Elena Garro (December 11, 1916 – August 22, 1998) was a Mexican screenwriter, journalist, dramaturg, short story writer, and novelist. She has been described as the initiator of the
Magical Realism
Magical is the adjective for magic. It may also refer to:
* Magical (horse) (foaled 2015), Irish Thoroughbred racehorse
* "Magical" (song), released in 1985 by John Parr
* '' Magical: Disney's New Nighttime Spectacular of Magical Celebrations'', ...
movement, though she rejected this affiliation. She is a recipient of the
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize.
Biography
Elena Garro was born in
Puebla
Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...
, Mexico to a Spanish father and a Mexican mother, the third of five children. She spent her childhood 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 ...
but moved to
Iguala
Iguala (), known officially as Iguala de la Independencia, is a historic city located from the List of capitals in Mexico, state capital of Chilpancingo, in the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Mexican state of Guerrero in southwestern Mexico. ...
,
Guerrero
Guerrero is one of the 32 states that comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo and its largest city is Acapulcocopied from article, GuerreroAs of 2020, Guerrero the pop ...
, during the
Cristero War
The Cristero War ( es, Guerra Cristera), also known as the Cristero Rebellion or es, La Cristiada, label=none, italics=no , was a widespread struggle in central and western Mexico from 1 August 1926 to 21 June 1929 in response to the implementa ...
. She studied literature, choreography and theater in the
National Autonomous University of Mexico
The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...
in Mexico City, where she was an active member of Julio Bracho's theatre group. She married
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and ...
in 1937 and began a career in literature and theater. Garro's fiction explored political and social causes related to life in Mexico. Her citizenship status and views on Indian rights aroused controversy in Mexico. According to her biographer, members of Garro's family sympathized with white-supremacy and this influenced her predilection of blond people as more beautiful. After her divorce from Paz in 1959, Garro spent time in seclusion between Mexico City, Madrid and Paris in Europe until moving back to
Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca (; nci-IPA, Cuauhnāhuac, kʷawˈnaːwak "near the woods", ) is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. The city is located around a 90-minute drive south of Mexico City using the Federal Highway 95D.
The na ...
, Mexico in 1994. As a close ally of politician
Carlos Madrazo she was also targeted in a campaign against political dissidents in 1968, and despite her anti-communist and right-wing views she became the object of an anti-communist smear campaign in the aftermath of the
Tlatelolco Massacre
On October 2, 1968 in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City, the Mexican Armed Forces opened fire on a group of unarmed civilians in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas who were protesting the upcoming 1968 Summer Olympics. The Mexican government and ...
.
[Kriza, Elisa. Redefining the Outsider: Anti-Communist Narratives and the Student Massacre in Tlatelolco (1968). In: Gerlach C., Six C. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Anti-Communist Persecutions. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. 2020. p. 213. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54963-3_9]
Bibliography
* ''
Los recuerdos del porvenir'', México, Joaquín Mortiz, 1963, translated as ''Recollections of Things to Come'' by Ruth L. C. Simms.
* ''
Andamos huyendo Lola'', México, Joaquín Mortiz, 1980.
* ''Testimonios sobre Mariana'', México, Grijalbo, 1981.
* ''
Reencuentro de personajes'', México, Grijalbo, 1982,
* ''La casa junto al río''. México, Grijalbo, 1983,
* ''Y Matarazo no llamó...'', México, Grijalbo, 1991.
* ''Inés''. México, Grijalbo, 1995,
* ''Busca mi esquela & Primer amor''. 2. ed. Monterrey, Ediciones Castillo, 1998. (Colección Más allá; 14) , translated as ''First Love & Look for My Obituary: Two Novellas'', and winner of the
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize
* ''Un traje rojo para un duelo''. Monterrey, Ediciones Castillo, 1996,
* ''Un corazón en un bote de basura'', México, Joaquín Mortiz, 1996,
* ''Mi hermanita Magdalena'', Monterrey, Ediciones Castillo, 1998.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garro, Elena
1916 births
1998 deaths
Magic realism writers
Mexican people of Asturian descent
Mexican people of Spanish descent
Mexican women novelists
Mexican dramatists and playwrights
Mexican women short story writers
Mexican short story writers
Women dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Mexican women writers
People from Puebla (city)
20th-century Mexican novelists
20th-century Mexican dramatists and playwrights
20th-century short story writers
Mexican women screenwriters
20th-century Mexican screenwriters