by Laren Rusin
Antonio Skármeta was born in Chile, where he wrote poetry as a boy. "A friend found this ability [of mine] and liked it," Skármeta said. "At a birthday party, he proposed I read a poem and I blushed, but it was my only chance." He said that while none of the girls liked his poem, the mothers did, and so his career began.
"These little experiences came to build the story of Il Postino," he continued. He wrote a book, Ardiente paciencia, while he was in exile in Germany during the years of dictatorship in Chile. He made a German television film out of the story, which was the basis for the movie Il Postino.
There are many differences between Skármeta's version and the international version. He was on a low budget and used local actors. The film was made in Portugal and takes place in the '70s, and the plot stays true to the political tale of the book.
Il Postino was shot in Italy and takes place in the '50s, but the differences don't bother Skármeta.
"I love it," he said of Il Postino. "I am one of the few authors who is happy with a film adapted from his book. [The directors] respected the spirit and style of it."
Sponsored by different departments as a climax to Hispanic Heritage Month, Skármeta speaks at Oberlin this weekend as part of a tour of North American schools. He leaves Chile every two years to serve as visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.
Skármeta's visit to Oberlin was planned last semester to coincide with his visits to other schools in the area. Skármeta received the Boccaccia award on Sept. 14 for his novel Il Postino di Neruda. In accordance with his visit, the department of Romance Languages decided to offer a one-week seminar on the author and his works.
A group of Latino, Hispanic, Latino-American and Hispanic-American students and faculty in Oberlin decided about one and a half years ago to form "Fuerza Latina," or Latin Force. Members of the Oberlin faculty decided to organize the group in support of Latino groups on campus and to make the Latino presence on campus better known. The group initiated Hispanic Heritage Month at Oberlin this year, and they also had a large part in organizing Skármeta's visit.
Esmeralda Martinez-Tapia, faculty-in-residence and one of the coordinators of Skármeta's visit, thought that his visit would be a "perfect" way to end the month.
Steve Volk, associate professor of history, is very pleased with the student turnout for the seminar. He expected about 25 students, and there are 82 signed up for the class, not including students turned away.
Many teachers from different departments donated their time and knowledge to the class. Along with Volk, Laszlo Scholz, associate professor of Spanish, Ana Cara, associate professor of Spanish and Pat Day, associate professor of English, are all giving lectures on different topics of their choice.
Volk spoke about the historical contextualization of Ardiente paciencia, the book on which Il Postino is based. The book is based in Chile in the 1970s, but the time and location was changed in Il Postino , so that it took place in Italy in the '50s. Changing location made Il Postino into a more movie-friendly screenplay, where the action was based more on love, which Italy is associated with, as opposed to the political ties that help set the book in Chile.
Scholz talked about the poetry of Pablo Neruda, a Nobel Prize-wining poet and one of the characters of Il Postino. Cara will lead a discussion about Skármeta's fiction.
The films Ardiente paciencia and Il Postino were both shown before Day's lecture Thursday on Skármeta and film, titled "The Transpositions From Ardiente paciencia to Il Postino, Il Postino in the Italian Cinematic Tradition, and Why the Film Was So Successful in the United States."
In his conversation and lecture scheduled for this weekend, Skármeta plans to talk about how Il Postino became so popular. He wants to discuss his work in the context of the literature of his generation, as well as his current project in Chile, which is a television show he describes as "a very special column dedicated to writers and books." He feels the theme of the show revolves around the question "What should be the relation of intellectuals and the media?"
There are two types of television audiences: the passive and the intellectual. Skarmeta does not believe that television has to be for the less culturally sophisticated and hopes his show can help change that view.
He found the change from writing novels and screenplays to doing a television show "very easy. I am a writer. All I do is related to literature," he said. "When I dream or think of other things, I see books. Everything comes in a natural way."
While he was in exile, Skármeta wrote other novels: Soné que la nieve ardía, and La insurrección. He has also published several collections of short stories, including El entusiasmo, Desnudo en el tejado and El ciclista de San Cristobál and has also written screenplays, poetry and essays. He just came from Madrid to present his new book, No pasa nada, which is the story of exile told from the view of a 14-year-old boy.
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