Biography

Mario Benedetti was born on September 14, 1920 in Paso de los Toros, Uruguay. He was a writer and actor, known for The Truce (1974), The Dark Side of the Heart (1992) and Dale nomás (1974). He was married to Luz López Alegre and Luz. He died on May 17, 2009 in Montevideo, Uruguay.

In 1973, he joined thousands of other Uruguayans and fled the military dictatorship. He spent 12 years living in exile in Havana, Madrid, Lima, and Buenos Aires.

His readings of his works attracted sell-out crowds in Uruguay.

He was awarded Amnesty International's Golden Flame in 1986. In 1999, he won the Queen Sofia prize for Iberoamerican poetry.

He was a prolific writer of novels, poems, short stories, and plays. His works deal with middle-class life in Uruguay. Many of his poems have been turned into popular songs.

I think the only positive thing that came from Uruguay's dictatorship was the spread of Montevideo natives around the world, and I continued writing about them from my various places of exile.