The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

MERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH:
Chow, Napoleón H.

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Descriptive Summary

Record Group: Section A - Correspondence

Dates of materials: 1962-1963

Volume: 5 item(s); 11 pg(s)

Scope and Content

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.

Biography

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).

Usage Guidelines and Restrictions

Related Information and Links

See also letters from Merton to Chow published in The Courage for Truth, pp. 167-171.

Other Finding Aids

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.
   

Series List

This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.

Container List

SeriesDateTypeTo/FromFirst LinesPubFull TextNotes
 1962/12/26 (#01)TL[c]from MertonThank you for your letters and for the copies of the magazines. I particularly like Ventana,Yes 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"
 1962/12/26 (#02)TLS[x]from MertonThank you for your letters and for the copies of the magazines. I particularly like Ventana,Yes 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"
 1963/04/22 TLSto MertonEn 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
 1963/05/14 (#01)TL[c]from MertonI appreciated your long letter very much. You are right, the really significant events of LatinYes 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
 1963/05/14 (#02)TLS[x]from MertonI appreciated your long letter very much. You are right, the really significant events of LatinYes 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"
        

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