ISAACS, JORGE

ISAACS, JORGE (1837–1895). Colombian novelist and poet. The son of a converted English Jew and a Colombian mother, Isaacs was born in Cali and educated as a Catholic; in 1868 he became a Freemason; he nevertheless assumed what he defined as his "racial" Jewish identity. After publishing a collection of poems (1864), he won instant fame with his novel María (1867), a tragic love story in which the partial Jewishness of the main characters plays an important role. The novel became a classic of Latin American literature; it was translated into many languages and an English version by Rollo Ogden appeared in 1890. Some of his poems, such as "La tierra de Córdoba" ("The land of Cordoba"), "A Cali" ("To Cali") and "Río Moro" ("Moro River"), contain allusions to his Jewish origins. Isaacs subsequently entered politics and became a Colombian diplomat, but achieved no further distinction as a writer. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Carvajal, Vida y pasión de Jorge Isaacs   (1937). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Alegría, Breve historia de la novela hispano-americana (1959). G. Arciniegas, Genio y figura de Jorge Isaacs (1967); J.S. Brushwood, Genteel Barbarism: Experiments in Analysis of 19th Century Spanish American Novels (1981); F.F. Goldberg, Judaica Latinoamericana 3 (1997); I. Goldberg, "Jewish Writers in South America," in: The Menorah Journal, 11:5, 1925; P. Gómez Valderrama, Jorge Isaacs (1989); D.B. Lockhart, Jewish Writers of Latin America. A Dictionary (1997); D. Sommer, Foundational Fictions. The National Romances of Latin America (1991). (Kenneth R. Scholberg / Florinda F. Goldberg (2nd ed.)