Alí Chumacero Lora (9 July 1918 – 22 October 2010) was a Mexican poet, translator, literary critic and editor. He was a member of the

Mexican Academy of Language The Academia Mexicana de la Lengua (variously translated as the Mexican Academy of Language, the Mexican Academy of the Language, the Mexican Academy of Letters, or glossed as the Mexican Academy of the Spanish Language; acronym AML) is the Assoc ...

Biography

Alí Chumacero Lora was born on July 9, 1918, in

Acaponeta Acaponeta is both a municipality and a town in the northern part of the Mexican state of Nayarit. The town is located at the geographical coordinates of . The population of the municipality was 34,665 in the 2005 census, living in a total area of ...

, state of

Nayarit Nayarit (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit), is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its ...

, Mexico. His family moved to Guadalajara, where Chumacero studied from primary school to high school. In 1937 he went to Mexico City planning to study Philosophy and Literature at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), but he could not immediately enroll due to having failed some courses in high school. He was living with an aunt and sharing a room with four people, and used the time to read and explore the city. In 1940, while studying at the university, he founded the magazine ''Tierra Nueva'', along with Jorge González Durán,

Leopoldo Zea Leopoldo Zea Aguilar (June 30, 1912 – June 8, 2004) was a Mexican philosopher. Biography Zea was born in Mexico City. One of the integral Latin Americanism thinkers in history, Zea became famous thanks to his master's thesis, ''El Positivism ...

y José Luis Martínez, which was in circulation until 1942. In this publication the authors sought to balance the spontaneity of modern literature with the rigor of academic literary studies. He married in 1949 with Lourdes Gómez Luna and the couple had five children. He died in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

from pneumonia in 2010, aged 92.

Career

Between 1952-53, Chumacero received scholarships for the Colegio de México and for the Mexican Center of Writers. He became a member of the Mexican Academy of Language in 1964. He was a director of the

Fondo de Cultura Económica Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE or simply "Fondo") is a Spanish language, non-profit publishing group, partly funded by the Mexican government. It is based in Mexico but it has subsidiaries throughout the Spanish-speaking world. It was founded in ...

. He worked as an editor of various publications, starting as joint editor of ''Tierra Nueva'' magazine from 1940–42 and going on to edit ''Letras de México,'' ''El Hijo Pródigo'' and ''La cultura en México'' (a cultural supplement to the Mexican newspapers '' Novedades'' and ''Ovaciones'').

Works

Chumacero's works include: *''Desert of Dreams'' (Páramo de sueños) (1944) *''Exiled Images'' (Imágenes desterradas) (1948) *''Words in Rest'' (Palabras en reposo) (1956) *''The critical moments'' (Los momentos críticos)

Awards and recognition

Xavier Villaurrutia Award The Xavier Villaurrutia Award (Premio Xavier Villaurrutia) is a prestigious literary prize given in Mexico, to a Latin American writer published in Mexico. Founded in 1955, it was named in memory of Xavier Villaurrutia. Multiple awards have been gi ...

(1984) *

Alfonso Reyes International Prize The Alfonso Reyes International Prize is a Mexican award given for meritorious lifetime contributions to literary research and criticism. It was founded in 1972 by the economist turned author/critic, Francisco Zendejas and was named in honor of Alf ...

(1986) * National Art and Sciences Award (Linguistics and Literature) (1987) * Medalla

Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor The Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor (Spanish: ''Medalla de Honor "Belisario Domínguez" del Senado de la República'') is the highest award bestowed by the Mexican Senate. It forms part of the Mexican Honors System and is currently Mexico's ...

from the

Mexican Senate The Senate of the Republic, ( es, Senado de la República) constitutionally Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union ( es, Cámara de Senadores del H. Congreso de la Unión), is the upper house of Mexico's bicameral Congres ...

(1996) In 2008 he received a homage in the

Palacio de Bellas Artes The Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) is a prominent cultural center in Mexico City. It has hosted notable events in music, dance, theatre, opera and literature in Mexico and has held important exhibitions of painting, sculpture and p ...

on the occasion of his 90th birthday, attended by some of his friends such as

Carlos Montemayor Carlos Montemayor (June 13, 1947 in Parral, Chihuahua – February 28, 2010 in Mexico City) was a Mexican novelist, poet, essayist, literary critic, tenor, political analyst, and promoter of contemporary literature written in indigenous language ...

, and

Eduardo Lizalde Eduardo Lizalde Chávez (14 July 1929 – 25 May 2022) was a Mexican poet, academic and administrator. Lizalde was known as "El Tigre" for recurring themes in his work which stem from his childhood fondness for the stories of Salgari and Kipling ...

. The Ali Chumacero People's Theater was inaugurated in 1987 in Tepic, and is the most important cultural venue in the state of Nayarit.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chumacero, Ali 1918 births 2010 deaths Mexican male poets Writers from Nayarit Members of the Mexican Academy of Language Deaths from pneumonia in Mexico 20th-century Mexican poets 20th-century Mexican male writers