User:Trinidadgonzalezs/Miguel Angel Bustos

Miguel Ángel Ramón Bustos (Buenos Aires, August 31, 1932 - Buenos Aires, June 20, 1976) was an Argentine poet, journalist, and visual artist. He was abducted by the Argentine military dictatorship on May 30, 1976.

Biography
Miguel Ángel Bustos was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on August 31, 1932, the eldest of four siblings. His maternal grandfather, Carlos von Jöcker, influenced his early interest in literature and poetry. After completing his secondary education in 1951, he entered the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the University of Buenos Aires, where he focused on studying various languages, including English, French, Portuguese, and Italian.

In 1957, he published his first book of poems, "Cuatro murales, un óleo," followed by "Corazón de piel afuera" two years later, with an introduction by poet Juan Gelman. Between 1960 and 1963, he embarked on an extensive journey through northern Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru, leaving a profound mark on his later work. His return to Buenos Aires in 1964 was followed by a brief marriage, a suicide attempt, and an almost year-long stay at the "José T. Borda" Neuropsychiatric Hospital, where he met the surrealist poet Jacobo Fijman, who influenced his own poetry.

In 1965, Miguel Ángel Bustos published "Fragmentos fantásticos," largely written at the Bermann neuropsychiatry clinic in Córdoba. Around that time, drawing began to occupy as significant a space in his life as poetry, with four of his poetry books being illustrated by himself. He attended Juan Batlle Planas' drawing workshop and became part of the mythical surrealist circle created by Aldo Pellegrini and Enrique Pichon-Rivière. He also established a master-disciple relationship with Leopoldo Marechal, who wrote the prologue for his new book, "Visión de los hijos del mal" (1969), calling Bustos a "mystic in a wild state." For this work, Miguel Ángel received the Second Municipal Poetry Prize. In 1970, he published his book "El Himalaya o la Moral de los Pájaros" thanks to a grant from the National Arts Fund. The book's release coincided with his first exhibition of drawing and painting at the Argentine Society of Plastic Artists.

In an interview with Alicia Dujovne Ortiz for La Nación titled "Y la doble red," the journalist asked Miguel Ángel Bustos if the images in his poetry also appear "suddenly, already constructed, dictated." Miguel Ángel responded: "“Yes, I wrote 'El Himalaya' in one go, with the same feeling of certainty. And it's also a poetry with the ambiguous sense that Rimbaud gave to the word 'illumination': both the illumination of the spirit and painting”."In an interview with Bengt Oldenburg for the magazine Análisis, Miguel Ángel Bustos confessed:"“I draw because I want to achieve a freedom that is not achieved with words.”."The Swedish critic concluded:"“Miguel Ángel Bustos is a visionary, a mystic; his vision passes through appearances to capture the essential signs that we reject as dreams or delusions”."In the late sixties, Miguel Ángel Bustos met Iris Alba, a designer, sculptor, and ceramist, who became his wife and the mother of his son Emiliano. During the seventies, Bustos worked as a cultural journalist in various publications, including magazines such as Panorama and Siete Días, as well as the newspapers La Opinión and El Cronista Comercial. He also taught at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the University of Buenos Aires and continued studying Romanian.

Political Involvement, Abduction and Death
Initially associated with UCRI in the 1950s, Bustos expressed sympathy for the Cuban and Chinese revolutions, briefly participating in the Communist Youth Federation and collaborating with the monthly magazine "Nuevo Hombre" (Buenos Aires, 1971-1974). According to testimonies, he also collaborated with the cultural front of the PRT and distributed publications such as "El Combatiente" and "Estrella Roja".

On May 31, 1976, Bustos was abducted from his home in Buenos Aires. His friend and fellow poet, Alberto Szpunberg, recounts:"“on Sunday, May 31, 1976, Miguel Ángel returned to his home on Hortiguera Street, two blocks from Chacabuco Park, after a walk with Emiliano, who had just turned four. That night, around ten-thirty, more or less, they rang the doorbell; perhaps he could have escaped, but he refused... The yellow cards shown by the killers attempted to give the raid a certain appearance of legality”."On the day they took him, Iris Alba recalls, five police officers entered their home. They ordered her to lock herself in the kitchen with the child. They broke everything, destroyed his books. "We're taking him for background checks," they told her. "Take a blanket; it's cold," they told him. So Bustos went to his son's room and took a blanket. "Miguel took a blanket from that room, and I stayed watching from his little window, even though it was so small that I couldn't see anything," she recounted.

On June 20 of the same year, he was killed along with ten other people in an open field in Avellaneda, in an episode known as the "Masacre de Sarandí" (Sarandí Massacre). This incident, initially presented in the media as a confrontation, now known to be staged, gave rise to a file from the Military War Council. The subsequent investigation into related events suggests that Bustos may have been held at the clandestine detention center "El Vesubio." His remains were thrown into a pit in Sector 134 of the Avellaneda Cemetery and exhumed in 1991 by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team. Their identification was completed in 2014 and was led by founding members of the organization. On August 31 of that year, the day Bustos would have turned eighty-two, Emiliano and family gathered with poet and artist friends in the Parque de la Memoria for a sober ceremony, finally bidding farewell to the poet by scattering the ashes into the Río de la Plata. The Bustos case was included in a judicial case that investigated, proved, and convicted crimes against humanity. The sentence was issued by the Federal Criminal Oral Court No. 5 in Buenos Aires.

Memory
Over the years, Bustos' work has been recognized as fundamental to Argentine poetry by prominent poets and writers such as Manuel Mujica Laínez, Olga Orozco, Rodolfo Rabanal, and Reynaldo Giménez. Diana Bellesi emphasizes that Bustos' work is essential in the life of any poet who appreciates reading other poets.

In 1998, Alberto Szpunberg published the posthumous book "Despedida de los ángeles," which brings together unpublished poems by Bustos. In 2007, Emiliano Bustos compiled journalistic works, correspondence, and essays by his father in the book "Miguel Ángel Bustos, Prosa. 1960-1976," followed by the complete poetry compilation of his father in "Visión de los hijos del mal" in 2008.

Bustos' work has transcended linguistic borders, being translated into English as "Vision of the Children of Evil" in 2018 and into French as "Archipel du tremblement" in 2015. In Italian, "Frammenti fantastici" was published, including "Quattro murales" and "Cuore con la pelle esposta" in 2023. In 2022, the I International Poetry Prize Miguel Angel Bustos was awarded in Colombia.

In 2013, the exhibition "Todo es siempre ahora" took place at the Centro Cultural Borges, organized by Luis Felipe Noé and Eduardo Stupía, showcasing the visual art of Miguel Ángel Bustos in dialogue with the work of his son Emiliano. The exhibition was prematurely lifted due to the theft of a painting by Miguel Ángel Bustos, an act attributed to political motivations.

Composers from different countries and musical genres have honored Bustos' work, including German composers Manfred Trojahn and Hans Jürgen von Bose. The latter produced "Siete Textos" based on the Argentine poet's work, premiered in 1992 at the Teatro San Martín.

In 2022, in commemoration of the 90th anniversary of Bustos' birth, tributes were held at the National Library and the Conti Cultural Center, highlighting the relevance and significance of his artistic and poetic legacy.

Published work

 * Cuatro murales (Con dibujos, Edición del autor, Buenos Aires, 1957)
 * Corazón de piel afuera (Presentación de Juan Gelman, Nueva Expresión,Buenos Aires, 1959)
 * Fragmentos fantásticos (Con dibujos del autor, Casa Editora Francisco Colombo, Buenos Aires, 1965)
 * Visión de los hijos del mal (Prólogo de Leopoldo Marechal, Editorial Sudamericana, Buenos Aires, 1967)
 * El Himalaya o la moral de los pájaros (Con ilustraciones del autor, Editorial Sudamericana, Buenos Aires, 1970)
 * Visión de los hijos del mal - Poesía completa (Prólogo y notas de Emiliano Bustos, Editorial Argonauta, Buenos Aires, 2008)