Luis Andrés Caicedo Estela (September 29, 1951 - March 4, 1977) was a Colombian writer born in Cali, the city in which he spent most of his short life.

In 1964, when he entered third grade, he wrote his first story - "El Silencio" (The Silence). From this moment on, Caicedo wrote several short stories and theatre plays, and started his first novel.

In 1973 Caicedo travelled to the US, and started what is often taken to be his best novel - ¡Que viva la música! . In 1974 he wrote the short story Maternidad, which he himself considered his masterpiece. In the same year, Caicedo published the first edition of the magazine "Ojo al cine" (Eye on cinema). In 1975 the final version of ¡Que viva la música! was ready, and Caicedo gave it out to Colcultura to publish it.

In 1976, the publishing house Crisis, of Buenos Aires, bought the printing rights of ¡Que viva la música!. In this same year Caicedo attempted for the first time to commit suicide. When he was only 25 years old, in March 4 of 1977, Andrés Caicedo died of drug overdose, as he said "life is not worth after 25 years".

His works reflect the violence and the huge problems of the teenagers living in a big city like his native Cali, like drugs, alcohol, and insanity. Despite his early death, he left a great legacy to the Colombian literature.

Main Works

• "Angelitos empantanados"
• "¡Que viva la música!"
• "El atravesado"
• "Los dientes de caperucita"
• "Calibanismo"

External links

• andres_caicedo.page, a detailed site about Caicedo's life and works (in Spanish).