Infrarealism

In 1968, at a time when the future Infrarealist poets were still children and adolescents, the so-called Dirty War began to take shape in Mexico during the presidency of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (Institutional Revolutionary Party, 1964–1970). Amongst its principal consequences was the Tlatelolco Massacre in the Ciudad Universitaria of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where an estimated 300 to 400 students and civilians were murdered by military and police. The movie Roma, sheds light to the CIA involvement in the massacre. [https://www.california-mexicocenter.org/october-2-and-the-cia-in-mexico/ .Roberto Bolaño, 15-years-old, arrived in Mexico City from Chile with his family this same year. In 1970, Luis Echeverría Álvarez (Institutional Revolutionary Party, 1970–1976) took up presidency in Mexico. He was the ex-Secretariat of the Interior in the government of Díaz Ordaz, who was considered by the majority of the Mexican population as one of the principal culprits of the Dirty War. To recapture Mexico's youth, the new government set up a series of cultural scholarships, in addition to the creation of artistic and cultural workshops in universities and public institutions. Some of these were run by renowned writers such as Augusto Monterroso and Alejandro Aura. The Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the UNAM organised prose and poetry workshops and published the Punto de Partida magazine through the Department of Cultural Diffusion, which also ran prose, poetry, drama and essay workshops. Further workshops were held at the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), courses run at the Casa del Lago cultural centre, and scholarships granted to study literature at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Institute of Fine Arts). The movement was formally founded in Bruno Montané Krebs's house. There were forty people at the meeting, which was led by Bolaño. Roberto Bolaño and Mario Santiago Papasquiaro began to meet with other friends and poets they considered fit for the project. == Sabotages ==

, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990, was considered by Bolaño and the other "infras" as leader of the Mexican cultural establishment, and condemned because of it. According to the Chilean writer Carlos Chimal, president Luis Echeverría's measures to promote cultural activity in the country polarised Mexico's artistic society into "two worlds: high culture and popular culture, and there was no way that the two would touch". The first of these worlds referred to artists who were granted scholarships or received benefits in some way from the Institutional Revolutionary Party's government – among them, for example, José Luis Cuevas and Fernando Benítz. For the Infrarealists, this group also included writers and intellectuals of world renown, such as Octavio Paz or Carlos Monsiváis, who, despite not needing Echeverría's direct support, cultivated a dedicated readership, ran important literary magazines, and also benefited from tax revenues. At the other extreme was the world of popular culture, which the Infrarealists associated with the left-wing revolution and was made up of artists that opposed the buying and selling of talent. Despite this, Boullosa maintains that the two groups were not entirely dissimilar. Rather than for their own readings, the Infrarealists were known for their sabotaging of the readings, book launches, awards ceremonies and general literary activities of poets belonging to this world of "high culture". The first of these sabotages took place prior to the movement's foundation. Towards the end of 1973, Mario Santiago Papasquiaro and his friend Ramón Méndez attempted to throw Juan Bañuelos out of his own poetry workshop in the Department of Cultural Diffusion at UNAM by acquiring the signatures of participants; though in the end it was them who were thrown out. Years later, Carmen Boullosa confessed to having been afraid the Infrarealists would sabotage the prize ceremony where she was to receive the Salvador Novo scholarship, awarded to those under 21, which Darío Galicia had also obtained the year before. In 1975, in the La cultura en México supplement of Siempre! magazine, edited by Carlos Monsiváis, a number of columns appeared in which a young Héctor Aguilar Camín, José Joaquin Blanco and Enrique Krauze spoke of a drop in standard in contemporary Mexican literature, which they viewed as resulting from socialist fashion, excessive sexuality and the appearance of so many new, novice writers. Blanco began to explicitly criticise the Infrarealists in these columns, and they confronted him directly, though this time with Bolaño in tow. == Publications and separation ==

In mid-1976, after Octavio Paz left Plural magazine due to political problems in what became known as the "Excélsior coup", Robert Rodríguez Baños was named as the magazine's director and the Infrarealists once again had the opportunity to publish in established magazines. In October of the same year, in Plural number 61, Mario Santiago Papasquiaro published a review and translation of poems by the beat poet and novelist Richard Brautigan. Then, in December, in number 63, the magazine published Seis jóvenes infrarrealistas mexicanos (Six Young Mexican Infrarealists), with editing and introduction from Papasquairo and featuring Darío Galicia, Mara Larrosa, Rubén Medina, Cuauthémoc Méndez, José Peguero and Papasquairo himself. In January 1977, Roberto Bolaño was published in number 64. Before leaving, however, he reached an agreement with Editorial Extemporáneos to publish Muchachos desnudos bajo el arcoiris de fuego. Once jóvenes poetas latinoamericanos (Naked Boys Under the Rainbow of Fire. Eleven Young Latin American Poets), an anthology of poems featuring Luis Suardíaz, Hernán Lavín Cerda, Jorge Pimentel, Orlando Guillén, Beltrán Morales, Fernando Nieto Cadena, Julián Gómez, Enrique Verástegui, Mario Santiago Papasquairo, Bruno Montané and Bolaño himself. Published in July 1979, the book is prefaced by Miguel Donoso Pareja, contains a piece by Efraín Huerta, and was the first from that era of Infrarealists to be paid for entirely by the publisher, rather than themselves. the poem served as inspiration for the title of the first novel by his friend Bolaño, now living in Spain: Consejos de un discípulo de Morrison a un fanático de Joyce (Advice from a disciple of Morrison to a Joyce fanatic), written in collaboration with A. G. Porta. The magazine's poems were characterised by their stylistic variety. == The following years ==

in Barcelona, 2012. Various other Infrarealists decided to leave Mexico City in the years following the departure of Bolaño, Papasquiaro and Montané. Only some continued with literary careers, although the majority dedicated themselves to artistic activities. Rubén Medina went to study literature in the United States; Harrington returned to Chile to study film; Gelles Lebrija went to live in Tijuana; Piel Divina to Paris; the Méndez brothers returned to their hometown Morelia, where they worked in journalism, and for a time as bakers; José Vicente Anaya dedicated himself to travelling around Mexico for four years; Lorena de la Rocha chose classical music composition and theatre; and the Larrosa sisters stayed in Mexico City, with Vera devoting herself to dance and theatre, The sabotages also continued through the 80s, with Octavio Paz the victim of one in January 1980 at an event called the "Meeting of Generations" in the UNAM bookshop. The later issues, however, were without Papasquairo, who died in 1998. Bolaño undoubtedly achieved the greatest international prestige out of the older Infrarealists, establishing himself as a novelist in Barcelona and publishing numerous works for Editorial Anagrama. The standout successes of these publications were The Savage Detectives, a novel which won Spain's Premio Herralde and was directly inspired by his life with the Infrarealists in Mexico City; and 2666, which won awards in Spain, Chile and the United States and was also set in Mexico. == References ==