Osvaldo Dragún

Osvaldo Dragún was born in Colonia Berro, a Jewish agricultural settlement, near San Salvador in Entre Ríos Province, Argentina.

The politically charged play, on the 1954 coup d'état against Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz, drew also from the playwright's own childhood memories of his father's struggles with locusts.

[2] He continued to write controversial works for the Fray Mocho, including Historias para ser contadas (Tales to be Told), a series of short plays including Historia del hombre que se convirtió en perro (The Story of the Man Who Turned into a Dog),[3] Tupac Amaru and Milagro en el mercado viejo (Miracle at the Old Market), for which he received the Casa de las Américas Prize in 1962.

[1] He helped establish the Campana Comedy Theatre in 1969 and, six years later, premiered El Jardín del Infierno ("The Garden of Hell") there.

Threats to artistic freedom during the country's last dictatorship were eased somewhat in 1980 with the support of the relatively moderate Army Chief, General Roberto Viola.

Converting a shuttered spark plug factory in the Balvanera district of Buenos Aires to the "Picadero Theatre," they premiered a festival of their collective new works (including Dragún's Mi obelisco y yo - "My Obelisk and Me") to acclaim on July 28, 1981.