Mario Santiago Papasquiaro

Mario Santiago Papasquiaro (1953-1998) is the pseudonym of José Alfredo Zendejas Pineda, the poet immortalized as Ulises Lima in Roberto Bolaño's novel The Savage Detectives. Born in Mexico City, Santiago came of age during a period of acute political repression, artistic censorship, and violations of academic autonomy that culminated in the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre, in which hundreds of student protesters and bystanders were killed or injured, and over a thousand were arrested. Over the years, Santiago's poems trickled out in small infrarealist magazines and anthologies. In the mid-nineties, he released the only two books to be published during his lifetime, Beso eterno [Eternal Kiss] (1995) and Aullido de cisne [Swan's Howl] (1996), both under his own imprint, Al Este del paraíso [East of Eden]. At the time of his death in 1998, he left behind over 1,500 poems.