The writer María Kodama, widow of Jorge Luis Borges, died

María Kodama, widow of Jorge Luis Borges and patron of the work of the great Argentine writer, died at the age of 86, confirmed sources close to her. The author of La divisa punzó (Sudamericana) died in Vicente López, after going through health problems that had made it difficult for her to move in recent months.

As a graduate in Literature, she participated in a course in which she met Borges, who is 38 years older, in the ’60s, with whom she began to relate due to their shared interest in Anglo-Saxon languages. From that moment they forged a close relationship, and over time he became their trusted person to the point that in 1988, two years after the death of the author of El Alpeh, he created the Jorge Luis Borges Foundation, from where his seeks to spread the writer’s work in the country and beyond the borders.

Together they signed two books: Brief Anglo-Saxon Anthology, a compilation of the shared passion for English literature, and Atlas, in which the trips made around the world were gathered, in which the impressions of the writer who already suffered from severe blindness were gathered. , along with Kodama’s notes and photographs.

“When they talked to me about handcuffs, I only knew the ones they put on prisoners. I did not want to get married to be a prisoner and even less have children that were going to absorb my whole life”, Kodama had said about her relationship with the writer in an interview with Télam about the appearance of the memoir María Kodama. She slave of freedom.

However, on April 26, 1986, they were married, a few months before the death of Borges, who already resided in Geneva, Switzerland, where he is buried. The marriage was carried out by proxy in Asunción, Paraguay.

In addition, he collaborated with Borges on some works and translations, such as “Brief Anglo-Saxon Anthology” and the travel book “Atlas”, he also wrote his own, such as “Relatos” and “Homage to Borges”.

In 2019, he was the protagonist of a controversy with Alberto Fernández, president of Argentina, when he rejected the initiative to create a “Borges Museum” with manuscripts donated by businessman Alejandro Roemmers. “The writer and businessman Alejandro Roemmers offered me to donate to the Argentine State more than 6,000 books and manuscripts by Jorge Luis Borges from his collection. With this contribution we are going to create the Borges Museum, in homage to the greatest man in letters that our country has ever had, ”wrote the president-elect on his Twitter account.

However, Kodama stated that the books that the businessman intended to provide had been “stolen” from Borges by a domestic employee. After the indictment, Roemmers claimed that he had “supporting documentation” to prove that Borges’ papers were legitimately acquired.

Kodama was born in Buenos Aires in 1937, the daughter of María Antonia Schweizer, of Swiss-German, English and Spanish descent, and the Japanese chemist Yosaburo Kodama.