Jaime Huenún

Guest of the ilb 2007

Jaime Huenún was born in 1967 in southern Chile, a member of the indigenous Mapuche-Huilliche population living between Valdivia and Chiloé Island. He studied education at the Instituto Profesional in Osorno and at the Universidad de la Frontera in Temuco. After graduating he worked for the Casa de Arte Mapuche (Centre for Mapuche Art), for the Sociedad de Escritores de Chile in Temuco and for »Mapu Ñuke« magazine. He headed the magazine »PEWMA« (The dream) from 1993 to 2000.
Huenún’s first poems were published in national magazines and anthologies, including »Cartas al Azar« (1989; t: Letters at random), »Zonas de emergencia« (1994; t: Emergency zones) and »Moradores de la Lluvia« (1998; t: Inhabitants of the rain). In 1999 he published his volume of poems »Ceremonias«, attempting a reconstruction of the symbolism, language and history of the tribe, whose basis are the fragmentary traces and relics of oralcy, memory and ritual, which may still be found in the rural and urban indigenous areas of Osorno and Tomuco. The book was awarded the honorary prize of Santiago's literature contest, as one of the best volumes of poetry published in Chile in 1999/2000.
The next volume »Puerto Trakl« (2001; t: Port Trakl) is a collection of short verse and prose pieces as well as fragments of text, describing a hermetic world of fiction and written in »neutral ascetic« Spanish. The critic Naín Nómez commented: »Jaime Huenún enters into a dialogue with Austrian poet Georg Trakl in this book, creating a time-spanning bridge between life and death, a place of transition from where it is possible to withstand the torn reality, the boggy delirium that stems from a once dreamed-up universe which no longer exists.« The book was awarded First Prize at the national lyric context »El Joven Neruda«.
Between 1999 and 2001 Huenún worked with students and Mapuches elders from rural regions on collecting and editing indigenous stories. He later edited »Epu mari ülkantufe ta fachantü / 20 poetas mapuches contemporáneos« (2003; t: 20 contemporary Mapuche poets), the first anthology of Mapuche poetry that was disseminated across the whole country.
In 2005, Huenún was an editor and contributor for the magazine »Mapuche Kimun« in Temuco, and began to collaborate with the cultural section of the daily »Las Ultimas Noticias de Santiago«. In the same year he was awarded a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation.
His work has been translated into five languages and was selected for a dozen anthologies of Chilean and Latin American poetry, appearing in Chile, Argentina, Spain, Colombia and the United States. While his third volume of poetry, »Reducciones« (t: Reductions), has remained unpublished, the English translation of »Puerto Trakl« is set to appear in the US.
Huenún currently directs the magazine of indigenous literature and art »Ulmapu«. In 2003 he was awarded the Premio Nacional de Poesía »Pablo Neruda«. He has lived in Santiago de Chile since 2006.

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