Elena Aldunate


María Elena Aldunate Bezanilla, who wrote under the name Elena Aldunate, was a Chilean journalist and writer.

Early life

The daughter of Arturo Aldunate Phillips, she was born in Santiago. She contributed to newspapers and magazines and also wrote scripts for radio and television. She published her first novel Candia in 1950 and published her first science fiction story "Juana y la cibernética" in 1963.
She helped found the Club Chileno de Ciencia Ficción and served as its vice-president.
Her writing features female main characters and shows the influence of Latin American feminism. Her science fiction writing was inspired by authors Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Hugo Correa. Her later writing was targeted at younger readers.

Selected works

Source:El señor de las mariposas, story collection Del cosmos las quieren vírgenes, novel Angélica y el delfín, collection. The title story received second prize in the "Nueva Dimensión" competition.Cuentos de Elena Aldunate: La dama de la ciencia ficción, collection

Suggested bibliography

  • Arcaya Pizarro, Marcos.
  • Arcaya Pizarro, Marcos. "". En Violencia y discurso en el mundo hispánico: género, cotidianidad y poder. Padilla Libros Editores & Libreros, 2015. p. 217–232.
  • Arcaya Pizarro, Marcos. "". En Itinerarios: revista de estudios lingüisticos, literarios, históricos y antropológicos, 2015, no 21, p. 221–232.
  • Guijarro-Crouch, Mercedes. "Elena Aldunate" en Latin American Science Fiction Writers: An A-to-Z Guide, editado por Darrell B. Lockhart pp. 13–16.
  • Loach, Bárbara. "María Elena Aldunate" en Escritoras chilenas, v. 3., editado por Patricia Rubio. pp. 341–342.