Jorge Baradit

Jorge Marcos Baradit Morales (born 11 June 1969) is a Chilean writer, the author of the bestselling trilogy Historia secreta de Chile.

Jorge Baradit
Baradit at the 27 October 2017 FILSA
Born
Jorge Marcos Baradit Morales

(1969-06-11) 11 June 1969
Valparaíso, Chile
Alma materViña del Mar University
OccupationWriter
AwardsSantiago Municipal Literature Award (2014)
Signature

Biography

Jorge Baradit spent his childhood and early adolescence in Valparaíso, where he formed a punk rock band called Trato Bestial, which performed in underground concerts in Valparaíso Region from 1986 to 1991. Coming from a lower-middle-class family, he was educated in public schools and at the Rubén Castro school in Viña del Mar. He studied one year (1987–1988) of Architecture at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso and later Graphic Design (1988–1994) at Viña del Mar University, where he graduated. He has been dedicated to literature since 2005.

Literary career

Fiction

He debuted in literature with Ygdrasil (published in Spain in 2007), "a story set in a futuristic Mexico, where a Chilean mercenary named Mariana accepts the most dangerous missions that will take her through a digital form of hell. It shows a world full of organic technology taken to the limit, an imbunche, dead soldiers who reincarnate as communication systems, and a shaman who orbits the Earth."[1]

A year later he wrote a short prequel of Ygdrasil, Trinidad, for which he won the award of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

Baradit at the GAM, April 2015

Miquel Barceló, editor of the NOVA collection of Ediciones B, in which both works appeared, described Ygdrasil as a "revolution in science fiction in Spanish",[2] and characterized Baradit's writing as cyber-shamanism, a definition that is not to the Chilean's liking – "I prefer Magical Realism 2.0. Macondo already has fiber optic networks, but his shamans still take ayahuasca," he said at the time.[1]

From 2006 to 2008, he maintained the Ucronía Chile blog, a project that invited writers, illustrators, photographers, and videographers to twist Chilean history at any point and under any criteria.[3][4] From that experience came the book CHIL3: Relación del Reyno (Ediciones B, 2010), for which he invited Francisco Ortega, Álvaro Bisama, and Mike Wilson to act as co-editors.[3] The volume anthologizes the best entries of the blog, added to new contributions by writers such as Carlos Labbé, Edmundo Paz Soldán, Claudia Apablaza, and Rodrigo Fresán.

Baradit published Synco in 2008 (in 2012 he began to work on a graphic version of the novel), an alternate history of democratic socialism that develops after 1973, with Augusto Pinochet appointed by Salvador Allende to replace General Carlos Prats. "It stops the military coup, the socialist government consolidates and creates the first cybernetic state, a universal example, the true third way, a miracle."[5] It is based on the unfinished Project Cybersyn.

The following year Kalfukura appeared, which tells the story of a humble child who undertakes an odyssey throughout Chile to find a great ancestral treasure of metaphysical order. Unlike the typical style of Baradit, this book is closer to an adventure novel and is aimed at children and young people. About it, Baradit himself says, "I want to revive our myths, take them out of pedagogy and the museum and give them new life."[6]

During the Santiago International Book Fair (FILSA), in November 2011, he launched his first graphic novel, Policía del karma, drawn by Martín Cáceres,[7] where he recounts the actions carried out by a dystopian police force in an alternative Santiago that pursues people for crimes committed in their previous lives. The work won the FIC Award for best cover, best writer, best cartoonist, and best comic of the year 2011.

Baradit signing books, FILSA 2015

In May 2012 he created, again with illustrations by Cáceres, Lluscuma, a fantasy graphic novel with elements of alternative worlds, time travel, hallucinations, psychological violence, alternate history, and delirium, set in 1977, during the event known as the case of Corporal Valdés (a supposed abduction by extraterrestrials), and 2013 in the context of issues related to death and torture during the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. The work was published weekly in the print edition of the newspaper La Segunda from May to November 2012. The following year it was released in a book with the text "revised, corrected, expanded, and edited with the calm and care that only months of work in the laboratory can give."[8]

He launched his first book of short stories, La guerra interior, in March 2017, in which he included 22 stories that span his career from 2003 to 2016 and that are a heterogeneous sample of his literary output.[9]

Baradit has been identified with the renewal movement of Chilean literature called "Freak Power", which also comprises narrators such as the aforementioned Bisama, Ortega, Wilson, and Sergio Amira.[10] He has stood out for the use of digital tools and social networks in the development and diffusion of his works in different online, written, and audiovisual platforms, in collaboration with musicians, videographers, illustrators, and his own readers.

Nonfiction

Published in July 2015, Historia secreta de Chile (Editorial Sudamericana) was the first volume of a trilogy[11] on hidden or unknown aspects of official Chilean history. The book became a bestseller in his country, with 8,000 copies sold a month after its launch and a total of 80,000 in just under a year.[12] La Tercera spoke of the "triumph of Chilean nonfiction" in relation to this success, which includes contemporary authors such as Carlos Tromben, Felipe Portales, María Olivia Mönckeberg, and María José Cumplido.[13]

However, the success of Historia secreta de Chile was not free from controversy – some historians criticized the quality of its documentation,[14] while others such as the 2016 National History Award winner Julio Pinto[15] and the 2006 winner Gabriel Salazar[16] supported the publication. In the following two years Baradit released the remaining volumes of the trilogy, with covers as provocative as the first (which had portrayed Arturo Prat as a spiritualist figure, endowed with a third eye). The second showed Bernardo O'Higgins with dark glasses, emulating the famous photograph of Augusto Pinochet after the military coup, alluding to the fact that the independence leader was the country's first dictator. The third figure featured Gabriela Mistral with a tattoo reading "Doris", plus a piercing in her nose.[17][18]

By September 2017, the first two titles of the trilogy had together sold a record 200,000 copies.[19][20]

Television

From 2015 to 2016, Baradit participated as a panelist of the nighttime series Mentiras verdaderas (broadcast by La Red), where he commented on various facts from the unofficial history of his country.

In 2017, he assumed the leadership of his own program: Chile Secreto, a hybrid between documentary and investigative series where he toured the country, reviewing historical facts hidden in the official history. Transmitted by Chilevisión (CHV), it premiered on 21 May (Day of Naval Glories) with a chapter dedicated to the hero Arturo Prat, and was the leading broadcast in its timeslot – according to data delivered by CHV, between 7:59 and 9:00 pm it achieved an average of 9.5 ratings points, followed by Mega with 9.3 and Canal 13 with 9.[21]

Activism

The author actively participates in citizen activism and it is common to see him supporting social causes related to civil rights movements. He does so by attending marches, presentations, spots and through social networks, supporting causes such as the gender equality movement and the pro-abortion in three grounds movements.

Awards and recognitions
  • Chosen as one of the 100 Young Chilean Leaders by the El Mercurio magazine Sábado[1]
  • 2007 UPC Award for short science fiction novel for Trinidad[1]
  • 2008 CORFO Award for the audiovisual project Synco, with the production company Sobras
  • 2011 FIC Award for best Chilean graphic novel, best cover, and best writer for Policía del karma[22]
  • 2014 Santiago Municipal Literature Award for young adult novel for Lluscuma
  • 2016 CORFO Award for the audiovisual project Voces, with the production company Fábula (presented by Enrique Videla)
  • 2017 CORFO Award for the audiovisual project Policía del karma, with the production company Fábula

Works
  • 2005, Ygdrasil, Ediciones B (Spain edition, 2007; corrected luxury edition, 2009)[23]
  • 2007, Trinidad, Ediciones B
  • 2008, Synco, Ediciones B
  • 2009, Kalfukura. El corazón de la tierra, Ediciones B
  • 2010, Mind fuck guerrilla, anthology of stories, fragments, and published and unpublished articles from 2002 to 2010; Ediciones Proxy, Santiago
  • 2011, Policía del karma, graphic novel with drawings by Martín Cáceres, Ediciones B
  • 2012, Lluscuma, serial novel with drawings by Martín Cáceres, newspaper La Segunda; in book with revised text; Ediciones B, 2013
  • 2015, Historia secreta de Chile, Sudamericana
  • 2016, Historia secreta de Chile 2, Sudamericana
  • 2017, La guerra interior, stories, Plaza & Janés. Containing 22 texts:
    • "La conquista mágica de América", "Sant AG 2021", "Metro", "Sobre los selk'nam", "Los vampiros", "Time War Lluscuma", "Mariana", "Plebiscito", "El miedo", "Policía del karma", "Soviet", "El hijo del hombre", "El sueño de Contreras", "Los insaciables", "Angélica", "Tunguska", "Innergy", "Gemini geminos quaerunt", "Enterrrado", "El día S", "Inflexión", and "Estrella de mañana"
  • 2017, Historia secreta de Chile 3, Sudamericana
  • 2018, La dictadura, Sudamericana
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References
  1. Rojas M., Alberto (14 November 2007). "Jorge Baradit, escritor: 'Ya no es posible hacerle el quite a la ciencia ficción'" [Jorge Baradit, Writer: 'It is No Longer Possible to Do Science Fiction']. El Mercurio (in Spanish). Santiago. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  2. Mérida, Gabriel (November 2006). "Miquel Barceló en Chile". TauZero (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  3. Bakit, Matías (21 June 2011). "'CHIL3: Relación del Reyno': Un Chile ucrónico que te atrapa" ['CHIL3: Relación del Reyno': A Chile Alternate History That Catches You]. Guioteca (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  4. Lara Serrano, Rodrigo (2017). "Ucronistas entusiastas, urgente: se buscan" [Enthusiastic Alternate Historians, Urgent: Wanted]. La patria insospechada. Episodios ignorados de la historia de Chile [The Unsuspected Homeland: Ignored Episodes in the History of Chile] (in Spanish). Editorial Catalonia. ISBN 9789563244199. Retrieved 27 April 2018 – via Google Books.
  5. Edwards Renard, Javier (4 January 2009). "Synco: El juego del revés" [Synco: The Game of Reverse]. El Mercurio Revista de Libros (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  6. "Jorge Baradit relata la conquista mágica de América" [Jorge Baradit Relates the Magical Conquest of America]. La Tercera (in Spanish). 16 October 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  7. "Página de Martín Cáceres R." NGI Chile. Archived from the original on 17 August 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  8. Rojas, Alberto (5 November 2013). "Jorge Baradit publica novela inspirada en la abducción del cabo Valdés" [Jorge Baradit Publishes Novel Inspired By the Abduction of Corporal Valdés]. El Mercurio (in Spanish). Santiago. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  9. Valenzuela, Alejandra (7 April 2017). "La guerra interior, el nuevo libro de Jorge Baradit" [La guerra interior, the New Book By Jorge Baradit]. La Tercera Culto (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  10. Jara, Patricio (13 December 2008). "La nueva literatura fantástica chilena: Freak power" [The New Chilean Fantasy Literature: Freak Power]. El Mercurio Sábado (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 7 February 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  11. Rojas, Alberto (4 July 2016). "Jorge Baradit lanza segundo tomo de su 'controversial' trilogía 'Historia secreta de Chile'" [Jorge Baradit Launches Second Volume of His 'Controversial' Trilogy 'Historia secreta de Chile']. El Mercurio (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  12. "Libro de Jorge Baradit vende 80 mil ejemplares y tendrá segunda parte" [Book By Jorge Baradit Sells 80,000 Copies and Will Have Second Part]. La Tercera (in Spanish). 3 June 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  13. García, Javier (6 August 2016). "El triunfo de la no ficción chilena" [The Triumph of Chilean Nonfiction]. La Tercera (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  14. "Jorge Baradit: la apropiación del saber, el protagonismo de las elites y el ninguneo docente" [Jorge Baradit: The Appropriation of Knowledge, the Prominence of the Elites, and the Education Belittlement]. RedSeca (in Spanish). 30 May 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  15. "Premio Nacional de Historia respalda fenómeno Baradit: 'Es positivo por el interés en la historia'" [National History Award Winner Supports Baradit Phenomenon: 'It's Positive Because of the Interest in History']. El Dínamo (in Spanish). 23 August 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  16. CNN Chile [@CNNChile] (21 September 2017). "Gabriel Salazar afirma que Jorge @baradit no toma solo lo anecdótico de la historia, sino que detrás hay 'un criterio crítico'" [Gabriel Salazar Affirms That Jorge @baradit Does Not Take Only Anecdotal History, But Behind it There is 'a Critical Criterion'] (Tweet). Retrieved 27 April 2018 – via Twitter.
  17. "Jorge Baradit publicó 'Historia secreta de Chile 2'" [Jorge Baradit Publishes 'Historia secreta de Chile 2'] (in Spanish). Radio Cooperativa. 28 June 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  18. García, Javier (11 August 2017). "Jorge Baradit, escritor: 'Yo quería contar historias y ahora firmo autógrafos'" [Jorge Baradit, Writer: 'I Wanted to Tell Stories and Now I Sign Autographs]. La Tercera Culto (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  19. Rojas, Alberto (5 September 2017). "Jorge Baradit cierra 'Historia secreta de Chile': 'La historia es política, debe ser discutida y revisada constantemente'" [Jorge Baradit Closes 'Historia secreta de Chile': 'History is Politics, Must Be Discussed and Constantly Revised']. El Mercurio (in Spanish). Santiago. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  20. Tobar, Ignacio (13 July 2016). "Baradit defiende el éxito de su nuevo libro" [Baradit Defends the Success of His New Book]. La Hora (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  21. "El auspicioso debut de 'Chile Secreto': Programa de Jorge Baradit se estrenó liderando el rating" [The Auspicious Debut of 'Chile Secreto': Jorge Baradit's Program Premiered Leading the Ratings]. Publimetro (in Spanish). 22 May 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  22. Rojas, Alberto (24 May 2012). "Jorge Baradit retoma el rito de las entregas semanales en su nueva novela" [Jorge Baradit Retakes the Rite of Weekly Deliveries in His New Novel]. El Mercurio (in Spanish). Santiago. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  23. Rojas, Alberto (15 December 2009). "Jorge Baradit regresa con su aplaudido thriller futurista en edición corregida" [Jorge Baradit Returns with His Acclaimed Futuristic Thriller in Corrected Edition]. El Mercurio (in Spanish). Santiago. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
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