Jorge Luis Borges

Perhaps one of the best definitions of   Jorge Luis Borges   's work was that of Italo Calvino when he said that his way of seeing the literary universe of the South American writer was built and governed from the intellect.

An anecdote that confirms this appreciation is the story of his friend and journalist Antonio Carrizo in which Borges, when asked about the poem Mythical Foundation of Buenos Aires, confessed to having spent three days to decide between a pink warehouse like tiger palate... or... a warehouse pink as a card backhand. At first, the mythological animal tempted him from the depths of the jungle with his appearance and his gaze; but finally the cry of retrick, the ground floor, the facon and the rush could more and thus the deck of cards became part of the Creole beauty.

However, the perhaps greatest Spanish-speaking writer of the 20th century (but always denied to the Nobel Prize, not because of his works but rather because of his own definition as a conservative anarchist), possesses other facets in his personality, such as his deep irony and sense of humor. It is only enough to know a couple of his very varied anecdotes to realize that Borges was not always serious.

In October 1967, Borges was at the head of his English literature class. A student enters and interrupts him to announce the death of Che Guevara and the immediate suspension of classes to pay tribute to him, to which Borges refuses, saying that the tribute could wait.

- It has to be now and you're leaving.I'm not leaving anything, and if you're so handsome come and take me off the desk. The student threatens to cut off the light and Borges satisfied answers, “I have taken the precaution of being blind waiting for this moment.”

In 1975, at the age of 99, Leonor Acevedo Borges, mother of the writer, died. At the wake a woman gives her condolences to Borges and comments:

- Poor Leoncita! To die so little to be a hundred years old! If I had waited a little longer... to which Borges says, “I see lady that you are devoted to the metric system.