Gustavo Gac-Artigas

Gustavo Gac-Artigas is a Chilean American writer, playwright, actor, theater director, and editor. Born in Santiago, Chile, he has lived in New Jersey since 1995. He is a correspondent member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language (Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Espanola-ANLE).

His poetry has been translated into English and French and published in academic literary magazines such as the Revista de la Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española, the Latino Book Review, Multicultural Echoes Literary Magazine (California State University in Chico), Enclave, Revista de Creación Literaria en Español (the City University of New York-CUNY), and in cultural magazines ViceVersa, Letralia, Todoliteratura, The Chesterton Review, Nueva York Poetry Review, Cronopios, Kametsa, Nagari and Terre a Ciel.

It has also been included in anthologies such as Segunda antología poetica de la Feria Internacional del Libro de Nueva York, 2022, Antología poetica LACUHE 2022, Boundless 2022: Anthology of the Valle del Rio Grande International Poetry Festival y Multilingual Anthology (The Americas Poetry Festival of New York 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023).

His most recent publications are Desde el Fondo del Tintero: Daliba, La Brujita del Caribe (Paris 1982), ExIliadas (Rotterdam,1988); a bilingual poetry collection, Hombre de América/ Man of the Americas (Nueva York Poetry Press 2022, translated by Andrea Labinger and Priscilla Gac-Artigas); and a trilingual collection, Deseos Longings Jaimerais Tant (Ediciones Nuevo Espacio 2020, translated by Andrea Labinger, English, and Priscilla Gac-Artigas and Ada Mondes, French).

He has written op-eds for Agencia Efe, Le Monde diplomatique, Edición Chile, impactolatino.com, since 2015.

Art Without Borders-The Gac-Artigas Foundation
With his wife Priscilla Gac-Artigas, professor of Latin American literature at Monmouth University, NJ, he is the owner and curator of the exhibit Memories, Geography of a Decade: Chile 1973-1983. The exhibit consists of 45 original prints (24 of them numbered); 25 posters; 50 pictures of the 1973 coup; and 25 photos of performances by Théâtre de la Résistance-Chili, a Chilean theater group in exile in Paris after the coup. Prints are by three National Art Award winners: José Balmes, Guillermo Núñez, & Gracia Barrios, and by Alejandro Marcos, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, and Eduardo Berroeta; posters, which retrace a decade of cultural solidarity events in Europe, by artists e.g. Miró & Ottaviano; photos of the coup are by former Gamma news agency journalists; and TRCh theater pictures are professional photos showing the evolution of a theater group forced to create in exile. Memorias has been hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, Instituto Cervantes in NY, Bowdoin College, and Monmouth University, in NJ.

Biography
In 1968 Gac-Artigas travelled to Bulgaria to participate in the Democratic Youth World Festival and to Czechoslovakia invited by the government of the time to observe the changes introduced during the Prague Spring. Upon his return to Chile, he dropped out of college and embarked on a trip through Latin America performing in different countries with a documentary theater play called Poetry Mail. This included poems by established writers, local writers and songs interspersed with current events from national and local newspapers. With Poetry Mail, Gac-Artigas traversed South America from his native Chile to Bogota, Colombia. In Colombia he worked with Enrique Buenaventura and Santiago Garcia and the Teatro La Candelaria in Bogotá.

In 1971 he returned to Chile where he founded and directed the experimental Theatre del Cobre (TEC) in the Cultural House of El Teniente copper mine during the government of Salvador Allende. TEC's last performance in Chile was at the Chuquicamata mine, in the northern part of the country with the play Freedom, Freedom, an adaptation by Gac-Artigas of Flavio Rengel’s play about a group opposed to the 1973 coup d'état. The presentation began on September 10, 1973 and ended with a forum attended by David Baytelman, manager of the mine, mine workers, and some political leaders on 11 September, the day in which the group was supposed to continue their tour to present the play for the workers of the nitrate mine.

Gac-Artigas was apprehended on September 11 and subsequently transferred to Rancagua, located 2,000 kilometers to the south, after three days. There, he was incarcerated as political prisoner number 3245 - as recorded by the Chilean National Institute of Human Rights. Over a period of three days, he underwent "expedited interrogation", a euphemism used by the military for torture, conducted by a Lieutenant Medina.

He was released from jail months later, and taken to Santiago where, with a deportation order and a travel document issued by the Red Cross, he left the country for exile in Paris. There, along with Colombian actress Perla Valencia, he founded the group Théâtre de la Résistance-Chili (then Nuevo Teatro Los Comediantes), with which he toured Europe and participated in international festivals such as: Nancy, Avignon, Ljubljana, Hammamet, Djendouba, Tabarka, Hammam Lift, Yverdon, Bern, Zurich and Stagedoor Festival among others.

In 1984 he tried to return to Chile, but on September the 5th of that year his name appeared on a list of about 5,000 people forbidden from entering the country for representing "a danger to the internal security of the State". This unsuccessful endeavor led him and his group to traverse Latin America, journeying from Buenos Aires to Bogota and passing through Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. They spent a year in Colombia, performing throughout various regions. After engaging in a hunger strike, Gac-Artigas was sent back to Europe - Rotterdam this time, rather than Paris, as he had lost his political refugee status in France due to a year-long absence.

From 1986 to 1989, he resided in the Netherlands, persisting in his theatrical endeavors. During this period, his group took part in the Stagedoor Festival in 1986 and the Latino Festival of Utrecht in 1989. In 1989 he received the Poetry Park Award for his story Dr. Zamenhofstraat.

In 2018 his novel Y todos éramos actores, un siglo de luz y sombra (And All of Us Were Actors, A Century Of Light And Shadow) (2016), English edition translated by Andrea G. Labinger was second runner up for the ILBA (International Latino Book Award 2018) in the category of Best Fiction Book in Translation - Spanish to English.

Gac-Artigas moved to New Jersey in 1995 and lives there to this day where he continues to write.

Novels

 * Y Todos Éramos Actores, un Siglo de Luz y Sombra (And All of Us Were Actors, A Century Of Light And Shadow) (2016)
 * English edition translated by Andrea G. Labinger (2017). The novel took second place in the ILBA (International Latino Book Award 2018) in the category Best Fiction Book in Translation - Spanish to English.
 * It Was A Time To Dream (1992)
 * Second edition, digital and paperback: It Was Time To Dream Of The Pregnant Birdies (2016)
 * And The Earth Was Round (1993)
 * Second edition, digital and paperback: And The Earth Was Round (2016)
 * Ado’s Plot of Land (2002)
 * An Ordinary Murder

Theatre

 * The Land Of Tears Of Blood or We Call You Chile Freedom (1978)
 * Premiered in Paris and performed at the Avignon and Nancy International festivals, and throughout France.


 * Columbus' Egg or Coca-Cola Offers You A Journey Of Dreams In Latin America (1982)
 * Premiered at the Gérard Philipe Theatre, Champigny-sur-Marne, France, performed in the Hall of Honor of the UNESCO, Paris, and throughout France, at festivals such as Carrefour de l’Europe, Hammamet, Djendouba, Tabarka, Hammam Lift, Bern, Manizales, Rotterdam, Sategedoor Festival, San Juan Puerto Rico and Manizales. A one-year tour in Colombia.


 * Gonzalito or Yesterday I Learned That I Can Return (1989)
 * Premiered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, at the Latino Festival of Utrecht.


 * Five Sighs of Eternity (1992)
 * Discoverings (1992)
 * Premiered at the Texas Christian University, 1992

Novella

 * Dalibá, The Witch Of The Caribbean (1982)

Poetry

 * hombre de américa/man of the americas (Nueva York Poetry Press, 2022)
 * deseos longings j'aimerais tant (Ediciones Nuevo Espacio, 2020) trilingual poetry collection
 * ExIliadas (1988)
 * Canto planetario: hermandad en la Tierra. Volumen I (various authors). Antology. Costa Rica: H.C. Editores, 2023.

Chronicle

 * Esperando la revolución: Cuba: crónicas de un viaje inconcluso (2019)
 * Waiting for the Revolution: Cuba: The Unfinished Journey (2019)

Collection of op-eds
Navegando los tiempos de la peste: Coronavirus 2020 (collection of op-eds on the Coronavirus crisis)

College textbooks

 * To The Point: a complete reference manual for Spanish grammar (Prentice Hall, College Division, 1999)
 * Sans Détour: a complete reference manual for French grammar (Prentice Hall, College Division, 1999)
 * Roadmap To The Culture And Civilization Of Latin America (Academic Press Jan, 2006, sixth ed. 2012
 * E-GPS mobile application essay / essay: A comprehensive app designed to guide students through the writing of the Most Frequently Requested types of essays

Anthologies

 * Anthology Of Songs Of Struggle And Hope. Editorial Quimantú, Chile (1973). Co-author: Perla Valencia

Opinion Articles
Navegando los tiempos de la peste: Coronavirus 2020 (collection of op-eds on the Coronavirus crisis)
 * "The Presidential Debate in the US, hurry, tickets are selling out! El debate presidencial en los EE.UU., apurarse que se están acabando los boletos"
 * "USA, Elections 2016: The End of Democracy?"  '''
 * "When Saying “Nous Sommes Paris” Is Not Enough"
 * "The Irresistible Rise of Donald Trump"

Reception
Deseos Longings J'aimerais Tant was reviewed in the Latino Book Review and Letralia.

And All of Us Were Actors, A Century of Light and Shadow was reviewed by Catedral Tomada and Kirkus.