Otto-Raúl González (January 1, 1921 in Guatemala City – June 23, 2007 in Mexico City) was a

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

n writer, poet, and lawyer. A longtime

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

ideologue, during the

social revolution Social revolutions are sudden changes in the structure and nature of society. These revolutions are usually recognized as having transformed society, economy, culture, philosophy, and technology along with but more than just the political syst ...

of the administration of

Jacobo Arbenz Jacobo is both a surname and a given name of Spanish origin. Based on the name Jacob. Notable people with the name include: Surname: * Alfredo Jacobo (born 1982), Olympic breaststroke swimmer from Mexico * Cesar Chavez Jacobo, Dominican profession ...

he was appointed undersecretary of the land reform program. González welcomed Che Guevara to Guatemala and gave him a government job. However, he had to flee his country following the 1954 overthrow of the government and for two years lived in Ecuador then went to Mexico. González obtained a law degree from 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 ...

. Many decades later, he was allowed back to Guatemala by President Vinicio Cerezo. During his lifetime, González published more than 60 books with a number translated to several different languages. He was awarded the Premio Nacional de Poesía Jaime Sabines from Mexico and the 1990 Guatemala National Prize in Literature.

References

Prensa Libre Interview with Otto-Raúl González
(Spanish language)
Note about Gonzalez death
(La Joranada, Spanish language)

External links

Otto-Raúl González
on the Guatemalan Literature Webpage Guatemalan male poets Guatemalan communists 20th-century Guatemalan lawyers National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni 1921 births 2007 deaths People from Guatemala City Guatemalan expatriates in Mexico 20th-century Guatemalan poets 20th-century male writers Expatriates in Ecuador {{Guatemala-poet-stub