemebel attended writing workshops to hone his skills and network with other writers, his first writing recognition was in 1982, when he won an award for his short story, Porque el tiempo está cerca. In 1986, he published as his first major work, the book Incontables, a compilation of short stories under the feminist publication label, Ergo Sum. A year later, he co-founded a performance collective that used the tactics of intervention and disruption of events to raise public consciousness about the struggles of minorities in Chile. The disruption and performances of the collective brought Lemebel into the public limelight in Chile. In 1986, he disrupted a meeting of Chile's left-wing groups opposed to
Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. He entered the meeting in high heels and with makeup on his face depicting a hammer and sickle extending from his mouth to his left eyebrow. At the event, he spoke about his manifesto, ‘Manifest: I Speak for my Difference’ criticizing homophobia in left-wing politics. Casas and Lemebel posed as
Buster Keaton,
Marilyn Monroe, the sisters from
Garcia Lorca's La Casa de Bernarda Alba and other icons of the Chilean gay community. In the 1990s, Lemebel returned to writing and published a string of urban chronicles. The next year they appeared in the Cariola theater during a meeting of intellectuals with presidential candidate
Patricio Aylwin, who the following year would be elected the first
president of Chile after the restoration of democracy and the end of the dictatorship. Although uninvited, Lemebel and Casas arrived wearing heels and feathers bearing a sign that said "Homosexuals for change." In addition to that, Casas rushed over to, at the time candidate for senator and future Chilean president,
Ricardo Lagos and kissed him on the mouth. A photograph of this event was included years later in his book
Háblame de Amores(2012). Both writers often turned into agents of their own text and created an interpretation of homosexual reality and an interruption of institutional discussions during the age of the dictator. Their work crossed over into performances, transvestism, photography, video and various art installations. With these they would advocate for a place for memory, human rights and sexuality in democratic talks. "Maybe the first experiment with plastic, the action of art...was decisive in the move from story to chronicle. It's possible that this corporal exposition in a religious frame was evaporating the generic form of the story...the timeless story to make for oneself and urgent chronicle..." explained Lemebel. In 1994, Lemebel participated in the stonewall festival in New York, an LGBT pride festival. Between 1987 and 1995, "The Mares of the Apocalypse" carried out at least fifteen public interventions and in total no more than twenty. The majority of these events were in Santiago but some were also in Concepción, Chile. Some of their public demonstrations included dancing the
Cueca on broken glass, dressing up as
Frida Kahlo and even dressing up as Lady Godiva and riding around naked on white horses for the art department at the University of Chile. In 1995, Lemebel published (in addition to his first book titled La Esquina es mi corazón) his first collection of Chronicles some of which had their first appearances in newspapers and magazines titled "Página Abierta," "Punto Final," and "La Nación." In these chronicles Lemebel referenced the many marginalized setting of Santiago which he linked to themes of homosexuality, prostitution and poverty, some of which were taboo to talk about at the time. The following year he created the program "Cancionero" for the radio show "Radio Tierra." In this program he would read his chronicles accompanied by sounds or even music. That same year he published "Loco afán: Crónicas de si dario," his second book of chronicles that spoke about themes like AIDS and the marginalization of transvestites. In 1997, in some of their final appearances "The Mares of the Apocalypse" were invited to Bienal de la Habana, in Habana Cuba. In 1998 he published his third book of chronicles titled "De Perlas y Cicatrizes" which was composed mostly of the stories he told on the radio program. After the arrest of
Augusto Pinochet in a London hospital, he created "The Clinic" whose editor Patricio Ferrández he asked to leave everything in it uncensored.
Urban chronicles and other writings Earlier in his career, Lemebel had attended workshops of the Society of Chilean Writers and gained the friendship of some feminist writers such as
Pía Barros who later helped published his first book,
Incontables. He returned to writing in the 1990s starting with a series of urban chronicles that were published in Chilean newspapers, and magazines and read on the radio. In 1995 and 1996, Lemebel wrote two books in a chronicle and hybrid literary style, a combination of reportage, memoir, public address, fiction and socio-political historical analysis. In 1995, he published
La Esquina es mi corazón: Crónica urbana (The Corner is My Heart), writing about Chilean history from the perspectives of young adults raised in poor neighborhoods and those who are stigmatized socially. In 1996, he published
Loco afán: Crónicas de sidario (Mad Urge: AIDS Chronicles), a piece of 31 short texts and images that detailed the journey of a group of marginalized gay youths in Chile through the period of
dictatorship to the outbreak of AIDS. Lemebel was given a
Guggenheim Foundation scholarship in 1999 for his literary accomplishments leading to increase appearances in forums and seminars in Chile and US. He gained international recognition with his novel
Tengo miedo torero which was his first book translated into English. In 2013, he was given the
José Donoso Award. He died of laryngeal cancer in January 2015. ==International recognition==