Obituaries - July 25, 1999

Abelardo Diaz Alfaro; Leading Puerto Rican Writer

Abelardo Diaz Alfaro, 82, Puerto Rican writer whose short stories explored Puerto Rican identity. Born in 1916 in Caguas, Diaz Alfaro flunked out of two grade schools before graduating from a third. He became a patriarch of Puerto Rican letters whose stories are required reading in the island’s schools. He won international acclaim with his 1947 collection “Terrazo.” His most famous story was “El Josco” (“The Swarthy One”), about two neighbors who pit a Puerto Rican bull against an American bull in a fight. Like many of his stories, it examined the often painful relationship between the U.S. territory and the United States, which invaded Puerto Rico in 1898. Other stories were comic explorations of the same theme, as in “Santa Clo Va a La Cuchilla” (“Santa Claus Comes to Cuchilla”), written in 1962. In that tale, Santa Claus, sweltering in his red suit, arrives in La Cuchilla, whose rural denizens have no idea what to make of this displaced Yankee icon. When he bellows “Ho, ho, ho!” the children scream, fearing he is the devil. Diaz Alfaro also wrote thousands of skits and stories for Puerto Rico’s government radio and television stations. His television show, “Stories of Don Abelardo,” won many awards. On Thursday at his San Juan home of complications caused by repeated strokes.

Anne Woolliams; Ballet Teacher, Director

Anne Woolliams, 72, a British ballet teacher and director who was instrumental in the success of the Stuttgart Ballet. Born in 1926 in the English coastal town of Folkestone, Woolliams made her professional debut as a dancer with the Russian Opera and Ballet and spent several years touring with the St. James’s Ballet, where she also served as assistant ballet mistress. She taught ballet at the Folkwang School in Essen, Germany, for seven years beginning in 1956. Then, in 1963, she was invited by Director John Cranko to join the Stuttgart Ballet as its ballet mistress, responsible for classes and rehearsals. She mounted Cranko’s ballets in Milan, Italy; Munich, Germany; Stockholm; and Zurich, Switzerland. She also choreographed operas. With Cranko, she established the first school in West Germany to combine ballet instruction with general education, now called the John Cranko School. She became assistant director of the Stuttgart Ballet, and after Cranko’s death in 1973, one of the company’s three co-directors. In 1976, she became the artistic director of the Australian Ballet, where she staged a prizewinning “Swan Lake.” Her last years were spent as a guest teacher at several companies. She also served briefly as artistic director of the ballet at the Vienna State Opera. On July 8 of cancer in Canterbury, England.