Augusto Monterroso Bonilla (December 21, 1921 - February 7, 2003) was a Honduran writer who adopted Guatemalan nationality, known for the ironical and humorous style of his

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

. He is considered an important figure in the Latin American " Boom" generation, and received several awards, including the Prince of Asturias Award in Literature (2000), Miguel Ángel Asturias National Prize in Literature (1997), and Juan Rulfo Award (1996).

Life

Monterroso was born in

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa (, , ), formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( es, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz'', is the capital and largest city ...

, Honduras to a Honduran mother and Guatemalan father. In 1936 his family settled definitively in

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...

, where he would remain until early adulthood. Here he published his first short stories and began his clandestine work against the dictatorship of

Jorge Ubico Jorge Ubico Castañeda (10 November 1878 – 14 June 1946), nicknamed Number Five or also Central America's Napoleon, was a Guatemalan dictator. A general in the Guatemalan army, he was elected to the presidency in 1931, in an election where ...

. To this end he founded the newspaper ''El Espectador'' with a group of other writers. He was detained and exiled to

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

in 1944 for his opposition to the dictatorial regime. Shortly after his arrival in Mexico, the revolutionary government 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 ...

triumphed in Guatemala, and Monterroso was assigned to a minor post in the Guatemalan embassy in Mexico. In 1953 he moved briefly to Bolivia upon being named Guatemalan

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

in La Paz. He relocated to

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

in 1954, when Arbenz's government was toppled with help from an American intervention. In 1956 he returned definitively to Mexico City, where he would occupy various academic and editorial posts and continue his work as a writer for the rest of his life. In 1988, Augusto Monterroso received the highest honor the Mexican government can bestow on foreign dignitaries, the Águila Azteca. He was also awarded the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Prince of Asturias Award The Princess of Asturias Awards ( es, Premios Princesa de Asturias, links=no, ast, Premios Princesa d'Asturies, links=no), formerly the Prince of Asturias Awards from 1981 to 2014 ( es, Premios Príncipe de Asturias, links=no), are a series of a ...

, in 2000. In 1997, Monterroso was awarded the

Guatemala National Prize in Literature 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 Hon ...

for his body of work. He died due to heart failure at the age of 81, in

."Recordando a Augusto Monterroso"
''Proceso'', 11 February 2003.

Work

Although Monterroso limited himself almost exclusively to the short story form, he is widely considered a central figure in the Latin American " Boom" generation, which was best known for its novelists. As such he is recognized alongside such canonical authors as Julio Cortázar,

Carlos Fuentes Carlos Fuentes Macías (; ; November 11, 1928 – May 15, 2012) was a Mexican novelist and essayist. Among his works are ''The Death of Artemio Cruz'' (1962), ''Aura'' (1962), '' Terra Nostra'' (1975), ''The Old Gringo'' (1985) and ''Christopher ...

Juan Rulfo Juan Nepomuceno Carlos Pérez Rulfo Vizcaíno, best known as Juan Rulfo ( ; 16 May 1917 – 7 January 1986), was a Mexican writer, screenwriter, and photographer. He is best known for two literary works, the 1955 novel ''Pedro Páramo'', and th ...

and

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

. Save for ''Lo demás es silencio'' ("The Rest is Silence"), his foray into the form of the novel, Monterroso only published short pieces. He worked throughout his career to perfect the short story form, often delving into analogous genres (most famously the

fable Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse (poetry), verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphized, and that illustrat ...

) for stylistic and thematic inspiration. Even ''Lo demás es silencio'', however, largely eschews the traditional novelistic form, opting instead for the loose aggregation of various apocryphal short texts (newspaper clippings, testimonials, diary entries, poems) to sketch the "biography" of its fictional main character. Monterroso also was known for popularizing short stories and was the author of what is often credited to be one of the world's shortest stories, "El Dinosaurio" ("The Dinosaur"), published in ''Obras completas (Y otros cuentos)''. The story reads, in its entirety: : ''Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí.'' : ("When he awoke, the dinosaur was still there.")

wrote of Monterroso (referring specifically to ''The Black Sheep and Other Fables''): "Imagine

Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...

' fantastical bestiary having tea with Alice. Imagine

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dubl ...

and

James Thurber James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in ''The New Yorker'' and collected ...

exchanging notes. Imagine a frog from Calaveras County who has seriously read Mark Twain. Meet Monterroso."The Black Sheep and Other Fables, trans. Walter I. Bradbury, New York, Doubleday, 1971.

Bibliography

*''Obras completas (Y otros cuentos)'', 1959. ** (trans. ''Complete Works and Other Stories'') *''La oveja negra y demás fábulas'', 1969. ** (trans. ''The Black Sheep and Other Fables'': Tadworth: Acorn, 2005 (translated from the Spanish by Rupert Glasgow and Philip Jenkins)) *''Movimiento perpetuo'', 1972. ** (trans. ''Perpetual Motion'') *''Lo demás es silencio (La vida y obra de Eduardo Torres)'', 1978. *''Viaje al centro de la fábula'', 1981. *''La palabra mágica'', 1983. *''La letra e (Fragmentos de un diario)'', 1987. *''Esa fauna'', 1992. drawings. *''Los buscadores de oro'', 1993. *''La vaca'', 1998. *'' Pájaros de Hispanoamérica'', 2002. *''Literatura y vida'', 2004.

References

External links

Augusto Monterroso
on the Guatemalan Literature Webpage {{DEFAULTSORT:Monterroso, Augusto Guatemalan male writers Guatemalan male short story writers Guatemalan short story writers Monterroso, Augusto Monterroso, Augusto People from Tegucigalpa Honduran male writers 20th-century Guatemalan writers 20th-century Honduran writers 20th-century short story writers 20th-century male writers Weird fiction writers Guatemalan expatriates in Mexico Immigrants to Honduras

Life

Work

Bibliography

See also

References

External links