Fray Mocho [José Sixto Álvarez] Biography

Fray Mocho [José Sixto Álvarez]

(Gualeguaychú, 1858-Buenos Aires, 1903) Argentine journalist and narrator who gave breadth to costumbrista literature, both in rural descriptions and in urban paintings, and in sharp vignettes he reflected the popular Buenos Aires speech of the early twentieth century, as a witness to the effects of modernization and demographic growth.

He studied at the prestigious National College of Concepción del Uruguay, where he began his journalistic activity.At age twenty-one he moved to Buenos Aires; collaborated with El Nacional , La Pampa , La Patria Argentina , La Nación and La Razón , but he did not succeed with the edition of the humorous magazine Fray Gerundio , of which he was founder.His first work was Esmeraldas, mundanos tales (1885).

The position of official and police chronicler allowed him to observe the types of the Buenos Aires underworld, which he transferred to numerous stories: Gallery of thieves of the Capital (1880-1887) and Life of famous thieves and their ways of stealing (1887).In his only novel, Memories of a vigilante (1897), he praised the police institution.He published the regionalist descriptions A trip to the country of the matreros (1897) and En el mar austral ; Fuegian sketch (1898) was written without direct knowledge of the region.

In 1898 he founded the magazine Caras y Caretas , which he directed for the next five years and in which he popularized his festive portraits, signed with the pseudonym Fray Mocho; It included, albeit sporadically, some literary notes on authors such as Horacio Quiroga or José Ingenieros.The publication had enormous popularity in Argentina during the first decades of the 20th century.Álvarez also used other nicknames, such as Nemesio Machuca or Fabio Carrizo.

These productions were posthumously compiled in Cuentos de Fray Mocho (1906), which were reissued on many occasions, and Fray Mocho unknown (1979), that brings together all the stories and cartoons that appeared in the magazine.In the variations of the colloquial language and the forms of behavior of the characters, Álvarez was able to capture the ridiculous nature of certain social conventions.

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