Carlos Montemayor

Carlos Montemayor in 2009.

Carlos Montemayor (born June 13, 1947 in Parral (Chihuahua) , Mexico , † February 28, 2010 in Mexico City ; pseudonym: MO Mortenay ) was a Mexican writer , poet , translator and singer .

Life

Carlos Montemayor grew up in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, in the city of Parral. After graduating from high school, he moved to the capital Mexico and received a legal education at the National Autonomous University of Mexico , which he supplemented with a study of Ibero-American literature. At the same time he studied at the Colegio de México with Hebrew , turned to the classical and modern Greek , Latin and the French , Portuguese , Italian and English to. From 1974 he worked as a literature professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana , Unidad Azcapotzalco, in the capital and since 1985 a corresponding member of the Mexican Language Academy.

He died of cancer on February 28, 2010.

Services

Carlos Montemayor tried to reconcile social issues with aesthetic demands in his literary work. His life's work covers very different areas of interest, all of which were very important to him. This includes his literary work, his preoccupation with the classical ancient authors, but also his commitment to and promotion of contemporary Mexican indigenous literature. As a journalist, he published critical comments on current affairs in the country's most important daily newspapers and magazines. As a socially committed artist, he dealt with the uprising of the Zapatistas in the state of Chiapas and was most recently in the arbitration commission between the government and the Partido Democrático Popular Revolucionario - Ejército Popular Revolucionario (PDPR-EPR), which sought the whereabouts of two disappeared political activists .

Prizes and awards (selection)

• Xavier Villaurrutia Prize for Las llaves de Urgell 1971
• Tomás Valles Vivar Prize of the State of Chihuahua for the complete work in 1985
• Narrative award from the State of Colima for Guerra en el Paraíso (German: War in Paradise , transl. Georg Oswald) 1991
• Yucatán State Prize for Science and Art 1993
• International Juan Rulfo Prize for Storytelling for Operativo en el trópico o el Árbol de la vida de Stephen Mariner , Paris, Radio Francia International 1993
• Honorary doctorate from Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana 1995
• Mexican State Prize for Language and Literature 2009

Works

Poetry (selection)

• Las armas del viento Hiperión, México (1977)
• Finisterra Premiá, México (1982)
• Poesía (1977–1996) Editorial Aldus, México (1997)
• Los poemas de Tsin Pau Conaculta u. a. Chihuahua, México (2007)

Narratives (selection)

• Las llaves de Urgell Siglo XXI, México (1971)
• Operativo en el trópico o el Árbol de la vida de Stephen Mariner Editorial Aldus, México (1994)
• Los cuentos gnósticos de MO Mortenay México, Seix Barral (1997)
• Nora in the German translation by Verena Teissl . In: VT (ed.): In the hot throat of the night. Fantastic stories from Mexico. Publishing house for social criticism, Vienna 1995

Novels

• Mal de piedra Premiá, México 1980
• Minas del Retorno Premiá, México 1981 and Argos-Vergara, Barcelona 1982
• Guerra en el Paraíso Editorial Diana México, 1991; Seix Barral again, 1997
  • German war in paradise . Translated by Georg Oswald, Libertarian Association, Hamburg 1998
• Los informes secretos Ed. Joaquín Mortiz, México 1999
• Las armas del alba Ed. Joaquin Mortiz, México 2003
• La fuga Fondo de Cultura Económica, México 2007
• Las mujeres del alba Mondadori, México 2010

Chronicles

• Chiapas, la rebelión indígena de México Ed. Joaquín Mortiz (1998)
• Juan López, the "Indian King" In: Crossings . Literary texts on both Americas. Edited by Bernhard Widder and Rainer Vesely. Ritter Verlag, Klagenfurt (2001) pp. 275–308 (This is the German translation of the 6th chapter by Chiapas, la rebelión indígena de México )
• La guerilla recurrente Ciudad Juárez, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (1999)
• Los pueblos indios de México hoy Ed. Planeta, México (2001)
• La violencia de estado en México. Antes y después de 1968 Ed. Debate, México (2010)

Essays and anthologies on indigenous literature (selection)

• Encuentros en Oaxaca Ed. Aldus, México (1995)
• El cuento indígena de tradición oral. Notas sobre sus fuentes y clasificaciones . CIESAS, IOC, Oaxaca (1996)
• Arte y trama en el cuento indígena Fondo de Cultura Económica, México (1998)
• Arte y plegaria en las lenguas indígenas de México Fondo de Cultura Económica, México (1999)
• Los tarahumaras. Pueblo de estrellas and barrancas Ed. Aldus, México (1999)
• Palabras de los Seres Verdaderos / Words of the True Peoples. Anthology of Contemporary Mexican indigenous-language Writers together with Donald Frischmann. Austin: University of Texas Press (2004-2007) Vol. 1: Prose, Vol. 2: Poetry, Vol. 3: Theater
• La voz profunda. Anthología de la literatura mexicana en lenguas indígenas Ed. Joaquín Mortiz (2004)

music

• El último romantico Globalklassics GECDI4265 (2001)
• Canciones Italianas Ediciones Pentagrama (2008)
• Canciones de María Grever Ediciones Pentagrama (2008)
• Zarzuela y Cantos de España Ediciones Pentagrama (2010)
• Concierto Mexicano Ediciones Pentagrama (2010)

literature

• Helen Anderson: A propósito de la narrativa de Carlos Montemayor. UNAM, México 1999, ISBN 968-36-7811-4 , pp. 7-54.
• Georg Oswald: A translator's journey, following the original. In: crossings. Literary texts on both Americas. Edited by Bernhard Widder and Rainer Vesely. Ritter Verlag, Klagenfurt (2001) pp. 141–152.

Web links

• Chronicler of underground Mexico , accessed March 28, 2011
• Video with Carlos Montemayor on indigenous literature (Spanish), accessed March 28, 2011
• Interview with Carlos Montemayor about guerrillas, indigenous movements and the ancient Greeks (in German), accessed on May 25, 2011

notes

1. ↑ Article by the translator from the EXTRA Lexicon of the Wiener Zeitung : In search of Lucio Cabañas. Visit to the setting of the Mexican novel "War in Paradise" , December 10, 1999