Miguel Ángel Asturias
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[[WP:UNDO|Undid]] revision 222625658 by [[Special:Contributions/72.221.92.43|72.221.92.43]], per source and discussion on user talk pages
{{Infobox Writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]] -->
| name = Miguel Ángel Asturias
| awards = [[Image:Nobel prize medal.svg|20px]] {{awd|[[Nobel Prize in Literature]]|1967}}
| image = asturias.jpg
| imagesize = 150px
| birthdate = {{birth date|1899|10|19|mf=y}}
| birthplace = [[Guatemala City, Guatemala]]
| deathdate = {{death date and age|1974|6|9|1899|10|19|mf=y}}
| deathplace = [[Madrid, Spain]]
| occupation = Novelist
| nationality = [[Guatemala]]n
| genre = [[Surrealism]], [[dictator novel]]
| notableworks = ''[[El Señor Presidente]]'', ''[[Men of Maize]]''
| influences = [[Mayan culture]], [[Surrealism]]
| influenced = [[Latin American Boom]]
}}
'''Miguel Ángel Asturias Rosales''' ([[October 19]], [[1899]] – [[June 9]], [[1974]]) was a Nobel-Prize–winning [[Guatemala]]n poet, novelist, and diplomat. Asturias helped establish [[Latin American literature]]'s contribution to mainstream Western culture, and at the same time drew attention to the importance of indigenous cultures, especially those of his native Guatemala.
Asturias was born and grew up in Guatemala, but spent significant time abroad, first in Paris in the 1920s, where he studied [[anthropology]] and Indian mythology. Many scholars view him as the first Latin American novelist to show how the study of anthropology and linguistics could affect the writing of literature.<!-- "many scholars"=vague peacock. Anthro and ling never mentioned in body of article --> While in Paris, Asturias also associated with the [[Surrealist]] movement, and he is credited with introducing many features of modernist style into Latin American letters. In this way, he is an important precursor of the [[Latin American Boom]] of the 1960s and 1970s.
One of Asturias' most famous novels, ''[[El Señor Presidente]]'', describes life under a ruthless dictator. Asturias' very public opposition to dictatorial rule led to him spending much of his later life in exile, both in South America and in Europe. The book that is sometimes described as his masterpiece, ''Hombres de maíz'' (''[[Men of Maize]]''), is a defence of [[Mayan culture]] and customs. Asturias combined his extensive knowledge of Mayan beliefs with his political convictions, channeling them into a life of commitment and solidarity. His work is often identified with the social and moral aspirations of the Guatemalan people.
After decades of exile and marginalization, Asturias finally received broad recognition in the 1960s. In 1966, he won the Soviet Union's [[Lenin Peace Prize]]. The following year he was awarded the [[Nobel Prize for Literature]], only the second Latin American to receive this honour. Asturias spent his final years in Madrid, where he died at the age of 74. He is buried in the [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]] in Paris.
==Biography==
=== Early life and education ===
[[Image:Guatemala-CIA WFB Map.png|right|thumb|250px|Map of Guatemala]]
Miguel Ángel Asturias was born in [[Guatemala City]] on [[October 19]], [[1899]], the first child of Ernesto Asturias Girón, a lawyer and judge, and María Rosales de Asturias, a schoolteacher. Two years later, a brother, Marco Antonio, would be born. Asturias's parents were of Spanish descent, and reasonably distinguished: his father could trace his family line back to colonists who had arrived in Guatemala in the 1660s; his mother, whose ancestry was more mixed, was a colonel's daughter. They lived in comfortable surroundings in the house of Asturias's paternal grandparents.<ref>{{Harvnb|Martin|2000|pp=481-483}}</ref>
Despite his relative privilege, Asturias's father clashed with the dictatorship of [[Manuel Estrada Cabrera]], who had come to power in February of 1898. As Asturias later recalled, "My parents were quite persecuted, though they were not imprisoned or anything of the sort".<ref>"Mis padres eran bastante perseguidos, pero no eran conjurados ni cosa que se parezca." Qtd. in {{Harvnb|Martin|2000|pp=482}}</ref> Following an incident in 1904 which, in his capacity as judge, Asturias Sr. set free some students arrested for causing a disturbance, he clashed directly with the dictator, lost his job, and he and his family were forced to move in 1905 to the town of [[Salamá]], the provincial capital of [[Baja Verapaz]], where Miguel Angel Asturias lived on the farm of his maternal grandparents. It was here that Asturias would first come into contact with Guatemala's indigenous people; his nanny, Lola Reyes, a young indigenous woman, told him stories of their myths and legends that would later so influence his work.<ref>{{Harvnb|Martin|2000|pp=483}}</ref>
In 1908, when Asturias was nine, his family returned to the suburbs of Guatemala City, where they established a supply sort and Asturias spent his adolescence.<ref name="C14">{{Harvnb|Carrera|1999|p=14}}</ref> Asturias first attended ''Colegio del Padre Pedro'' and then, ''Colegio del Padre Solís''.<ref name="C14"/> Asturias began writing as a student and wrote the first draft of a story that would later become his novel ''El Señor Presidente.''<ref>{{Harvnb|Franco|1989|p=865}}</ref><!-- And when did all this happen? -->
In 1922, Asturias and other students founded the Popular University, a community project whereby "the middle class was encouraged to contribute to the general welfare by teaching free courses to the underprivileged."<ref name="Callan11">{{Harvnb|Callan|1970|p=11}}</ref> Asturias spent a year studying medicine before switching to the faculty of law at the [[Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala]] in Guatemala City<ref name="W65">{{Harvnb|Westlake|2005|p=65}}</ref> and obtained his law degree in 1923. He was awarded the ''Premio Falla'' for being the top student in his faculty. It was at this university that he founded the ''Asociación de Estudiantes Universitarios'' and the ''Asociación de estudiantes El Derecho''.<!-- Need English translations, I believe... --> Both his Associations have been recognized as being positively associated with Guatemalan patriotism.<ref>{{Harvnb|Carrera|1999|p=16}}</ref> Asturias was thus involved in politics: working as a representative of the Asociación General de Estudiantes Universitarios, and travelling to [[El Salvador]] and [[Honduras]].<!-- Why did he travel to these places? --> In 1920, Asturias participated in the uprising against dictator [[Manuel Estrada Cabrera]].<!-- How did he participate? Was he a major figure or just a stone-throwing student? -->
Asturias' university thesis, "The Social Problem of the Indian," was published in 1923.<ref name="Frenz">{{Harvnb|Frenz|1969}}. See {{cite web|title=Biography|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1967/asturias-bio.html|publisher=NobelPrize.org|accessdate=2008-03-11}}</ref> In 1923, after receiving his law degree, Asturias moved to Europe. He had originally planned to live in [[England]] and study political economy, but changed his mind.<ref name="W65"/> He soon transferred to [[Paris]], where he studied [[ethnology]] at the [[Sorbonne]] ([[University of Paris]]} and became a militant [[surrealist]] under the influence of the French poet and literary theorist [[André Breton]].<ref name="EB">{{Harvnb|McHenry|1993|p=657}}</ref> While there, he was influenced by the gathering of writers and artists in [[Montparnasse]] (an area of Paris) and began writing poetry and fiction. During this time, Asturias developed a deep concern for [[Mayan culture]] and in 1925 he worked to translate the Mayan sacred text, the ''[[Popol Vuh]]'', into Spanish. He also founded a magazine while in Paris called ''Tiempos Nuevos'' or "New Times".<ref name="Pegasos">{{Harvnb|Liukkonen|2002}}</ref> Asturias stayed in Paris for a total of ten years.
=== Political career ===
Asturias returned to Guatemala in 1933 and worked as a journalist before serving in his country's diplomatic corps.<!-- When was he in the diplomatic corps, and for how long?? --> He founded and edited a radio magazine called ''El diario del aire''.<ref name="EB"/> He wrote several volumes of poetry around this time, the first being his ''Sonetos'' (''Sonnets''), which was published in 1936.<ref name="EB"/>
[[Image:asturias typewriter.jpg|thumb|left|Asturias and typewriter]]
In 1942, he was elected to the Guatemalan Congress.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pilón de Pachecho|1968|p= 16}}</ref> In 1946, Asturias embarked upon a diplomatic career, continuing to write while serving in several countries in Central and South America. Asturias held a diplomatic post in [[Buenos Aires]], [[Argentina]] in 1947 and in Paris, France in 1952.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hill|1972|p=177}}</ref>
When Asturias returned to his native country in 1933, he was faced with<!-- faced with? they met? I'm playing dumb but this language is vague --> the dictator [[Jorge Ubico]] and a regime that would not tolerate his political ideals. He stayed in Guatemala until 1944. During his time in Guatemala, he published "only poetry, which was characterized by elegant cynicism".<ref name="W65"/> Eventually in 1933<ref>{{Harvnb|Westlake|2005| p=37}}</ref> he broke out of his decade of poetry<!-- How do you "break out of a "decade of poetry"? What is a "decade of poetry"? Just fuzzy writing --> when a more liberal government ruled the country.<!-- This section seems to hint that he wrote only poetry early on, because of fear of political repression, but then wrote more as the political climate changed. Please stop hinting and just say so. --> The novel ''El Señor Presidente'' was written, exploring the world around an unnamed dictator in an unspecified Latin American country.<!-- Passive. Yuk. --> The novel could not be published during the rule of Ubico<!-- why not? Please be explicit --> and so ''El Señor Presidente'' did not appear until 1946.<ref name="W66">{{Harvnb|Westlake|2005| p=66}}</ref><!-- What happened in '46 or soon before that let him publish? regime change?? if so, to whom? -->
Asturias served as an ambassador to [[Mexico]], Argentina, and El Salvador, between 1946 and 1954. His novel "[[Men of Maize]]" was published during his time as ambassador.<!-- which time as ambassador? to which country? --> This novel was organized into multiple parts, each dealing with the contrast between traditional Indian culture and modernity.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hill|1972|p=178}}</ref>
===Exile and rehabilitation===
Miguel Àngel Asturias devoted much of his political energy towards supporting the government of [[Jacobo Arbenz]] (the successor to Guatemalan ruler [[Juan José Arévalo Bermejo]]).<ref>{{Harvnb|Franco|1989|p=867}}</ref><!-- Whiplash.. what happened to Ubico? --> Asturias was enlisted for his<!-- do you mean "appointed to" instead of "enlisted for his" --> work as an ambassador to help suppress the threat of rebels from [[El Salvador]]. While his efforts were backed by the United States and the El Salvadorean government, the rebels succeeded in invading Guatemala and overthrew Jacobo Arbenz' rule in 1954. When the government of Jacobo Arbenz fell Asturias was expelled from the country by [[Carlos Castillo Armas]] because of his support for Arbenz. He was stripped of his Guatemalan citizenship and went to live in Buenos Aires and [[Chile]], where he spent the next eight years of his life. Even though he remained in exile, Asturias did not stop his writing. When a change of government in Argentina meant that he once more had to seek a new home, Asturias moved to Europe.<ref name="leal781">{{Harvnb |Leal|1968|p=245}}</ref> While living in exile in [[Genoa]] his reputation grew as an author with the release of his novel, ''Mulata de Tal'' (1963).<ref>{{Harvnb|Pilón de Pachecho|1968|p= 35}}</ref>
In 1966, democratically elected President [[Julio César Méndez Montenegro]] achieved power and Asturias was given back his Guatemalan citizenship.<!-- Wait a minute... why was the first guy.. president what's-his-name.. a "dictator", and was he or was he not "democratically elected"? And why was that fact not mentioned then, but it is mentioned here/now with tis later guy? Subtly creeping POV then?? --> Montenegro appointed Asturias as Guatemalan ambassador to France, where he served until 1970, taking up a permanent residence in Paris.<ref>{{Harvnb|Franco|1989|p=866}}</ref>
Later in Asturias' life he helped found the Popular University of Guatemala.<ref name="Frenz"/> Asturias spent his final years in Madrid, where he died in 1974. He is buried in the [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]] in Paris.
===Family===
Miguel Ángel Asturias married his first wife, Clemencia Amado, in 1939. They had two sons, Miguel and Rodrigo Ángel, before divorcing in 1947. Asturias then met and married his second wife, Blanca Mora y Araujo, in 1950.<ref>{{Harvnb|Leal|1968|p=238}}</ref> Mora y Araujo was Argentinian, and so when Asturias was deported from Guatemala in 1954, he went to live in the [[Argentina|Argentinian]] capital of [[Buenos Aires]]. He lived in his wife's homeland for eight years. They remained married until Asturias' death in 1974.
Asturias' son from his first marriage, [[Rodrigo Asturias]], under the ''[[nom de guerre]]'' Gaspar Ilom (the name of an indigenous rebel in his father's own novel, ''Men of Maize''), was President of the [[Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca]]. The Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca was a rebel group active in the 1980s, during the [[Guatemalan Civil War]], and after the peace accords in 1996.<ref>{{Harvnb|Franco|1989|p=871}}</ref>
== Major works ==
===''Leyendas de Guatemala''===
{{main|Leyendas de Guatemala}}
Asturias' first major work, ''[[Leyendas de Guatemala]]'' (''Legends of Guatemala''; 1930), describes Mayan civilization before the Spanish conquest. The novel brought him critical praise in France as well as in Guatemala. The noted French poet and essayist [[Paul Valéry]] wrote of the book (in a letter published as part of the Losada edition), that "I found it brought about a tropical dream, which I experienced with singular delight."<ref>{{Harvnb|Valéry|1957|p=10}}</ref> The novel used elements of [[magical realism]] to tell multiple tales. He uses both conventional writing as well as lyrical prose to tell a story about birds and other animals conversing with other archetypal human beings.<ref name="leal246">{{Harvnb|Leal|1968|p=246}}</ref>
For Gerald Martin, ''Leyendas de Guatemala'' is "the first major anthropological contribution to Spanish American literature".<ref>{{Harvnb|Martin|1989|p=146}}</ref> [[Jean Franco]] also describes the book as "lyrical recreations of Guatemalan folk-lore many of which drew their inspiration from [[pre-Columbian]] and colonial sources".<ref>{{Harvnb|Franco|1994|p=250}}</ref>
===''El Señor Presidente''===
[[Image:Asturias president.jpg|thumb|140px|right|A translation of ''[[El Señor Presidente]],'' one of Asturias's best-known works.]]
{{main|El Señor Presidente}}
One of Asturias' most critically acclaimed novels, ''El Señor Presidente'' was completed in 1933 but was unpublished until 1946. As one of his earliest works, ''El Señor Presidente'' showcases Asturias's talent and influence as a novelist. Zimmerman and Rojas describe his work as an "impassioned denunciation of the Guatemalan dictator [[Manuel Estrada Cabrera]]."<ref>{{Harvnb|Zimmerman|Rojas|1998| p=123}}</ref> The novel was written during Asturias's exile in Paris, France.<ref name="westlake165">{{Harvnb|Westlake|2005| p=165}}</ref> While completing the novel in Paris, Asturias associated with members of the Surrealist movement as well as fellow future Latin American writers such as [[Arturo Uslar Pietri]] and the Cuban Alejo Carpentier.<ref>Himelblau, 1973, 47</ref> ''El Señor Presidente'' is one of many novels to explore life under a Latin American dictator and in fact, has been heralded by some as the first real [[dictator novel]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Martin|1989|p= 151}}</ref>
<!-- This paragraph could stand a rewrite. What does it mean that the actual events are vague? Do you mean they are presented using surrealistic imagery? I'd consider moving some or all of the last sentence up to the front to be together with the other more general statements... -->The actual events are vague and the plot is partially based on real events while the time or locale are fiction. Asturias's novel examines how evil spreads downward from a powerful political leader and into the streets and a country's citizens. Justice is mocked in the novel and escape from the dictator's tyranny is impossible.<!-- "Justice is mocked in the novel and escape from " Please rewrite this sentence. --> Each character in the novel is deeply affected by the dictatorship and must struggle to survive in a terrifying reality.<ref name="westlake165" /> The novel travels with several characters, some close to the President and some seeking escape from his regime. The dictator's trusted adviser, whom the reader knows as "Angel Face", falls in love with a General, General Canales<!-- In love with a General, or General's daughter, or both? This is getting steamy! ;-) --> daughter Camila. The General is hunted for execution while his daughter is held under house arrest.<ref>{{Harvnb|Leal|1968|p=242}}</ref><!-- By whom? Why? What doies that have to do with falling in love? This section is choppy and broken.. --> Angel Face is torn between his love for her and his duty to the President. While the Dictator is never named, he has striking similarities to [[Manuel Estrada Cabrera]]. ''El Señor Presidente'' uses [[surrealistic]] techniques and reflects Asturias' notion that Indian's non-rational awareness of reality is an expression of subconscious forces.<ref>{{Harvnb|Franco|1989|p=867}}</ref>
Playwright [[Hugo Carrillo]] adapted ''El Señor Presidente'' into a play in 1974.<ref>{{Harvnb|Westlake|2005| p=40}}</ref>
===''Men of Maize''===
{{main|Men of Maize}}
''[[Men of Maize]]'' (''Hombres de maíz'', 1949) is usually considered to be Asturias's masterpiece. The novel is written in six parts, each exploring the contrast of traditional Indian customs and a progressive, modernizing society. Asturias's book explores the magical world of indigenous communities, a subject about which the author was both passionate and knowledgeable. The novel draws on traditional legend, but the story is of Arguedas's own creation.<ref name="franco1994-250">{{Harvnb|Franco|1994|p= 250}}</ref> The plot revolves around an isolated Indian community (the men of maize or "people of corn") whose land is under threat by outsiders intent on is commercial exploitation. An indigenous leader, Gaspar Ilóm, leads the community's resistance to the planters, who kill him in the hope of thwarting the rebellion. Beyond the grave Ilóm lives on as a "folk-hero", but even so the people lose their land.<ref>{{Harvnb|Franco|1994|p= 251}}</ref> In the second half of the novel, the central character is a postman, Nicho, and the story concerns his search for his lost wife. In the course of his quest, he abandons his duties, tied as they are to "white society", and transforms himself into a coyote, who represents his guardian spirit.<ref name="franco1994-252">{{Harvnb|Franco|1994|p= 252}}</ref> Through allegory, Asturias shows how European [[imperialism]] dominates and transforms native traditions in the Americas.<ref name="franco869">{{Harvnb|Franco|1989|p=869}}</ref> By the novel's end, as Jean Franco notes, "the magic world of Indian legend has been lost"; but it concludes on a "Utopian note" as the people become ants to transport the maize they have harvested.<ref name="franco1994-252" />
Written in the form of a myth, the novel is experimental, ambitious, and difficult. For instance, its "time scheme is a mythic time in which many thousands of years may be compressed and seen as a single moment", and the book's language is also "structured so as to be analogous to Indian languages".<ref name="franco1994-250" /> Because of its unusual approach, it was some time before the novel was accepted by critics and the public.<ref name="franco869" />
===''The Banana Trilogy''===
Asturias also wrote an epic trilogy about the exploitation of the native Indians on banana plantations: this trilogy, comprised of the novels ''Viento fuerte'' (''The Cyclone''; 1950), ''El Papa Verde'' (''The Green Pope''; 1954), and ''Los ojos de los enterrados'' (''The Eyes of the Interred''; 1960), is a fictional account of the results of foreign control over the [[Central American]] banana industry.<ref name="W65"/> The volumes were first only published in small quantities in his native country of Guatemala.<ref name="W66"/> Asturias finished the last book in the Trilogy nearly 20 years after the first two volumes came out. His critique of the fruit industry and how the Guatemalan natives were exploited eventually earned him the Soviet Union's highest prize, the [[Lenin Peace Prize]]. Asturias's recognition marked him as one of the few authors to be recognized in both the West and in the [[Communist bloc]] during the period of the [[Cold War]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ilab.org/db/book1602_017982.html|title=Asturias, Miguel Angel, Viento Fuerte|publisher=Ilab Lila}}</ref>
===''Mulata de tal''===
{{main|Mulata de tal}}
Asturias published his novel ''Mulata de tal'' while he and his wife were living in Genoa in 1963. His novel received many positive reviews; ''Ideologies and Literature'' described it as "a carnival incarnated in the novel. It represents a collision between Mayan Mardi Gras and Hispanic baroque."<ref>{{Harvnb|Willis|1983|p=146}}</ref> The novel emerged as a major novel during the 1960s.<ref name="leal246"/> The plot revolves around the battle between Catalina and Yumí<!-- between who and who? descr. them or tell who they are or do something or other to orient me --> to control Mulata (the moon spirit).<!-- why? --> Yumí and Catalina become experts in sorcery and are criticized by the Church for their practices. The novel uses Mayan mythology and Catholic tradition to form a distinctive allegory of belief.
Gerald Martin in the ''Hispanic Review'' commented that it is "sufficiently obvious that the whole art of this novel rests upon its language. In general, Asturias matches the visual freedom of the cartoon by using every resource the Spanish language offers him. His use of color is striking and immeasurably more liberal than in earlier novels."<ref>{{Harvnb|Martin|1973|p=413}}</ref> Asturias built the novel by this unique use of color, liberal theory, and his distinctive use of the Spanish language.<ref>{{Harvnb|Franco|1989|p=871}}</ref> His novel also received the Silla Monsegur Prize for the best Spanish-American novel published in France.<ref name="Frenz"/><!-- What year? -->
== Mayan influence ==
[[Image:Maya vase Branly 70-1998-5-1 n1.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Maya vase depicting a lord of the underworld stripped of clothes and headgear by the young maize divinity.]]
The influence that the rich [[Mayan culture]] has had on Asturias' literary work and political life is undeniable.<ref>{{Harvnb|Prieto|1993|p=16}}</ref> He believed in the sacredness of the Mayan traditions and worked to bring life back into its culture by integrating the Indian imagery and tradition into his novels.<ref>{{Harvnb|Westlake|2005|p=7}}</ref> For example the title of his novel ''Men of Maize'' comes from the [[Maya mythology|Mayan belief]] that humans are created from stalks of corn. Asturias' interest in Mayan culture is notable because many Mayan traditions and cultures<!-- more than one culture? --> were stifled by the influence of the [[Catholic church]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Westlake|2005|p=15}}</ref><!-- Why is there a connection between the stifling of Mayan traditions and the notability of his interests? maybe "notable" isn't the best word choice --> The Spanish in [[Central America]] viciously banned certain rituals, destroyed Aztec and Mayan texts and fought to bring the Christian religion to the Indian communities in [[Guatemala]]. Asturias' work as a scholar integrated the sacred suppressed tradition back into Latin American Literature.{{Fact|date=May 2008}}<!-- Scholar? Thought he was a novelist? Don't say "work as a scholar" unless you mean a dissertation, thesis, pub. in scholalry journal, etc. Try instead something like: "Asturias' novel incorporated rigorous research.." or whatever -->
Asturias studied at the [[Sorbonne]] (the [[University of Paris]] at that time) with Georges Raynaud, an expert in the culture of the Mayan Quichés, and he eventually finished a translation of the ''[[Popol Vuh]]'', the sacred book of the Mayas in 1926.<ref>{{Harvnb|Prieto|1993|pp=67–70}}</ref> In 1930, fascinated by the legends and myths of the Indians of Guatemala, he wrote ''[[Legends of Guatemala]]''".<ref>{{Harvnb|Prieto|1993|pp=64–67}}</ref><!-- Please rewrite. You are mixing time frames of Sorbonne and Popol Vuh; leaving the reader to draw conclusions about details such as the relationship b/w his schoolwork and "legends of Guatemala" etc. Was the latter a novel or was it nonfiction? -->
[[Jean Franco]] categorizes Asturias as an "Indianist" author, along with [[Rosario Castellanos]] and [[José María Arguedas]]. She argues that all three of these writers are led to "break with realism precisely because of the limitations of the genre when it came to representing the Indian".<ref name="F250">{{Harvnb|Franco|1994|p=250}}</ref> So, for instance, Franco says of Asturias' ''[[Hombres de maíz]]'' (Men of Maize) that "the technique here is more akin to poetry than to traditional prose, but we feel that this is a more authentic way of representing the Indian mind."<ref>{{Harvnb|Franco|1994|p=251}}</ref> She points out also that the novel's temporality<!-- temporal setting? temporal framework? --> "is a mythic time in which many thousands of years may be compressed and seen as a single moment".<ref name="F250"/> Even the language of the book is affected: it is "a Spanish so structured as to be analogous to Indian languages".<ref name="F250"/>
== Legacy ==
[[Image:Teatro Nacional 1.jpg|thumb|left|Guatemala's [[Centro Cultural Miguel Ángel Asturias]] ]]
After his death in 1974, Guatemala established an award in his name, the Miguel Àngel Asturias Order. The country's most distinguished literary prize, the [[Miguel Ángel Asturias National Prize in Literature]], is also named in his honor. In addition, Guatemala's [[Centro Cultural Miguel Ángel Asturias|National theater]] is named after him.
Asturias is remembered as a man who believed strongly in maintaining indigenous culture in Guatemala, and who encouraged those who were persecuted. His literature was critically acclaimed, but not always appreciated. But, for Gerald Martin, Asturias is one of what he terms "the ABC writers—Asturias, [[Jorge Luis Borges|Borges]], [[Alejo Carpentier|Carpentier]]" who, he argues, "really initiated Latin American modernism."<ref>{{Harvnb|Martin|1982|p=223}}</ref>
Critics compare his fiction to that of [[Franz Kafka]], [[James Joyce]], and [[William Faulkner]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Leal|1968|p=237}}</ref> His work has been translated into numerous languages such as [[English language|English]], [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Russian language|Russian]] and many more.
== Awards ==
Asturias received many honors and awards over the course of his career, most notably the 1967 [[Nobel Prize for literature]]. The award of the Nobel caused some controversy, as critic Robert G. Mead notes: outside of Latin America, Asturias was still relatively unknown; within Latin America, some thought that there were more deserving candidates.<ref>{{Harvnb|Mead|1968|p=326}}</ref> More controversial still was the award of the [[Soviet Union]]'s 1966 [[Lenin Peace Prize]], for exposing "American intervention against the Guatemalan people."<ref>qtd. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,841105,00.html "A Tendency of Commitment"]. ''Time'' ([[October 27]], [[1967]]).</ref> This honor came after his completion of the Banana Trilogy.
Other prizes for Asturias' work include: Premio Galvez, 1923; Chavez Prize, 1923; Prix Sylla Monsegur, for ''Leyendas de Guatemala'', 1931; and Prix du Meilleur Roman Etranger, for ''El señor presidente'', 1952.<ref name="leal781" />
==Selected works==
:''What follows is a selected bibliography. A more complete listing can be found at the Nobel Prize website''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Miguel Angel Asturias: Bibliography|accessdate=2008-03-03|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1967/asturias-bibl.html|publisher=Nobelprize.org}}</ref>
<div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;">
*''Sociología guatemalteca: El problema social del indio.'' – Guatemala City Sánchez y de Guise, 1923 (''Guatemalan Sociology : The Social Problem of the Indian'' / translated by Maureen Ahern. – Tempe : Arizona State University Center for Latin American Studies, 1977)
*''Rayito de estrella''. – Paris : Imprimerie Française de l'Edition, 1925
*''[[Leyendas de Guatemala]]''. – Madrid : Oriente, 1930
*''Sonetos''. – Guatemala City : Américana, 1936
*''Con el rehén en los dientes: Canto a Francia''. – Guatemala City : Zadik, 1942
*''[[El Señor Presidente]]''. – Mexico City : Costa-Amic, 1946 (translated by [[Frances Partridge]]. New York: Macmillan, 1963)
*''Poesía : Sien de alondra''. – Buenos Aires : Argos, 1949
*''[[Hombres de maíz]]''. – Buenos Aires : Losada, 1949 (''Men of Maize'' / translated by Gerald Martin. – New York : Delacorte/Seymour Lawrence, 1975)
*''Viento fuerte''. – Buenos Aires : Ministerio de Educación Pública, 1950 (''Strong Wind'' / translated by Gregory Rabassa. – New York : Delacorte, 1968)
*''Ejercicios poéticos en forma de sonetos sobre temas de Horacio''. – Buenos Aires : Botella al Mar, 1951
*''Alto es el Sur : Canto a la Argentina''. – La Plata, Argentina : Talleres gráficos Moreno, 1952
*''El papa verde''. – Buenos Aires : Losada, 1954 (''The Green Pope'' / translated by [[Gregory Rabassa]]. – New York : Delacorte, 1971)
*''Bolívar : Canto al Libertador''. – San Salvador : Ministerio de Cultura, 1955
*''Soluna : Comedia prodigiosa en dos jornadas y un final''. – Buenos Aires : Losange, 1955
*''Week-end en Guatemala''. – Buenos Aires : Losada, 1956
*''La audiencia de los confines''. – Buenos Aires : Ariadna, 1957
*''Los ojos de los enterrados''. – Buenos Aires : Losada, 1960 (''The Eyes of the Interred'' / translated by Gregory Rabassa. – New York : Delacorte, 1973)
*''El alhajadito''. – Buenos Aires : Goyanarte, 1961 (''The Bejeweled Boy'' / translated by Martin Shuttleworth. – Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1971)
*''Mulata de tal''. – Buenos Aires : Losada, 1963 (''The Mulatta and Mr. Fly'' / translated by Gregory Rabassa. – London : Owen, 1963)
*''Teatro : Chantaje, Dique seco, Soluna, La audiencia de los confines''. – Buenos Aires : Losada, 1964
*''Clarivigilia primaveral''. – Buenos Aires : Losada, 1965
*''El espejo de Lida Sal''. – Mexico City : Siglo Veintiuno, 1967 (''The Mirror of Lida Sal : Tales Based on Mayan Myths and Guatemalan Legends'' / translated by Gilbert Alter-Gilbert. – Pittsburgh : Latin American Literary Review, 1997)
*''Latinoamérica y otros ensayos''. – Madrid : Guadiana, 1968
*''Tres de cuatro soles''. – Madrid : Closas-Orcoyen, 1971
*''Torotumbo; La audiencia de los confines; Mensajes indios''. – Barcelona: Plaza & Janés, 1971
*''Viernes de dolores''. – Buenos Aires : Losada, 1972
*''El hombre que lo tenía todo, todo, todo; La leyenda del Sombrerón; La leyenda del tesoro del Lugar Florido''. – Barcelona: Bruguera, 1981
*''Viajes, ensayos y fantasías'' / Compilación y prólogo Richard J. Callan . – Buenos Aires : Losada, 1981
*''El árbol de la cruz''. – Nanterre : ALLCA XX/Université Paris X, Centre de Recherches Latino-Américanes, 1993
*''Cyclone'' / translated by Darwin Flakoll and Claribel Alegría. – London : Owen, 1967
*''The Talking Machine'' / translated by Beverly Koch. – Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1971
</div>
==See also==
*[[Miguel Ángel Asturias National Prize in Literature]], Guatemala's most prestigious literary prize
*[[Centro Cultural Miguel Ángel Asturias]], national theatre and cultural complex in Guatemala City
== Notes ==
{{reflist|3}}
== References ==
*{{citation|last=Callan|first= Richard |year=1970 |title= Miguel Angel Asturias|place= New York |publisher= Twayne |oclc= 122016}}.
*{{citation|last = Carrera| first = Mario Alberto| authorlink =| title = ¿Cómo era Miguel Ángel Asturias?| publisher = Editorial Cultura| location = Guatemala| year = 1999| pages =| url =| doi =| isbn = }}.
*{{citation|author-link= Jean Franco |last= Franco |first=Jean |editor1-first= Carlos A. |editor1-last= Solé |editor2-first= Maria I.|editor2-last= Abreu |chapter= Miguel Angel Asturias |title=Latin American Writers |location= New York |publisher= Scribner |year= 1989 |isbn=978-0684184630|pages= 865–873}}.
*{{citation|last=Franco|first= Jean|title=An Introduction to Spanish-American Literature|edition=3rd|location=Cambridge|publisher= Cambridge University Press|year= 1994 |isbn= 978-0521449236}}.
*{{citation|last = Frenz| first = Horst| authorlink = | title = Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901–1967| publisher = Elsevier |year = 1969| location = Amsterdam |isbn = 978-9810234133}}.
*{{citation| last = Hill| first = Eladia Leon| authorlink =| title = Miguel Angel Asturias| publisher = Eliseo Torres & Sons| date = 1972| location = New York| pages = | url =| doi =| isbn = }}.
*{{citation|last= Himelblau |first= Jack |title= ''El Señor Presidente'': Antecedents, Sources and Reality |journal= Hispanic Review |volume= 40| issue = 1 |pages= 43–78 |date= Winter, 1973 |year= 1973 url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/471873 | accessdate = 2008-05-23}}. ([[JSTOR]] subscription required for online access.)
*{{citation|last= Leal|first= Luis |title= Myth and Social Realism in Miguel Angel Asturias |journal=Comparative Literature Studies |volume=5 |number=3 |year=1968 |pages=237–247 |url=http://www.cl-studies.psu.edu/issues/05.shtml}}.
*{{citation| last = Liukkonen| first= Petri| publisher= Authors' Calender, Pegasos| title= Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899–1974)| url = http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/asturias.htm| year = 2002| accessdate = 2008-03-11}}.
*{{citation|last= Martin |first= Gerald |author-link= Gerald Martin |title= Mulata de tal: The Novel as Animated Cartoon |url= http://www.jstor.org/stable/471993 | year=1973|journal= Hispanic Review| volume=41|issue=2|pages= 397–415| accessdate=2008-05-24}}. ([[JSTOR]] subscription required for online access.)
*{{citation| last = Martin|first = Gerald|title= On Dictatorship and Rhetoric in Latin American Writing: A Counter-Proposal|journal= Latin American Research Review|volume=17|number=3|year=1982|pages= 207–227}}.
*{{citation| last = Martin| first = Gerald| title= Journeys through the Labyrinth: Latin American Fiction in the Twentieth Century| location= London| publisher =Verso| year = 1989|isbn=978-0860919520}}.
*{{citation|last= Martin | first = Gerald |chapter = Cronología | title = El Señor Presidente | editor-first = Gerald |editor-last= Martin| others= By Miguel Ángel Asturias | edition = Critical ed. | place = Madrid | publisher = ALLCA XX | year = 2000 |date= 2000b | pages = xxxix–li | isbn = 84-89666-51-2}}.
*{{citation|authorlink=Robert McHenry| last = McHenry| first= Robert| date = 1993| contribution = Miguel Angel Asturias|title=The New Encyclopaedia Britannica|volume=1|page= 657|location= Chicago|publisher= University of Chicago|isbn = }}.
*{{citation|last=Mead |first= Jr., Robert G.|title=Miguel Ángel Asturias and the Nobel Prize |date= May, 1968 |year= 1968|journal= Hispania |volume= 51 |issue= 2 | pages= 326–331 |url= http://www.jstor.org/stable/338517 }}.
*{{citation|last= Pilón de Pachecho | first = Marta |title = Miguel Angel Asturias: Semblanza para el estudio de su vida y obra |publisher= Cultural CentroAmericana| year = 1968| location = Guatemala | oclc= 2779332 }}.
*{{citation| last = Prieto| first = Rene| authorlink =| title = Miguel Angel Asturias's Archaeology of Return| publisher = Cambridge University Press| date = 1993| location = New York| pages = | url =| doi =| isbn = 978-0521434126}}.
*{{citation|last= Sierra Franco |first= Aurora |title = Miguel Angel Asturias en la Literatura |publisher= Istmo |year= 1969| location = Guatemala |oclc= 2546463 }}.
*{{citation|last=Valéry |first= Paul |author-link=Paul Valéry |chapter=Carta de Paul Valéry a Francis de Miomandre |title=Leyendas de Guatemala |editor=Miguel Ángel Asturias |place= Buenos Aires |publisher= Losada |year=1957 |isbn=??? }}.
*{{citation|last= Westlake| first = E. J. |title= Our Land is Made of Courage and Glory| publisher= Southern Illinois University Press| location= Illinois |year= 2005 |isbn= 978-0809326259}}.
*{{citation| last= Willis| first= Susan|title= Nobody's Mulata|year=1983|journal= I & L (Ideologies and Literature) Journal of Hispanic and Luso-Brazil Literatures Minneapolis| volume=4|issue=17|pages= 146–162|}}.
*{{citation|last1= Zimmerman |first1= Marc |last2= Rojas|first2= Raul| title = Voices From the Silence: Guatemalan Literature of Resistance| publisher = Ohio University Center for International Studies |place= Athens, OH |year= 1998 |isbn=978-0896801981}}.
==External links==
* {{cite web|title=The Latin American Novel, Testimony of an Epoch|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1967/laureates/1967/asturias-lecture.html|publisher=Nobel lecture from NobelPrize.org}}
* [http://www.literaturaguatemalteca.org/asturiasestudioscriticos.htm Estudios críticos sobre Miguel Ángel Asturias] {{es icon}}, from [http://www.literaturaguatemalteca.org/ Arte y Literatura de Guatemala]
{{Miguel Ángel Asturias}}
{{Nobel Prize in Literature Laureates 1951-1975}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asturias, Miguel Angel}}
[[Category:1899 births]]
[[Category:1974 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery]]
[[Category:Guatemalan writers]]
[[Category:Guatemalan novelists]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Literature]]
[[Category:Magic realism writers]]
[[Category:Guatemalan diplomats]]
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[[zh:米格尔·安赫尔·阿斯图里亚斯]]