Salvador Garmendia; Writer Helped Create ‘Telenovelas’

Salvador Garmendia, 72, a prolific Venezuelan author who helped introduce Latin America’s popular “telenovelas,” or television soap operas, died Sunday in Caracas of complications from cancer and diabetes.

Already famous by the 1970s for his novels of urban life, Garmendia lent his talent to Venezuela’s nascent telenovela industry, writing scripts for months-long dramas that have become a staple in the lives of millions of viewers throughout Latin America.

He also wrote screenplays for the motion pictures “La Gata Borracha” in 1973, “Fiebre” in 1975 and “Juan Tapocho” in 1977.

Garmendia’s best-known novels, for which he earned the National Literature Prize in 1972 and the Juan Rulfo Prize in 1989, include “Los Pequenos Seres,” “Los Habitantes,” “Dia de Ceniza,” “Memorias de Altagracia,” “El Unico Lugar Posible” and the 1988 “Captain Kid.”