Miguel Otero Silva

Miguel Otero Silva (October 23, 1908 - August 28, 1985), was a Venezuelan writer, journalist, humorist and politician. Remaining a figure of great reference in Venezuelan literature, his literary and journalistic works were strictly related to the social and political history of Venezuela.

Born in Barcelona, Anzoátegui State, moved to Caracas at very young age, to study in the Liceo Caracas. He applied to the Universidad Central de Venezuela for studies in civil engineering. During this time, takes place his early literary activity, writing for magazines and newspapers, such as Élite and Fantoches, and other universitary publications, besides of incursing in journalism. During the Student’s Week of the year 1928, Otero Silva formed part of a series of protests against the rule of then-president Juan Vicente Gómez (see Generation of 1928); in addition to this, he also became involved in a military plot to overthrow the government. Due to this incident, Otero Silva was forced to get into exile, in Curaçao. There, along with Gustavo Machado, Rafael Urbina López and other Venezuelan expatriates, began preparating an invasion of the country by Falcón State, an operation that resulted unsuccessful in June 1929. During this time, Otero Silva worked on his first novel, Fiebre (Fever), later published in 1939.

By 1930 he had affiliated to the Comintern, having plenty of interest for the Marxist thinking. He was able to return to Venezuela at the death of Gómez in 1935. Regarding the freedom of speech allowed by Gómez’s successor in office, Eleazar López Contreras, Otero Silva began writing humorous poetry in newspapers, with certain political content. Tagged soon as a communist, was expelled once again from the country in 1937. In these years, he went on traveling through Mexico, United States and Colombia. Otero was permitted to return to Venezuela after three years of exile.