"Manrique's voice is wise, brave, and wholly original. This chronicle of self- discovery and literary encounters is heartening and deep."-Kennedy Fraser

"In this charmingly indiscreet memoir, Jaime Manrique writes with his customary humor and warm sympathy, engaging our delighted interest on every page. He has the rare gift of invoking and inviting intimacy, in this case a triangulated intimacy between himself, his readers, and his memories. These are rich double portraits."-Phillip Lopate

Jaime Manrique, one of the leading Latino writers working today, offers a provocative autobiography interweaving his own story with the lives of three other gay Hispanic authors: the Argentine Manuel Puig; Reinaldo Arenas, originally from Cuba; and Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garca Lorca. The result is a poetic, moving memoir that has much to say about literature, sexuality, and Hispanic culture, as well as about four of contemporary literature's leading writers.

As one of those writers, Manrique chronicles his own intellectual and emotional journey to becoming an author. Through the account of his early years in Colombia, he provides a candid glimpse of what it means to grow up gay in Latin America. Other surprises abound-from revelations about the last days of Arenas and Puig, to new details about Lorca's emotional life.

Colombian-born writer Jaime Manrique interweaves his own life story with the lives of three other gay Hispanic writers: the Argentinian Manuel Puig, Cuban-born Reinaldo Arenas, and Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca. A friend of both Puig and Arenas, Manrique also draws on his interviews with friends of Lorca (who was killed in Spain in 1936) to provide warmly sympathetic portrait of men who lived and wrote from the perspective of exiles and outcasts, both for their sexuality and for their politics.

Manrique's autobiographical writing is fascinating. He describes his childhood in Colombia, his emigration to the United States, and his "births" as both a writer and a gay man. Particularly powerful is his memoir of learning how to read; for him, awakening to the power of literacy was a life-changing revelation: "I felt as Balboa must have felt when he first glimpsed the Pacific."

Manrique knew both Arenas and Puig personally, and he writes with tenderness and insight of the last days of these two great writers. In his chapter on Lorca, he "reconstructs" a portrait of the man and the artist through second-hand accounts and through readings of Lorca's own fascinating writings.

Manrique describes Arenas, Lorca, and Puig as "the great triumvirate of openly homosexual writers who have written in Spanish." Reading his reclamation of these three writers as his literary forbears, I was reminded of the work done by African-American writer Alice Walker to recover Zora Neale Hurston as a black literary foremother. Like Walker, Manrique honors those whose revolutionary literature continues to inspire new generations of writers.

Ultimately, Manrique expresses solidarity with and compassion for all who have suffered dispossession or persecution due to the prejudice of an entrenched status quo. I recommend "Eminent Maricones" to those interested in Latin American and pan-Hispanic studies, gay literature, and contemporary autobiography.


Inspiring and well-written   December 27, 1999
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Jaime Manrique writes clearly and with precision about himself and the three authors he joins with himself as "eminent maricones." I found this book to be very enjoyable and educational. I was familiar with all of these authors, and now feel closer to each of them. I hope that this book will be read by Latin Americans who like to read; by North Americans interested in Hispanic-American culture; by gay activists interested in our history and the coming-out process.


A deceptively simple, tender set of diary excerpts   November 26, 1999
 5 out of 21 found this review helpful

Emminent Maricones is a treasure. It is rare that a writer of Manrique's skill takes the time to lovingly explore the very human side of the lives and literary contributions of fellow writers. This is not a an irreverant comparison of whether or not Puig, Lorca, and Arenas were able to write well BECAUSE they were gay but how perhaps their perception and world view was more acute because of their sexuality. I found it irresistable and read through this little jewel of a book twice in one sitting, the next logical step being to return to the recommended books Manrique thoughtfully suggests!


An Insightful Peek at the Masters via Masterly Prose   November 9, 1999
 2 out of 3 found this review helpful

Simply stated, I learned plenty about these great literary heroes. Manrique does not pretend to know everything, but he has much to share in this touching memoir about his encounters with Lorca, Puig and Arenas. I commend Manrique for showing us how human--vulnerable and flawed--these men were. Grounded in a prose that is unpretentious and generous with glimpses of writers at their best and at their worst, this is a must for any collector of Lorca, Puig or Arenas scholarship.