User:Itztopaz/Jaime Manrique

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Jaime Manrique (born 16 June 1949) is a bilingual Colombian American novelist, poet, essayist, educator, and translator. His work is a representation of his cultural upbringing and heritage mixed with the flavors of his education in English. A primary distinction of his work comes from his bilingualism, and his choice to write in both English and Spanish. Many of his novels are published in English whereas his poetry is often printed and shared in Spanish. Manrique's writing covers a variety of themes and topics with some of his more notable works ranging from talking about his father's corpse and the adventures of a young gay Columbian immigrant. Therefore, Manrique's personal life and experiences can clearly be visualized in his writing and appreciated in his bilingual works.

Personal Ideology
Jaime Manrique's bilingual background allows him to publish works in both English and Spanish. There is a distinguishing characteristic between Jaime Manrique's works in the two languages. The fictional works written by Jamie Manrique are published in English, and the poetry written by Manrique is published in Spanish. Jaime Manrique separates his writing in this way as writing in each individual language provides different contextual and emotional meaning. Manrique's works published in English tend to categorically fall into areas of a more public domain where the thoughts and ideas presented are meant to be more easily digestible and understood. However, unlike works written in English, Manrique's Spanish written works are in nature more personal and private language. Since Spanish is Jamie Manrique's native language, the thoughts shared in his shared Spanish poetry tend to portray deeper anecdotal values.

Homosexuality
A significant detail of some writings by Jaime Manrique is the choice inclusion of themes of homosexuality and homoerotiscm. Within Jaime Manrique's poetry book, Los Adoradores de la Luna, there are visible expressions of homosexuality. These expressions of homosexuality and homoerotiscm stem largely from the speaker of the poems being an androgynous person. The reason for this androgyny is in part due to the structure of the Spanish language. Because of the pronoun forms of the Spanish language, this allows the reader to interpret the sex of the speaker based on individual choice. A particular example of this effect in the poem collection, Los Adoradores de la Luna, is in the use of the words "te amaba" which could be perceived as spoken from a male or female since this form hold both the masculine and feminine parts of speech.

Another factor that attributes to the visibility of homosexuality and queer representation is through the embodiment of a metaphysical love. This abstract form of love takes shape in multiple ways within poems written by Manrique. Commonly, these states and figures share Manrique's views on the complexities of love and the emotions surrounding it. The love resembles how queer individuals of this time might feel whether the feelings are positive or negative. An example of this is in the poem, "Los lobos", which focuses on wolves as seen by the title. The wolves express tones of danger and darkness which portrays how Manrique seeks to share some enchanting features of love. However, the wolves serve as two toned symbols as they can be seen as guides through the darkness and function on the trust of the pack. As well, the use of wolves is not the only example of how Manrique writes of complex love in queer culture.

Although the poem collections are the primary example where homosexuality and homoerotiscm can be seen in Jaime Manrique's work. This does not exclude his novels as well. The diction and emotion are paralleled in his poetry and his books. However, there are some key differences in the way the material is presented. Manrique's work is a combination of his current culture and upbringing which shines through the Spanish poetry and English written texts uniquely. The ability of Manrique as author to write in both languages and also create unified and individualistic themes distinguishes his work.