Cronopio (literature)
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A cronopio is a type of fictional person appearing in works by Argentine writer Julio Cortázar (August 26, 1914–February 12, 1984).
Together with famas (literally fames) and esperanzas (hopes), cronopios are the subject of several short stories in his 1962 book Historias de cronopios y de famas and Cortazar continued to write about cronopios, famas, and esperanzas in other texts through the 1960s.
In general, cronopios are depicted as naive and idealistic, disorganized, unconventional and sensitive creatures, who stand in contrast or opposition to famas (who are rigid, organized and judgmental if well-intentioned) and esperanzas (who are plain, indolent, unimaginative and dull).
In his stories Cortázar describes few physical features of cronopios. He does refer to them (in one of the early stories Costumbres de los famas) as "those greenish, frizzly, wet objects," but this description is just the initial author's vision of the invented character. In a letter to Paul Blackburn on 1959-03-27 [1] Cortázar writes that human characteristics of cronopios appeared later, while writing other stories. These demonstrate aspects of cronopios' personalities, habits, and inclinations.