Gustavo Álvarez Gardeazábal (born 31 October 1945) is a Colombian writer, and politician. He attended the

University of Valle The University of Valle ( es, Universidad del Valle), also called Univalle, is a public, departmental, coeducational, research university based primarily in the city of Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. It is the largest higher education inst ...

and was the runner-up for a

Premio Nadal Premio Nadal is a Spanish literary prize awarded annually by the publishing house Ediciones Destino, part of Planeta. It has been awarded every year on 6 January since 1944. The Josep Pla Award for Catalan literature is given at the same ceremony. ...

in 1971 for ''

Dabeiba Dabeiba () is a town and municipality in the Colombian department of Antioquia. The Battle of Dabeiba took place there in October 2000. Climate Dabeiba has a tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate, humid tropical climate ...

''. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984. and was

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of Valle del Cauca Department from 1998–1999. He also wrote the highly rated

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...

El Bazar de los Idiotas. He is one of the few

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

s to hold public office in Colombia.

References

1945 births Living people Colombian male writers Colombian columnists Governors of Valle del Cauca Department Mayors of places in Colombia Colombian radio journalists Colombian LGBT politicians Colombian LGBT journalists Colombian gay writers Gay politicians Gay journalists Colombian atheists Colombian atheist writers {{LGBT-bio-stub