Short stories
Cobre
Not translated into English
Gonzalo Drago · 1941
Synopsis
Stories about the world of copper miners, drawn from the author's work at Braden Copper, near Rancagua. Memoria Chilena sees in them man's struggle against the elements and the miner's disenchantment at the injustices of his employers, with a marked emphasis on social denunciation. Luis Durand speaks of stories of vigorous dramatic intensity, which paint a brutal reality and the tragedy of the man who confronts it; Antonio Campaña notes the miner's anguish before a harsh nature, stingy with what it hides.
Context
The author's first book, the collection appeared in 1941 with the subtitle Cuentos mineros; Zig-Zag reissued it in 1960. The critic Ricardo Latcham praised it, according to Memoria Chilena. In 1948, in the prologue to another book by Drago, Luis Durand compared these sketches with those Baldomero Lillo had drawn in Sub terra; in Atenea, in 1982, Antonio Campaña wrote that Cobre had brought Lillo back to his mind and that he placed its author in the vanguard of the storytellers of his generation.
Who it is for
Short stories about mining, in an unvarnished realism; no French or English translation.
Prizes and reception
Praised by Ricardo Latcham, and linked to the lineage of Lillo by Luis Durand and then by Antonio Campaña.
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