plaything, and the act of writing as a form of beautiful speech. They neglected real life,
and if their stories were splendid, imaginative, humorous and most articulate, they
lacked conflict. Among these younger authors who also write for adults and explore
difficult subjects are Luis Carlos Suárez (Claro de Luna), Eric González Conde and his
saga of La familia Tosco, Ricardo Ortega, the unconventioneal poetess Emma Artiles, and
my own short novels and stories of fairies and witches who break all the rules, such as
Inventarse un Amigo [To Invent a Friend] (1993) and Cuentos y mincuentos ae hadas
[Fairy Tales and Mini Tales] (1991).
Criticism and theoretical studies are inadequate, although Eliseo Diego’s pupil, Alga
Marina Elizagaray has both promoted Cuban books abroad, and more advanced foreign
literature in Cuba. Her books include adaptations of folklore, surveys, essays (En torno a
la literatura infantil, El poder de la literatura para niños y jóvenes) and other works.
Another important critic of the same kind was Waldo González López, who wrote Escribir
para niños y jóvenes. More recently, several young writers have contributed to criticism
and research, either tracing origins or analysing present literature, among them, José
Antonio Gutiérrez, Joel Franz, Sergio Andricaín, Antonio Orlando Rodríguez and myself.
VenezuelaAlthough this country has a wealth of oral literature, a systematic compilation of its
folklore was undertaken only when the Servicio de Investigaciones Folclóricas was
started in 1947 (it was later renamed Instituto de Folclor). The Poet Rafael Olivares
Figueroa gathered an important collection of popular rhymes for children, published in
his Antología infantil de la nueva poesía venezolana (1942), and Folclore Venezolano
(1948). The latter includes two chapters of interest for this discipline: children’s folklore
and mothers’ folklore. Javier Villafañe, an Argentinian writer and puppeteer living in
Venezuela, made the collections Los cuentos de Oliva Torres and La gallina que se volvió
serpiente y otros cuentos que me contaron, among others. However, the first book
specifically edited for children did not come from folklore, it was the didactic Lecciones
de buena crianza, moral y mundo o educación popular, written by Feliciano Montenegro
and printed in Caracas in 1841. Of the same kind, but perhaps more entertaining was El
libro de la infancia (1865), published by Amenodoro Urdaneta.
The first periodicals appeared early in the twentieth century. El Amigo de los Niños
was the more stable and regular, and was followed by Onza, Tigre y León (1938–1949)
and Tricolor, founded at that time and still publishing. El Cohete (1979–1981) was a
periodical that approached children from a fresh angle.
Among successful authors, one of the first was Rafael Rivero Oramas, who compiled
and adapted popular stories that appeared on the radio and in periodicals. In 1965 he
published an adventure novel for children, La danta blanca, and in 1973 El mundo de
Tío Conejo one of the best collections ever made of this character’s exploits. Eduado
Egui included three stories of Tío Tigre and Tío Conejo in his Cuentos para niños, while
Pilar Almoina de Cabrera also uses this character in El camino de Tío Conejo. Other
authors known for their excellent stories, occasionally based on folklore or on
traditional tales are, besides Pilar Almoina (Este era una vez), Lola da Angeli (Los cuentos
878 CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN