Miguel Ángel Asturias

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Miguel Ángel Asturias Rosales (born October 19, 1899 in Guatemala City , † June 9, 1974 in Madrid ) was a Guatemalan writer, poet and diplomat. Asturias was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1967 .

Life

As the son of a judge ( mestizo ) and a Maya Indian, Asturias was able to study medicine, journalism and law in his home country from 1917 . After graduation, he and friends founded an adult education center in 1922 , which was supposed to provide education for the poor. In 1923 he received his doctorate on the social problems of the indigenous people and went to Europe to take up a degree in political economy in London , which he broke off after a few months. Instead, he studied religion and ethnology at the Sorbonne in Paris until 1926 , in particular the pre-Columbian cultures of Latin America, and completed his habilitation on Indian mythology . After finishing his studies he stayed in Paris and made several trips through Europe.

Asturias' grave in the Pere Lachaise cemetery

His first literary publications also fall during this time, such as the book Legends from Guatemala , published in 1930 , which Paul Valéry expressly praised and which he became known worldwide as a word artist and literary discoverer of the Maya world. In 1933 he returned to Guatemala, where he was banned from writing and teaching by the Guatemalan dictator Jorge Ubico . In 1942 he was a member of the Guatemala Congress . After the overthrow of the dictator Jorge Ubico in 1944, he entered the diplomatic service , became a professor of culture attaché at the Guatemalan embassy in Mexico City in 1946 , in Argentina from 1947 and later in El Salvador . During this time he published many works that could not appear under the dictatorship. When the government of President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was overthrown in a coup in Guatemala in 1954 , Asturias resigned from his offices and went into exile in Argentina until 1966.

In 1966, after twelve years, free elections were held in Guatemala again. President-elect Méndez Montenegro reappointed Asturias as diplomat for his country - as ambassador to Paris. In the same year he was honored with the Lenin Peace Prize for 1965 .

In 1967 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his cycle of three novels called the Banana Trilogy .

Asturias is a representative of magical realism in Latin American literature , who uses the myths and legends of the indigenous peoples of his homeland in his work ; especially the Mayans and their main people Quiché . He also addresses the social, political and economic conditions in Latin America, the negative effects of dictatorships and the role of the USA in this region of the world.

Asturias was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

family

From 1971 Asturias' son Rodrigo was a leader of the guerrilla movement Organización Revolucionaria del Pueblo en Armas (ORPA), which fought the Guatemalan military dictatorship. He used the code name "Gaspar Ilom", which he had taken from his father's novel The Maismenschen .

Works (selection)

  • Banana trilogy ("La trilogía de la república de la banana"). Lamuv-Verlag, Göttingen 1991.
  1. Storm. Roman ("Viento fuerte"). 1991, ISBN 3-88977-226-9 .
  2. The green pope. Roman ("El Papa verde"). New edition 2005, ISBN 3-88977-246-3 .
  3. The eyes of the buried. Roman ("Los ojos de los enterrados"). 1991, ISBN 3-88977-255-2 .
  • The bad thief. Roman ("Maladrón"). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1981, ISBN 3-518-01741-1 .
  • Three out of four suns. An essay-short novel-poem-dream ("Tres de cuatro soles"). 1971, Kiepenheuer, Leipzig 1991, ISBN 3-378-00491-6 .
  • Don Niño or The Geography of Dreams. Roman ("El alhajadito"). Luchterhand, Neuwied and Berlin 1969. New edition: Lamuv-Verlag, Göttingen 1994, ISBN 3-88977-362-1 .
  • Mr. President. Novel from Guatemala , 1946, (" El Señor Presidente "). Rotpunktverlag, new edition. Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-85869-386-0 .
  • A country that tastes good. Essays and poems (“Comiendo en Hungría”). Corvina-Verlag, Budapest 1970 (together with Pablo Neruda ).
  • Legends from Guatemala ("Leyendas de Guatemala"). Insel Verlag, Wiesbaden 1960 ( Insel-Bücherei 704/1). exp. Edition: Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1973, ISBN 3-518-01358-0 .
  • The corn people. Roman , 1949, (“Hombres de maíz”). Lamuv-Verlag, Göttingen 1994, ISBN 3-88977-308-7 .
  • The mirror of the Lida Sal. Stories and legends ("El espejo de Lida Sal"). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1983, ISBN 3-518-01720-9 .
  • Weekend in Guatemala. Eight novellas on the overthrow of the Arbenz government in 1954 (“Week-end en Guatemala”). Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-85869-025-2 .

Film adaptations

  • 1983: El Señor Presidente - Director: Manuel Octavio Gómez

Web links

Commons : Miguel Ángel Asturias  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Marcus Kenzler: “A look into the other world: Influences of Latin America on the visual arts” . In: The view into the other world: Influences of Latin America on the visual arts of the GDR, part 1, p. 813 . Lit Verlag, 2012, 984 pp., ISBN 978-3-643-11025-1
  2. ↑ a b c Der Spiegel: NOBEL PRICES / LITERATURE “Magical Element” . In: Der Spiegel from October 23, 1967 .
personal data
SURNAME Asturias, Miguel Ángel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Asturias Rosales, Miguel Ángel (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Guatemalan writer, diplomat, Nobel Prize winner in literature
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Guatemala City
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1974
Place of death Madrid