Merton expresses his solidarity with the writers of Nicaragua and expresses the hope he sees in Latin America. This group of letters contains carbon copies of Merton's letters, photocopies of his signed letters, and a signed original from Chow. There seems to be correspondence preceding these that is not extant.
Christine Bochen describes Napoleón Chow as "belong[ing] to the circle of Nicaraguan poets that included Ernesto Cardenal, Pablo Antonio Cuadra, Angel Martinez, José Coronel Urtecho, and others" (Source: The Courage for Truth, pp. 167).
Please click here for general restrictions concerning Merton's correspondence.
See also letters from Merton to Chow published in The Courage for Truth, pp. 167-171.
If the person in correspondence with Merton has full text records in the Merton Center Digital Collections, there will be a numeric link to them below.
This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.
Click icons for links: ✓="Published | Library Record", ✉="Scanned" | 🗷="Scanned, Viewable Only at Merton Center"
# | Date | From/To | First Lines | Pub ✓ | Notes |
| y/m/d | Merton | | Scan ✉ | |
1. |
1962/12/26 (#01) |
TL[c] from Merton |
Thank you for your letters and for the copies of the magazines. I particularly like Ventana, |
✓ |
Ernesto Cardenal / Pablo Antonio Cuadra / Merton's interest in literary movement of Nicaragua - feels closer to movements in Latin America than in U.S. / role of Christian writers and intellectuals - resist "monolithic systems" / U.S. - "powerful and intellectually feeble" - hope in Latin America - "Mater et Magistra"
«detailed view» |
2. |
1962/12/26 (#02) |
TLS[x] from Merton |
Thank you for your letters and for the copies of the magazines. I particularly like Ventana, |
✓ |
Ernesto Cardenal / Pablo Antonio Cuadra / Merton's interest in literary movement of Nicaragua - feels closer to movements in Latin America than in U.S. / role of Christian writers and intellectuals - resist "monolithic systems" / U.S. - "powerful and intellectually feeble" - hope in Latin America - "Mater et Magistra"
«detailed view» |
3. |
1963/04/22 |
TLS to Merton |
En Enero del corriente año recibí su carta con el cuaderno y los poemas. Muchas gracias. Enero |
|
Instituto de Formación Demócrata Cristiana (IFEDEC) / Christian democracy in Latin American and the political philosophy of Jacques Maritain / Marxist and Communist parties / Aristides Calvani / Ernesto Cardenal / Ventana and his social articles leaning Marxist
«detailed view» |
4. |
1963/05/14 (#01) |
TL[c] from Merton |
I appreciated your long letter very much. You are right, the really significant events of Latin |
✓ |
U.S. mass media distortion of Latin America / IFEDEC / Aristides Calvani / Ventana / Cuban revolution - "weakness of Catholic social action" forcing Castro into atheistic communism instead of working with him / protest of the beatniks "largely a delusion" - hope in contributions to peace movement and accepting blacks
«detailed view» |
5. |
1963/05/14 (#02) |
TLS[x] from Merton |
I appreciated your long letter very much. You are right, the really significant events of Latin |
✓ |
U.S. mass media distortion of Latin America / Instituto de Formación Demócrata Cristiana (IFEDEC) / Aristides Calvani / Ventana / Cuban revolution - "weakness of Catholic social action" forcing Castro into atheistic communism instead of working with him / protest of the beatniks "largely a delusion"
«detailed view» |
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