Juan Carlos Onetti (Montevideo, 1909-Madrid, 1994) is one of the best exponents of Hispanic letters of the 20th century. Author of stories and novels, his first stage is responsible for works as important as The well (1939), No-man's land (1941), For this night (1943) or La vida breve (1950). Since the publication of the latter, he began to locate his works in Santa María, an imaginary universe through which he established a school in Latin American narrative. Los adioses (1953), The shipyard (1961) or Juntacadáveres (1964) are a good example of his maturity and high literary quality. Exiled in Spain since the mid-seventies, he obtained the Cervantes Prize in 1980 and the recognition of his country with the Grand National Prize for Literature in 1985.