Editing Abelardo Díaz Alfaro (section)

== Life and career ==
Díaz Alfaro was born in [[Caguas, Puerto Rico]], but soon after his family moved to [[Ponce, Puerto Rico|Ponce]]. He was the son of Abelardo Díaz Morales, a Baptist minister, and Asunción Alfaro Pratts (Doña Sunchita). His siblings were Abigail, Dalila, Miriam, Priscilla, Raquel, Lydia and Samuel. He returned to Caguas to attend university and married [[Gladys Meaux]], with whom he had two daughters (Dalila and Nanette) and one son (Abelardo).<ref name="SH"/><ref name="NYT">{{cite web |title=Abelardo Diaz Alfaro, 81; Author of Puerto Rican Stories (Published 1999) |website=[[The New York Times]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605001614/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/26/books/abelardo-diaz-alfaro-81-author-of-puerto-rican-stories.html |archive-date=2023-06-05 |url-status=live |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/26/books/abelardo-diaz-alfaro-81-author-of-puerto-rican-stories.html}}</ref><ref name="FNCP">{{Cite web|url=https://prpop.org/biografias/abelardo-diaz-alfaro/|title=Abelardo Díaz Alfaro|publisher=[[National Foundation for Popular Culture]]|location=San Juan, Puerto Rico|language=es}}</ref>

Díaz Alfaro obtained a bachelor's degree in arts at the ''Instituto Politécnico de [[San Germán]]'', which is now known as Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico. He also obtained a title as a social worker, and certificates in Spanish and [[Psychology]].<ref name="NYT"/>

He obtained many honorary doctorates from different universities.

Some of his short stories, like "Peyo Mercé enseña inglés" or "Santa Cló va a la Cuchilla" (in ''[[Terrazo]]'') create a [[Manichaean]] dichotomy between unlearned Puerto Rican peasants and American invaders (portrayed through the mandatory teaching of the English language in Puerto Rico). Thus, a praise of layman culture is expressed throughout his short stories. The metaphor of weak or feminine Americans versus uneducated but brave Puerto Ricans is taken later by other writers like [[Ana Lydia Vega]].<ref name="SH"/>

He presented at conferences in many parts of Latin America after reaching fame, including in Mexico (at the ''Ateneo Español''), [[Venezuela]] and many other countries. His books have been translated into English, Polish, Russian, German, French, Italian and Czech, among other languages.<ref name="NYT"/>