Carlos Monsiváis

Carlos Monsiváis Aceves (Mexico City, May 4, 1938-Mexico City, June 19, 2010) was a Mexican writer and journalist.

Biography

Monsivis in 2005.

Personal library of the writer, today deposited in the Mexico Library José Vasconcelos.

Since he was very young, he collaborated in cultural supplements and Mexican journalistic media. He studied at the Faculty of Economics and the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and theology at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Mexico. He attended the Center for International Studies at Harvard University in 1965.

Much of his work was published in newspapers, magazines, supplements, weeklies and other types of newspaper sources. He collaborated in Mexican newspapers such as Novedades, El Día, Excélsior, Unomásuno, La Jornada, El Universal, Proceso, Siempre! magazine, Fractal, Eros, People i>, Nexos, Letras Libres, Este País, the Magazine of the University of Mexico, among others. He was an editorial writer for various media outlets.

His political positions and his critical perspective led him, from the beginning of his journalistic career, to account for all those literary, social and cultural phenomena that implied a contempt for authoritarianism, the established order and conservatism. Hence her interest in the student movement of 1968, popular idols (El Santo, Cantinflas), the feminist movement, left-wing protest figures and characters or events that in some sense implied an advance of progressive ideas and a rejection of any authoritarian position. He promoted the rights of social minorities, public education and reading. He openly supported the fight for sexual diversity and animal rights. He was a strong supporter of the decriminalization of abortion and fought against bullfighting, which earned him many detractors in conservative sectors.

Another of his interests was national cinema. He wrote multiple essays and approaches to the subject (the book Faces of Mexican Cinema , for example) and directed the program Cinema and Criticism on Radio UNAM for more than ten years.. In addition, he participated as an actor in several Mexican films, among which are Un alma pura by Juan Ibáñez, Tajimara by Juan José Gurrola, In this town there are no Thieves by Alberto Isaac, The Caifanes by Juan Ibáñez, The Visitations of the Devil by Alberto Isaac, Zapata by Felipe Cazals and The Avenging Warrior 2 by Raúl Fernández Jr..

He was editorial secretary at the magazines Medio Siglo (from 1956 to 1958) and Estaciones (from 1957 to 1959) and director of the supplement “La cultura en México” of the magazine Siempre! (between 1972 and 1987). He directed the record collection Voz Viva de México , from UNAM.

The chronicle and the essay form the majority of his literary work. He also wrote short stories, fables, and aphorisms among other literary genres. In his Autobiography of him (written at the age of 28), he wrote: "I accepted this sort of autobiography for the petty purpose of making myself look like a mix of Albert Camus and Ringo Starr."

One of the main characteristics of his work is acid humor, irony and political satire. In 1972, under the signature of «R», his column «For my mother, bohemians» appeared, which would be published in the supplement «La cultura en México» until 1987. From 1989 to 2001 it was published in the newspaper La Jornada in collaboration with Alejandro Brito and, from 2006 to 2010 in the magazine Proceso, in collaboration with Jenaro Villamil. In this column, he compiled statements from politicians, businessmen, representatives of the Church and other figures in public life, satirizing their ignorance or their limited vision of the world and exhibiting the demagogy of the ruling class in Mexico.

Among his books, Días de guardar (1971), Amor perdido (1977), New catechism for remiss Indians (1982) stand out., Scenes of modesty and lightness (1988), The rituals of chaos (1995), Salvador Novo. The marginal in the center (2000) and Aires de familia. Culture and society in Latin America (2000), among others.

Among the multiple awards he received are the National Journalism Award (1977 and 2009), the Mazatlán Literature Award (1989), the Xavier Villaurrutia Award (1995), the Lya Kostakowsky Award, the Anagrama Essay Award (2000) and the Juan Rulfo Latin American and Caribbean Literature Award (2006).

Death

Carlos Monsiváis was admitted on April 1, 2010 in the intensive care area of the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition Salvador Zubirán, due to pulmonary fibrosis. On June 19, 2010, the Ministry of Health announced his death due to respiratory failure.His coffin was exposed at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico. In recognition of his support in the fight for sexual minorities, the LGBT flag was placed on the coffin.

Love cats

Carlos Monsiváis' affection for cats was famous: a total of thirteen cats lived with him in his house. The doctors who treated him confirmed that his disease (pulmonary fibrosis) had nothing to do with the fact that he lived with so many pets. Together with Claudia Vásquez Lozano, he created the Forgotten Cats Civil Organization , which she chairs.

Work

Chronicles/essays

Biographical texts (chronicles of life and work)

• Carlos Monsivéis (autobiography) (1966)
• Celia Montalván (you offer voluptuous and impudent) (1982)
• Mary Left (1986)
• Luis García Guerrero: new landscape (1987)
• José Chávez Morado (1989)
• Mexican scenes in the work of Teresa Nava (1997)
• Salvador Novo. The marginal in the center (2000)
• Where I am, we are. Octavian Peace: Chronicle of Life and Work (2000)
• Novoamor (2001)
• I bless you, life. Amado Nervo: Chronicle of Life and Work (2002)
• Carlos Pellicer Camera: Iconography (2003)
• Annita Brenner: Vision of an Age (2006)
• Frida Kahlo (2007)
• Rosa Covarrubias: An American who loved Mexico (2007)
• Pedro Infante: The laws of want (2008)

Fable

• New catechism for remiss Indians (1982)

Aphorisms

• Lirica sacra, moral and laudatory (2009) / 48 aphorisms of Carlos Monsivéis and 24 engravings of Vicente Rojo.
• Monsivaisiana. Aphorisms of a people who want to be a citizen (2010) / Selection and Liminar Study of Linda Egan.
• Help yourself that God will help you. Aphorisms of Carlos Monsivís (2011) / Foreword, research and selection of Francisco León.

Books in collaboration

• Frida Kahlo. A life, a work (1992) (with Rafael Vázquez Bayod)
• Through the mirror: Mexican cinema and its audience (1994) (with Carlos Bonfil)
• Part of war. Tlatelolco 1968. Documents by General Marcelino García Barragán. The facts and history (1999) (with Julio Scherer)
• Part of war II. The faces of '68. New photographic evidence (2002) (with Julio Schererer)
• Leopoldo Méndez 1902-2002 (2002) (with Rafael Barajas and Laura González)”
• Time to know. Press and power in Mexico (2003) (with Julio Scherer)
• Patriots: from Tlaltelolco to war, (2004), Aguilar, written with Julio Scherer
• The historic centre of Mexico City (2006) (with Francis Alÿs)
• The gloomy traveler: Julio Ruelas Modernista, 1870-1907 (2007) (with Antonio Saborit and Teresa del Conde)
• The Black Man (2007) (with Helioflores)

Anthologies

• The Mexican Poetry of the Twentieth Century (1966)
• Mexican poetry II, 1915-1979 (1979)
• You know it. Chronicle Anthology in Mexico (1980)
• The fugitive remains. 21 Mexican stories (1984)
• Mexican poetry II, 1915-1985 (1985)

Translations

• Mexican Postcards (1997)
• A New Catechism for Recalcitrant Indians (2007) (Trad Jeffrey Browitt and Nidia Esperanza Castrillón)
• Obřady chaosu (2007)

Texts in collective books

• History for what? (1980) (ISBN: 968-23-1023-7)
• Mexican myths (1995) (Enrique Florescano, coordinator)
• Passion at Iztapalapa (2008) (Laura Emilia Pacheco, coordinator)
• "The verbal riddles", in VV.AA., Illuminated words. Editor: Manuel Ferro. Madrid: La Casa Encendida, 2012. [Catalogue of the exhibition on the graphic work of José-Miguel Ullán].

Critical Bibliography

• The eccentricity of the text. The poetic character of the new catechism for remissive Indians / Raquel Serur (coord.), Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2010.
• The indispensable consciousness. Essays about Carlos Monsivéis / Jezreel Salazar (comp.), Mexico: Fondo Editorial Tierra Adentro, 2009.
• The Art of Irony: Carlos Monsivéis ante la crítica / Mabel Moraña, Ignacio Sánchez Prado (eds.), Mexico: Era, 2007.
• The city as a text: The urban chronicle of Carlos Monsivéis / Jezreel Salazar, Monterrey: Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, 2006.
• Approaches to Carlos Monsivís / José Bru, Dante Medina, Raúl Bañuelos (comps.), Guadalajara, Jalisco: Universidad de Guadalajara, 2006.
• Nothing Mexican is foreign to me: six papers on Carlos Monsivéis / Adolfo Castañón, Mexico: Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México, 2005.
• Carlos Monsivéis à l'écoute du peuple mexicain / Laura Brondino, Paris, Budapest: Torino: l'Harmattan, 2004.
• Carlos Monsivéis: Culture and Chronicle in Contemporary Mexico / Linda Egan, Mexico: Fund for Economic Culture, 2004.

Others

• Sansimonsi / Text: Elena Poniatowska, Illustrations: Rafael Barajas "El Fisgón". Mexico: Uache Editions, 2013.

• Where do you see, Monsivites? Guide to the DF of Carlos Monsivís / Déborah Holtz, Juan Carlos Mena (eds.), Mexico: Trilce, Grijalbo, Government of the Federal District, 2010.

• 17 poems for Monsivis José Alfredo Jiménez, Carlos Pellicer, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Amado Nervo, Efraín Huerta, Renato Leduc and Benito Juárez. Barcelona: Casa América Cataluña, 2010.

Awards and recognitions

Estanquillo Museum

The Museo del Estanquillo is located in the La Esmeralda building, on the corner of Isabel La Católica and Madero streets, in the Historic Center of Mexico City, Mexico. The museum houses the personal collection of the writer, which ranges from paintings and photography to toys, albums, calendars, advertising and books.