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 cor ...

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 ...

Nayarit Nayarit, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in Municipalities of Nayarit, 20 municipalit ...

. His family moved to

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

, where Chumacero studied from primary school to high school. In 1937 he went to

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

planning to study Philosophy and Literature at

UNAM The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countries. It also has 34 ...

, 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 Philosophy, 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, ''E ...

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

from pneumonia in 2010, aged 92.

Career

Between 1952 and 1953, 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 ...

. He worked as an editor of various publications, starting as joint editor of ''Tierra Nueva'' magazine from 1940 to 1942 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. Its jury is composed of pre ...

(1984) * Alfonso Reyes International Prize (1986) * National Arts and Sciences Award (Linguistics and Literature) (1987) 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 hosts performing arts events, literature events and plastic arts galleries and exhibitions (including important permanent Mexican murals). "Bella ...

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

Carlos Montemayor Carlos Montemayor (June 13, 1947 – February 28, 2010) was a Mexican novelist, poet, essayist, literary critic, tenor, political analyst, and promoter of contemporary literature written in indigenous languages. He was a Member of the Mexican Aca ...

, 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 Kiplin ...

. 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 Xavier Villaurrutia Award winners