Lather, and Nothing Else by: Hernando Tellez

1. Lather, and Nothing Elseby: Hernando Tellez

2. “They kept saying that you would kill me. I came to find out if it was true. But killing’s not easy. Believe me, I know."

3. Hernando Tellez • (b. 1908) • Born and educated in Bogotá, [Columbia] • Téllez entered into the world of journalism early in life • He is primarily identified with having been on the staff of some of Colombia's most popular newspapers and magazines. • It was not until 1950 with the publication of his short-story collection Cenizas al viento, that his name became more widely known. • “His tragicomic tales evidence the keen and extremely sensitive observer of contemporary life and more particularly of the anguishing reality of his native country.”

4. Columbia

5. Hernando Tellez—LaViolencia Columbian Political History Since 1930 • La Violencia originated in an intense political feud between Liberals and Conservatives in the early 1930s and continuing through the years of World War II • The feud had little to do to do with class conflict, foreign ideologies, or other matters outside Colombia. • Authoritative sources estimate that more than 200,000 persons lost their lives in the period between 1946 and 1964 immediately following the turbulent political feud. • The most spectacular aspect of the violence, however, was the extreme cruelty perpetrated on the victims, which has been a topic of continuing study for Colombians. • La Violencia intensified under the regime of Laureano Gómez (1950–53), who attempted to introduce a fascist state. His excesses brought his downfall by military coup—Colombia's first in the 20th century. • General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla assumed the presidency in 1953 and, aided by his daughter, María Eugenia Rojas, began an effort to end La Violencia and to stimulate the economy. Rojas was a populist leader who supported citizens' demands for the redress of grievances against the elite. • Support for Rojas began to collapse when it appeared that he would not be able to fulfill his promises. When he showed reluctance to give up power, and when the economy faltered as a result of a disastrous fall in coffee prices in 1957 he was driven from office by a military junta.

6. Hernando Tellez—LaViolencia

7. Hernando Tellez—LaViolencia

8. Hernando Tellez—LaViolencia

9. Hernando Tellez—LaViolencia

10. Hernando Tellez—LaViolencia

11. Hernando Tellez—LaViolencia

12. Hernando Tellez—LaViolencia

13. ‘La Violencia’ “Colombian writers have striven to explain 'la violencia' - the violence in Colombian history and society. Here, in interviews and extracts, they explore the roots of this violence, and how it influences their writing.”

14. The Institutionalization of La Violencia "We have a very long tradition of the use of violence as the only means to solve conflict. So many conflicts are solved through the use of force and violence. It has become institutionalized. In the case of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil in the 70s and 80s it was the state using the violence. In Colombia, it's almost anybody and everybody. Colombia is the only country in the world that has a completely new social science: violentology, it studies violence" Professor Erna von der Walde, New York University

15. "In Colombia the God of death rules." Author, Fernando Vallejo "The question of 'La Violencia' in Colombia is hard to answer. There have been so many studies of this. I think it's a mixture of a very weak state and some sort of facility about killing; an indifference about feeling for your fellow citizens, but I haven't read a convincing explanation. Some people say it began in the 1940s but it's still there. It happens. It's in the street life in Bogota. I'm totally puzzled, as a foreign observer, what is specific to Colombia and not the rest of Latin America." Professor Jason Wilson, University College London