The Author: Marco Antonio de la Parra, Chilean playwright, novelist, and psychiatrist, began to establish his reputation as a writer in 1978 when his play, Lo crudo, lo cocido, lo podrido (The Raw, the Cooked, and the Rotten) was banned by the Catholic University one day before its official premiere. In 1984 he wrote La secreta obscenidad de cada día (Secret Obscenities) which has become one of the most widely performed works of Latin American theatre in recent years. His publications include three collections of theatre: TEATRO: Lo crudo, lo cocido, lo podrido / Matatangos (1982); TEATRO: La secreta obscenidad de cada día/Infieles (1988); King Kong Palace/Dostoievski va a la playa (1990); and El Padre Muerto (1992). He has published a volume of short stories, Sueños eróticos/Amores Imposibles (1986); and two novels, El deseo de toda ciudadana (1987), and La secreta guerra santa de Santiago de Chile (1989). Marco Antonio de la Parra recently spent three years in Spain as the Cultural Attache to the Chilean Embassy in Madrid.
The Editor: Charles Philip Thomas is an associate professor of Spanish and chairperson of the department of Foreign Languages at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Thomas's translations of Latin American plays by Marco antonio de la Parra, Alejandro Sieveking, and Roberto Ramos-Perea have been published in journals, and in the anthology The Praying Mantis and Other Plays by Alejandro Sieveking. Several of his translations have been performed professionally and at universities throughout the country. His most recent publication is a translation of The Secret Holy War of Santiago de Chile, a novel by Marco Antonio de la Parra.
The Contributors: George Woodyyard, Marco Antonio de la Parra, Elsa M. Gilmore, Hernán Vidal, Jacqueline Bixler, C. Lucía Garavito, Ramón Layera, José M. Varela