Guatemalan Literature
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Guatemalan Literature
Guatemalan literature is literature written by Guatemalan authors, whether in the indigenous languages present in the country or in Spanish. Though there was likely literature in Guatemala before the arrival of the Spanish, all the texts that exist today were written after their arrival. Literature in Mayan languages The Popol Vuh is the most significant work of Guatemalan literature in the Quiché language, and one of the most important of Pre-Columbian American literature. It is a compendium of Mayan stories and legends, aimed to preserve Mayan traditions. The first known version of this text dates from the 16th century and is written in Quiché transcribed in Latin characters. It was translated into Spanish by the Dominican priest Francisco Ximénez in the beginning of the 18th century. Due to its combination of historical, mythical, and religious elements, it has been called the Mayan Bible. It is a vital document for understanding the culture of pre-Columbian America. The Ra ...
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Popol Vuh
''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popol Wuj'' or ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people, one of the Maya peoples, who inhabit Guatemala and the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, as well as areas of Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. The ''Popol Vuh'' is a foundational sacred narrative of the Kʼicheʼ people from long before the Spanish conquest of the Maya. It includes the Mayan creation myth, the exploits of the Maya Hero Twins, Hero Twins Hunahpú and Xbalanqué, and a chronicle of the Kʼicheʼ people. The name "Popol Vuh" translates as "Book of the Community" or "Book of Counsel" (literally "Book that pertains to the mat", since a woven mat was used as a royal throne in ancient Kʼicheʼ society and symbolised the unity of the community). It was originally preserved through oral tradition until approximately 1550, when it was recorded in writing. The documentation of the ''Popol Vuh'' is credited ...
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Rafael Antonio Castellanos
Rafael Antonio Castellanos (c. 1725–1791) was a Guatemalan classical composer. His style is that of the late Spanish baroque, pre-classical, and classical periods, with frequent reference to Guatemalan folk music idioms. Life From an early age, Castellanos trained as an apprentice under his uncle Manuel José de Quirós, chapelmaster of the cathedral of Santiago de Guatemala. In 1740, the young Rafael signed a composition for voice and basso continuo, on the Latin text of the Second Lamentation of Jeremiah. This piece reflects his mastery of baroque writing and an unusual expressive talent. In 1745 he became a journeyman and was admitted as a member of the cathedral orchestra as first violin, sometimes also playing harp. During the 1750s he produced various of his own compositions for the matins services, along with those of his uncle. When Quirós died in 1765, Castellanos was appointed his successor as chapel master, with the duties of conducting cathedral music during matins ...
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El Señor Presidente
(''Mister President'') is a 1946 novel written in Spanish by Nobel Prize-winning Guatemalan writer and diplomat Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899–1974). A landmark text in Latin American literature, explores the nature of political dictatorship and its effects on society. Asturias makes early use of a literary technique now known as magic realism. One of the most notable works of the dictator novel genre, developed from an earlier Asturias short story, written to protest social injustice in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in the author's home town. Although does not explicitly identify its setting as early twentieth-century Guatemala, the novel's title character was inspired by the 1898–1920 presidency of Manuel Estrada Cabrera. Asturias began writing the novel in the 1920s and finished it in 1933, but the strict censorship policies of Guatemalan dictatorial governments delayed its publication for thirteen years. The character of the President rarely appears ...
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Miguel Ángel Asturias
Miguel Ángel Asturias Rosales (; October 19, 1899 – June 9, 1974) was a Nobel Prize-winning Guatemalan poet-diplomat, novelist, playwright and journalist. Asturias helped establish Latin American literature's contribution to mainstream Western culture, and at the same time drew attention to the importance of indigenous cultures, especially those of his native Guatemala. Asturias was born and raised in Guatemala though he lived a significant part of his adult life abroad. He first lived in Paris in the 1920s where he studied ethnology. Some scholars view him as the first Latin American novelist to show how the study of anthropology and linguistics could affect the writing of literature.Royano Gutiérrez, 1993 While in Paris, Asturias also associated with the Surrealist movement, and he is credited with introducing many features of modernist style into Latin American letters. In this way, he is an important precursor of the Latin American Boom of the 1960s and 1970s. One of ...
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Enrique Gómez Carrillo
Enrique Gómez Carrillo (February 27, 1873 in Guatemala City – November 29, 1927 in Paris) was a Guatemalan literary critic, writer, journalist and diplomat, and the second husband of the Salvadoran-French writer and artist Consuelo Suncin de Sandoval-Cardenas, later Consuelo Suncin, comtesse de Saint Exupéry, who in turn was his third wife; he had been previously married to intellectual Aurora Caceres and Spanish actress Raquel Meller. He also became famous for his travels, chronicles, bohemian lifestyle and his notorious numerous love affairs. At one point he was falsely accused of being the one that betrayed Mata Hari and gave the famous German spy to the French during World War I. Biography In 1891 Gómez Carrillo won a scholarship to study in Spain, from then President of Guatemala Manuel Lisandro Barillas. Before moving there, he went to Paris, where he met several writers, such as Paul Verlaine, Moréas and Leconte de Lisle. He subsequently moved to France in ...
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María Cruz (poet)
Maria Cruz or Marie Cruz may refer to: * María Ruiz Cruz (born 1980), Spanish actress * María Patricia Franco Cruz, Mexican politician * María Carolina Santa Cruz, Argentine swimmer * Sacheen Littlefeather (Marie Louise Cruz, 1946–2022), Native American activist See also * Mari Cruz Díaz (born 1969), Spanish race walker * María Cruz González (born 1971), Spanish field hockey player * María de la Cruz Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...
(1912–1995), Chilean political activist {{hndis, Cruz, Maria ...
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Máximo Soto Hall
Máximo Soto Hall was an early 20th century Guatemalan novelist. He is most known for his 1899 novel ''El problema'', though he is recognized in Central America for the whole of his literary output. He was born in Guatemala City in 1871, and served in the dictatorship of Manuel Estrada (whose government served as a model for Miguel Ángel Asturias' novel ''El Señor Presidente'') until 1919, at which time he emigrated to Costa Rica, and then to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he served as a journalist for the newspaper ''La Prensa''. He died in 1944 in Buenos Aires and his body is interred in the San Lázaro cemetery in Antigua Guatemala. Many of his novels, including ''El problema'' and ''La sombra de la Casa Blanca'', concern the presence and influence of the United States in Central America. ''La sombra'' was published by El Ateneo in Buenos Aires. His works traverse a great number of literary traditions, including Modernismo and the historical novel, the latter influenced by his ...
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Domingo Estrada
Domingo may refer to: People *Domingo (name), a Spanish name and list of people with that name *Domingo (producer) (born 1970), American hip-hop producer *Saint Dominic (1170–1221), Castilian Catholic priest, founder of the Friars popularly called the Dominicans Music Albums * ''Domingo'' (Benny Golson album), 1992 album by jazz saxophonist/composer Benny Golson * ''Domingo'' (Gal Costa and Caetano Veloso album), an album by Brazilian artists Caetano Veloso and Gal Costa * ''Domingo'' (Titãs album), a 1995 album by Brazilian band Titãs Songs * "Domingo" (song), the title song from Titãs' album *"Domingo", a song by Yello on their album ''Stella'' Other uses *Subaru Domingo, the Japanese market name for the Subaru Sumo *Sunday, the first day of the week called ''Domingo'', in Spanish and Portuguese See also * *San Domingo (other) *Santo Domingo (other) *Dominic *Domingos (name) Domingos is the name of: People Surnamed * Afonso Domingos * André Do ...
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Rubén Darío
Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (January 18, 1867 – February 6, 1916), known as Rubén Darío ( , ), was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-language literary movement known as ''modernismo'' (modernism) that flourished at the end of the 19th century. Darío had a great and lasting influence on 20th-century Spanish-language literature and journalism. He has been praised as the "Prince of Castilian Letters" and undisputed father of the ''modernismo'' literary movement. Life His parents, Manuel García and Rosa Sarmiento were married on April 26, 1866, in León, Nicaragua, after obtaining the necessary ecclesiastic permissions since they were second degree cousins. However, Manuel's conduct of allegedly engaging in excessive consumption of alcohol prompted Rosa to abandon her conjugal home and flee to the city of Metapa (modern Ciudad Darío) in Matagalpa where she gave birth to Félix Rubén. The couple made up and Rosa even gave birth to a second child, a daughter nam ...
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José Batres Montúfar
José Batres Montúfar (1809–1844) was a Guatemalan poet, politician, engineer and military figure. Monument In 1852, Juan Matheu and Manuel Francisco Pavón Aycinena presented Rafael Carrera with a plan to build a majestic National Theater, that would be called Carrera Theater in his honor. Once approved, Carrera commissioned Matheu himself and Miguel Ruiz de Santisteban to build the theater. Initially it was in charge of engineer Miguel Rivera Maestre, but he quit after a few months and was replaced by German expert José Beckers, who built the Greek façades and added a lobby. This was the first monumental building ever built in the Republican era of Guatemala, given that in the 1850s the country finally was enjoying some peace and prosperity. Appleton's Guide to México and Guatemala of 1884 describes the theater as follows: «In the middle of the square is the Theater, similar in size and elegance to any of the rest of Spanish America. Lines of orange trees an ...
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María Josefa García Granados
María Josefa García Granados y Zavala (10 July 1796 - 28 July 1848) was a Guatemalan intellectual, writer, journalist and poet of Spanish origin, and one of the greatest intellectual exponents of the independence of Guatemala in 1821. She was also a feminist ahead of her time, who with her strong and dominant character prevailed in Guatemalan society. She was the sister of General Miguel García Granados, who was the first liberal president of Guatemala, and Adelaida García Granados, who was tutor of Petrona Álvarez, wife of General Rafael Carrera, lifelong conservative president of Guatemala. As his family was part of the Aycinena clan, they suffered exile and dispossession of their property by Francisco Morazán in 1829. Biography María Josefa García Granados was born in El Puerto de Santa María, Spain. She came from an aristocratic family who had traveled to Spain, but decided to return to Guatemala, after the French invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. Her penchant for ...
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Antonio José De Irisarri
Antonio José de Irisarri Alonso (; February 7, 1786 – June 10, 1868), was a Guatemalan statesman, journalist, and politician who served as Interim Supreme Director of Chile in 1814. He is considered one of the fathers of Chilean journalism together with Fr. Camilo Henríquez. Irisarri was born in Guatemala City, the son of Juan Bautista de Irisarri and of María de la Paz Alonso. He studied in his native city and in Europe, from whence he was recalled back to his home after the death of his father in 1805. In 1809 he visited Chile, and having married Mercedes Trucíos y Larraín, an heiress there, took up his residence in that country and joined with enthusiasm the movement for independence in 1810. He had charge of important public offices during the struggle for liberty, including the command of the National guard and the civil and military government of the province of Santiago, and from March 7 to 14, 1814, he was temporarily in charge of the supreme direction of the n ...
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