Crónica (literary genre)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Crónica is a literary genre that combines journalistic reporting with a literary flair. Crónica has evolved over centuries, beginning with the early European visitors to the New World. It is unique to and widely used throughout Spanish Latin America. In the 21st century most of the prominent Latin American writers have used this style.
Defining crónica is difficult and contentious, as the genre is flexible, malleable, and mutating. It can be short or long; and, it can be poetry.[1] There are certain broad guidelines that identify and help recognize the genre.[2][3] The genre has three core attributes: the stories are true, they read as fiction and are socially progressive.[4] Crónica crosses the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction, a gray area between literature and journalism;[5] its long form has been called a non-fiction novel.[1][6] It is a narrative journalism written in a literary style with first hand testimony,[7] a "journalism that has a distinctive Latin American diacritic, form and social undertaking."[4] There are distinct differences between this and the Brazilian crônica.[3]
Historical roots
It has been noted that the first colonial histories of Latin America were not written by historians, but by cronistas (chroniclers), whose work should be viewed as "adventures of the imagination."[4] Crónica, a uniquely Latin American hybrid genre, is thought to be descended from this early historiographic tradition,[5] such as seen in the writings of Antonio Pigafetta[4]and Crónica Mexicayotl, and Crónicas de Indias[5] The contemporary crónica made a comeback in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the rise of democracies. This was a period when Latin America modernized, leaving behind the colonial past. The style of the cronistas of this period was poetic and humorous, highlighting the problems of the period. Emblematic of this period are Rubén Darío[9] and José Martí. By the 1960s crónicas became more militant, reflecting the Cold War and the Cuban Revolution. This is reflected in Tomás Eloy Martínez's Passion According to Trelew, an account of the massacre of Argentine leftists; and Rodolfo Walsh's Open Letter from a Writer to the Military Junta, published minutes before he was assassinated. Other notable cronistas of this period included Gabriel García Marquez, Elena Poniatowska and Carlos Monsiváis.[4]