José María Sánchez Borbón ( Solarte Island, 25 July 1918 –

Panama City Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...

, 8 November 1973), was a Panamanian writer and politician.García de Paredes, Franz (1998). Panamá: Cuentos escogidos. San José, Costa Rica: EDUCA.Miró, Rodrigo (1950, 1999). El cuento en Panamá, estudio, selección, bibliografía. Panamá:Autoridad del Canal.

Early life

He was born on Solarte Island, in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, on July 25, 1918. Sánchez Borbón attended primary school in San Jose, Costa Rica. In 1938 he graduated from the Instituto Nacional de Panama as Bachelor in Literature and then as

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

at the

University of Panama The University of Panama () is a public university in Panama City, Panama. It was founded on October 7, 1935. Initially, it had 175 students learning education, commerce, natural sciences, pharmacy, pre-engineering or law. , it had 74,059 student ...

Career

He worked in his father's business in Bocas del Toro during the 1940s and 1950s. He joined the Panamanian government from 1956 to 1968. During the 1960s, Sánchez was Panamanian

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

to Colombia and Argentina. His short stories, some of them translated to German, French, English and Russian, are of importance to Panamanian literature. He began publishing in 1937. He "showed the validity of the social" as well as regional themes in the national literature, at that time oriented towards the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

"With José María Sánchez the region imposes its presence o the Nation His short-stories are a faithful transcript of the adventures of his native land, Bocas del Toro. On a physical landscape of plural violence – rain, forest, sea -, economic and demographic factors concur to offer us a special sociological
precipitate In an aqueous solution, precipitation is the "sedimentation of a solid material (a precipitate) from a liquid solution". The solid formed is called the precipitate. In case of an inorganic chemical reaction leading to precipitation, the chemic ...
. Sánchez is the involuntary chronicler of that dramatic occurrence, where the exuberant nature and the
United Fruit Company The United Fruit Company (later the United Brands Company) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was ...
provides the terms within which move a population composed mostly of blacks from the English Antilles. His intuition of natural life and his human sympathy help to shape the fabric of his creation."--Rodrigo Miró, El cuento en Panamá".

Works

* ''Tres cuentos'' (Panama, 1946) * ''Shumió-Ara'' (Panama, 1948) * ''Cuentos de Bocas del Toro'' (posthumous publication, Panama, 1994)

Literary prizes

* First Prize, Christmas Story Contest 1947, La Estrella de Panamá newspaper, with the short-story ''Embrujos de navidad'' * First Prize, Christmas Story Contest 1948, La Estrella de Panamá newspaper, with the short-story ''Una aclaración necesaria''

Legacy

* 1o de junio, Día de la Literatura en la provincia de Bocas del Toro (June 1, Literature Day in the Bocas del Toro Province) – To celebrate life and literary work of José María Sánchez and Guillermo Sánchez Borbón * Premio Nacional de Cuento "José María Sánchez" Contest's Official Page at the Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá (in Spanish)
/ref> (Short-Stories National Prize "José María Sánchez) – Organized annually by the Universdad Tecnológica de Panamá since 1996 to award the best Short Story book of each year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez Borbon, Jose Maria 1918 births 1973 deaths Panamanian writers Ambassadors of Panama to Argentina Ambassadors of Panama to Colombia People from Bocas del Toro District Panamanian diplomats