Sánchez returned to Montevideo acclaimed for the recognition of his works. Despite the success, he was going through moments of economic pressure due to some frustrated endeavors, since many theater companies did not recognize the payment of his royalties. For a dispute over the representation of “Our children“Florencio must have spent a night in the dungeon.
On May 2, 1908 Florencio could not know that he was premiering what would be his last work “A good business”, although he could not attend the appointment, because he was with some workers who had been repressed during Labor Day. In the newspaper “The Human Protest”, He expressed his opinions, while he waited for the law to grant him a pension of 200 pesos to fulfill his dream of traveling to Europe. Florencio was willing to make this trip with or without the support of the government. Eager for the delay and to survive, he had to sell the rights to the few works that were still under his belt.
In April 1908, the project to recognize his literary work was voted on with the support of legislators who shared his literary concerns, such as Ismael Cortinas Peláez, Rodríguez Larreta, and José Enrique Rodó. Even the president himself Claudio Williman He promised to obtain the means for this trip and thus be able to work on his projects. The announcement of the completion of the trip was only made in 1909. At last his dream was fulfilled! The tributes and banquets followed one another to bid farewell to an overwhelmed Florencio. “Now that I have to eat, they give me banquets”, he exclaimed wryly.
On September 25, 1909, he left on the ship “Principe Di Udine” for the old world, with little luggage. Nothing went as planned. Just 30 days after leaving, he was already complaining of his deteriorating health, “wanting to let me live”. Every sputum of blood left him contrite, discouraged. This journey to celebrity turned out to be a road to death.
Florencio Sanchez travel photo.jpg
Yet he fought her, as he always had. He lived those days with intensity. “He sido a little morgan and a little apache …noisy “rasta” porteño, and so soon Don Juan”. He tried to interest directors and actors in his works, he met artists and diplomats. Found again Eduardo Acevedo Diaz, then Ambassador of Uruguay in Rome, and even frequented former President Batlle y Ordóñez, who treated him with friendly deference. However, it all seemed to be in vain, as his health continued to deteriorate.
On October 28, an Italian doctor informed him that his lungs were destroyed, that he had to be admitted to a Swiss sanatorium, which was beyond the reach of his meager finances. The Rosario singer Santiago Devic, a young man whom he had met just a few days before, accompanied him on a pilgrimage to sanatoriums and lodgings, where he was systematically rejected when he saw his sorry state. In the end he was accepted into a charity hospital in Milan. From there he wrote letters to his wife, Catalina Raventós, “Catita”, who was waiting for him in Buenos Aires, and to whom he promised a soon return, prevented from telling him the truth (perhaps, intimately hopeful, or more likely pained to say goodbye).
Centro Cultural Florencio Sanchez Montevideo.jpg
Montevideo.gob.uy
At no time did he waver in his beliefs, and no matter how hard they tried to convert him at every moment, Florencio Sanchez He never gave in to the temptation of eternal salvation, because Florencio had nothing to repent of. His last words were pronounced in the early morning of November 7, 1910: “¿Who said fear, Devic?”He managed to hear his new friend, before closing his eyes forever.
The tuberculosis that devastated him in the last moments of his life also prevented his remains from being immediately transferred to Montevideo. They just arrived on January 21, 1921 to be veiled at the Solís Theater before a crowd of admirers. His ashes were deposited in the National Pantheon.
Florencio Sanchez Periódico.jpg
Miguel Cervantes Virtual Library
The work of Florencio Sanchez It was a painting of Rio de la Plata costumbrismo, an acute observation of the families, their hopes placed on the children (which he did not have), on the son doctor, on the straits of the canillitas (to whom he gave other of his most successful works), in honest people –and those who were not-, the false currency, the tenement house, the eviction, the pichuleo, the downhill ravine and the good business that they did not know.
Florencio Sanchez He was a cultist of verismo and a crude objectivity, vigorous, tragic and, also, comic and acute social criticism that ran through the entire range of emotion, from horror to tenderness, from fear to disappointment. His work transmits a breath of love to humanity, although crossed by “dark waves”, as he said. Emilio Frugoni.
The transience of his life was rich in works that moved and still move crowds, unpretentious, but uncompromising.
Researcher of history and art and author of the Historia Hoy site.
Source From: Ambito
