Sandro Chiri and La Casa de Cartón Magazine
Sandro Chiri joined poetry, criticism, teaching, and persistent editorial work to create a meeting place for Peruvian literary voices.
- Sandro Chiri
- Peruvian poetry
- literary magazines
Alberto Sandro Chiri Jaime, born in Callao on April 5, 1958, is a Peruvian poet, critic, editor, and teacher. His name is closely linked to La Casa de Cartón, a magazine founded in 1980 that opened space for new writing and sustained dialogue among literature, criticism, and art.
Education and the 1980s generation
Chiri studied literature at the National University of San Marcos, then earned graduate degrees in Hispanic American literature at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he also taught. His work belongs to a diverse Peruvian literary generation shaped by social upheaval and aesthetic experimentation.
Building a magazine
The first issue appeared in February 1980 within San Marcos student culture. Its title honors Martín Adán’s avant-garde novel. Editing required selection, correction, design, financing, printing, and distribution; continuity depended on management as much as intellectual vision.
Video: Origins and first stage
In the first part of this Spanish interview, Chiri reconstructs the friendships, obstacles, and decisions that made the publication possible.
A laboratory for literary life
The magazine published poetry, stories, criticism, visual art, and conversations by established and emerging contributors. Literary periodicals capture debate before it reaches books, identify changing sensibilities, and preserve the intellectual weather of a particular moment.
Video: Editorial continuity
The second Spanish installment follows later phases and shows that independence requires adaptation without abandoning judgment.
Chiri’s poetry
His books include El libro del mal amor y otros poemas, Y si después de tantas palabras, Viñetas, and Poemas de Filadelfia. Love, death, travel, memory, and literary tradition cross a life lived between Peru and the United States.
The legacy of La Casa de Cartón
Chiri contributed through writing, research, teaching, and editing. The magazine’s durable lesson is that editing creates community: each issue connects writers and readers, preserves a conversation, and gives material support to voices entering public culture.