Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC): Patricio Lizama joins the Chilean Academy of Language

The bell rings and the session begins. In a solemn and public ceremony, with a room full of attendees, Patricio Lizama Améstica took possession of seat number 27 of the Chilean Academy of Language . The decision to incorporate the dean of the UC Faculty of Letters to the organization founded in 1885 was made by the full institution and this November 21 it materialized in a session chaired by its board of directors, headed by academic Guillermo Soto.

For Patricio Lizama, this “is a distinction that I receive with joy and responsibility and on behalf of the Faculty of Letters and the Catholic University,” he says. “I wish to contribute to the multiple tasks that the academy develops in the cultural field and, in particular, I hope to favor the dialogue that already exists with researchers and creators of regions”, adds the dean.

The poet, essayist and member of the Chilean Academy of Language, Pedro Lastra , was in charge of giving the welcome speech to the dean of the Faculty of Letters, highlighting his important work in the university academy and in the cultural field of Chili. “It is an honorable opportunity for me to receive at the Chilean Academy of Language an intellectual with such a proven and celebrated career, as is Professor Patricio Lizama Améstica, considered for many years as an influential researcher and teacher, also in our country. as in various circles of Latin American studies”, said the writer. Lizama, meanwhile, read the induction speech “Sara Malvar, an artist from the Chilean avant-garde,” one of the few women in the Spanish-American plastic avant-garde.

“His contributions in the field of literary research have aroused the interest of the academy and this recognition supports his incessant work” – Chancellor Ignacio Sánchez

The academic received his appointment by the board of directors of the Chilean Academy of Language. In the photo, together with the current director of the institution, Guillermo Soto. Image credit: Karina Fuenzalida, Communications Department.
“We receive with joy and pride the news of the incorporation of Patricio Lizama to the Chilean Academy of Language. His performance as an academic, researcher, and dean of the Faculty of Letters has been unanimously recognized and appreciated by the university, faculty, and students. His contributions in the field of literary research have aroused the interest of the academy and this recognition supports his incessant work of him “, declared the rector Ignacio Sánchez.

solid track record
Patricio Lizama is recognized for being an authority in the Spanish-American avant-garde literature of the 20th century, and in the Chilean novel . But he is even more recognized for being an expert in the literature of Juan Emar , the evasive author of Yesterday , One Year , Miltín and the monumental novel in five volumes Threshold .

The academic graduated in 1977 as Professor of Spanish in the Department of Letters of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. In 1990 he earned his Juris Doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook., with an important thesis on the Chilean writer Juan Emar, which deserved a maximum and unanimous distinction. His research, which gathers together and values ​​the early concern for this author in the intermedial artistic order, is at the origin of the extraordinary attention that is currently devoted to this writer and painter, considered today as one of the eminent figures in art. entire Chilean and Spanish-American cultural process. The academic’s research has also been projected in successive publications by and about Emarian work, in colloquiums and exhibitions, up to the organization of the Juan Emar Foundation , aimed at preserving and disseminating his singular legacy.

“Patricio Lizama Améstica (is) considered for many years as an influential researcher and teacher, both in our country and in various circles of Latin American studies” – Pedro Lastra, writer and academic

On this writer, Lizama has published dozens of articles in indexed magazines, as well as book chapters and edited various volumes on this intellectual and other local figures, including: Letters to Guni Pirque. Letters from Juan Emar to Carmen Cuevas (UC Editions, 2010, co-editor); Bibliography and critical anthology of the literary vanguards in Chile (Iberoamericana-Vervuert, 2009, co-editor); Biography and textualities, nature and subjectivity. Essays on the work of María Luisa Bombal (UC Editions, 2015, co-editor); Pedro Lastra. Reading room: notes, prologues and other writings (UC Editions, 2012, editor).


The writer and academic Pedro Lastra was in charge of giving the welcome speech to Patricio Lizama. Image credit: Karina Fuenzalida, Communications Department.
Furthermore, not only the founding presence of Juan Emar stands out in the academic trajectory of Patricio Lizama, but also the researcher’s displayed attention to authors and works, as well as the revaluation of what has characterized creative work in the vast scenario that modernity installed. .

In the last thirty years, Patricio Lizama has had a remarkable and dedicated performance in teaching, without neglecting or postponing at any time his fervor for literary-cultural research, a dedication recognized by the Catholic University in 2011, with his promotion to ownership and then to the Dean of the Faculty of Letters, a position he has held since 2007.