If I had to choose, in my modest opinion, the most important Argentine writer of all times, I would mention José Ingenieros.
Just as the novelist is the writer who creates fiction, invents we would say, to simplify, the essayist only think.
In his books there is no plot, plot or action.
Ingenieros was applauded and discussed, admired and criticized. But what is certain is that in his brief life of only 48 years he did not go unnoticed.
He loved medicine and graduated as a doctor at the age of 22.
He became interested in politics and also in literature, so much so that he wrote more than 20 books.
He was born in 1877 in Palermo, Italy, as Giuseppe Ingegnieri. He arrives in Buenos Aires at six years of age.
His father emigrated from Italy for ideas – we guessed they would be ideals – opposed to the regime in force there.
And the fruit usually always falls close to the trunk.
And that fruit is little Joseph, – who is no longer Giusseppe – and who undoubtedly inherited the spiritual strength and incorruptible dignity of his father.
At the age of 25, in 1902, Ingenieros published his first book “Psychopathology in Art” where he studied the Psychology of born criminals.
Months later the second book arrives: “Simulation in the Fight for Life”, where he writes that for many men “knowing how to live” is knowing how to “simulate”.
He immediately published “Simulation of Madness.”
And at the age of 36, one of his most important and well-known books emerged from his lucid mind: “The Mediocre Man.”
There, he expresses that society is divided into two parts: those who fight for an ideal, who always win even if they lose, and the hypocrites and servile who always lose even though they sometimes believe they win.
Then comes another fundamental book: “The Moral Forces”.
Ingenieros was an advanced psychiatrist, an eminent sociologist and, above all, a dedicated criminologist.
He acted in politics, in socialism and was co-founder of this party’s newspaper: “La Vanguardia”.
At the age of 25 he disaffiliated from socialism, although almost all his friends, such as Alfredo Palacios and Juan B. Justo, continued to belong to that party.
He dedicated much of his life to teaching and exerted a powerful influence on the youth of his time.
José Ingenieros once wrote:
-“I have studied two degrees simultaneously. That is why I acquired notions of medical-biological sciences, as a doctor and I also studied physical-natural sciences.
I cultivated, for pleasure, the social sciences and became passionate about literature.”
He was a professor of Legal Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine from the ages of 23 to 28.
His talent and dignity brought him adversaries.
Because envy is a tax on success.
He, because of his values, was higher than his colleagues. And those who fly usually brush with their wings those who cannot fly.
The slander hurts him and he decides to settle in Spain, in Madrid.
The year is 1911. He is 34 years old.
He stayed in Europe for three years.
He has married and four children, 3 of them girls, complete his happiness.
He returned to Argentina in 1914.
The First World War is beginning. It is difficult for him to accept it because he is a humanist and knows that in wars, cruelty is almost a duty.
And it arrived on October 31, 1925.
His life fades and he manages to say to his children, on that day of farewell:
-“Live with dignity. Disregard everything, but never dignity.”
And this man could have written this af. Although he did not create it, I consider that it summarizes his thoughts.
It belongs to the Sem. and says:
“Life is a labyrinth. But the enlightened know the way out.”
S. 89
Source: Ambito
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