Jorge Luis Borges was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on August 24, 1899. The Borges family lived in Palermo, a neighbourhood at the outskirts of Buenos Aires which was a lower-class suburb historically famous for its cabarets, whorehouses, tango dancers and knife-fights among the compadritos or hoodlums. By the time Borges lived there, the neighbourhood had become less violent but the influence of these characters remained in his works. His father, Jorge Guillermo Borges, was a lawyer and a psychology teacher; his mother, Leonor Acevedo de Borges was a descendent of soldiers, so she kept her house ornamented with family artefacts such as swords, uniforms and portraits of great freedom fighters. Borges’ parents spoke and rea

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First published 15 July 2002

Citation: Pina, Gerardo. "Jorge Luis Borges". The Literary Encyclopedia. 15 July 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5127, accessed 9 February 2010.]