Ramón Amaya Amador (April 29, 1916 – November 24, 1966) was a Honduran journalist, author, and political activist, known for his most recognizable works "''Prisión verde''" and "''Cipotes"''.

Biography

Amaya was born in Olanchito in the department of

Yoro Yoro, with a population of 101,849 (2022 calculation), is the capital city of the Yoro Department of Honduras and the municipal seat of Yoro Municipality. It is notable for a local event known as Lluvia de Peces, where it is claimed that strong ...

. After being educated in

La Ceiba La Ceiba () is a municipality, the capital of the Honduran department of Atlántida (department), Atlántida, and a port city on the northern Caribbean coast in Honduras. It forms part of the southeastern boundary of the Gulf of Honduras. With ...

, he worked on the

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

plantations along the Northern

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

coast of Honduras. He published his first work in 1939. He became a

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

in 1941 for '' El Atlántico'' (The Atlantic), a La Ceiba newspaper. In October 1943 he founded a weekly magazine in Olanchito called ''Alerta'' (Alert). A leading Honduran

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

, he moved to Guatemala in 1944 fleeing political persecution, where he worked on the ''Nuestro Diario'' (Our Daily) newspaper and was very supportive of the left-wing government of Jacobo Arbenz. In his 10 years in Guatemala he also worked for the ''Diario de Centro América'' (Central American Daily), ''El Popular Progresista'' (The Popular Progressive) and ''Medioía'' (Midday). It was at the beginning of this period that he wrote what is considered his finest novel, ''Prisión verde'' (Green prison), which for many years was banned in Honduras, and described life on the

plantations in the Bajo Aguán valley of northern Honduras, and the consequences of a labor strike there. When the Arbenz government fell in June 1954, Amador sought refuge in the

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a Sovereign state, state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase ...

before being granted asylum in Argentina where he worked for ''Sarmiento'', a popular educational newspaper. While there, he married an Argentinian, Regina Arminda Funes, with whom he returned to Honduras in May 1957. He began working for ''El Cronista'' (The Chronicle), and founded the magazine ''Vistazo'' (View) in

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa ( )—formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz''—is the capital and largest city of Honduras along with its sister city, Comaya ...

. Soon afterwards, he left Honduras with his family and his two small children to move to

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, Czechoslovakia where he worked on a magazine called '' Problems of Peace and Socialism'' until he died at 50 years of age in a plane crash in 1966 in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

(today

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

). In September 1977 his remains were returned to the Honduran capital

Published books

His son Carlos Amaya Fúnez has worked over many years to promote the work of his father.Ramón Amaya Amador
/ref> The dates given indicate when the books were written, not when they were first published. These books have all been published in Spanish though there are almost twenty others which remain unpublished. *'' Prisión Verde'' (1945) *''Amanecer'' (1947) *''El indio Sánchez'' (1948) *''Bajo el signo de la Paz'' (1952) *''Constructores'' (1958) *''El señor de la sierra'' (1957) *''Los brujos de Ilamatepeque'' (1958) *''Biografía de un machete'' (1959) *''Destacamento Rojo'' (1960) *''El camino de mayo'' (1963so *''Cipotes'' (1963) *''Con la misma herradura'' (1963) *''Jacinta Peralta'' (1964) *''Operación gorila'' (1965) *''Los rebeldes de la villa de San Miguel'' (1966) (Volume 1 of a 5 volume series called Morazaneida)

References

External links

Biography in Spanish
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amaya Amador, Ramon 1916 births 1966 deaths Honduran activists Honduran communists Honduran journalists Honduran male journalists Honduran novelists Male novelists Honduran male writers People from Yoro Department Honduran emigrants to Guatemala Honduran emigrants Immigrants to Czechoslovakia 20th-century novelists 20th-century male writers 20th-century Honduran writers 20th-century journalists Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Czechoslovakia Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1966