Famous Latin-American Writers

Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz,Carlos Fuentes and Isabel Allende are all famous Latin American writers. Rulfo,Paz and Fuentes are all Mexican writers. A common theme in their books was how they used real life events and put a surrealist twist on them, such as Juan Rulfo who is famous for the book El Llano en IIamas which is centred around life in Mexico during the Mexican revolution. Rulfo influenced writers such as Gaberial Garcia Marquez. Octavio Paz who is a Mexican writer poet and diplomat he is famous for writing about surrealism in his works. Carlos Fuentes also uses life experiences to write his books. His first novel La región más transparente was centered on Mexico City and Mexican culture. Finally Isabel Allende is well known for her novels the house of spirits and city of beasts. She was born in Peru but is now a Chilean writer. She uses Magic Realism in her books and is also influenced by her culture.

The Thousand Days' War

The Thousand Days’ War was fought from 1899-1902 and around 100,000 people died from the war. The conflict was between the Liberals and the Conservatives and the main cause of the war was the election in 1898. Manuel Antonio Sanclemente, a conservative, was elected president of Colombia, but due to his ill health most of the work was done by the vice president, José Manuel Marroquín, The Liberals were furious and believed that election fraud had taken place, so the liberal generals planned a rebellion for October 1899. The Liberals were successful in the battle of Peralonso but they were outnumbered in the battle of Palonegro. This defeat ruined the liberal army and they had to surrender. Throughout the war moderate liberals were trying to stop the two sides but they both refused to agree with one another, even so they signed the Treaty of Neerlandia on October 24^th 1902 which was basically a truce between the liberals and the conservatives. The war was formally ended on November 21^st 1902 when a second treaty was signed on the American Battleship, Wisconsin.