Born in Buenos Aires in 1939, Raúl Damonte Botana derived his sobriquet Copi from a nickname his grandmother gave him, "copita de nieve," or "little snowflake." At 17, he went into exile in Haiti, Uruguay, and New York before finally settling in Paris, where he was a cartoonist, performer, playwright, and novelist. In his own words, Copi was "an amoral commentator, brilliantly ignorant, who writes about sex with unusual violence." He died of an AIDS-related illness in 1987.