Ikram Antaki

Ikram Antaki Akel (Damascus, July 9, 1948 - Mexico City, October 31, 2000), known as Ikram Antaki, was a teacher, anthropologist and a Syrian writer who immigrated to Mexico, where she lived until her death.

Biography

He was born in the city of Damascus, Syria, on July 9, 1948. His mother was an expert and lover of Russian literature of the century XIX and his grandfather was the last Turkish governor of Antioch and had the courage to save thousands of Armenians during the Armenian genocide in Turkey. At the age of four, she entered a school for French Franciscan nuns where she completed basic education and high school. Later he emigrated to France to study comparative literature, social anthropology and ethnology of the Arab world at the University of Paris VII (7) Denis Diderot. In 1975, according to the writer's words, she set out to travel "to the end of the world". She opened a compass and placed one end of it in her hometown and the other in the furthest possible point, which turned out to be Mexico, the country of which she would adopt citizenship and in which she would reside until death. her.

Antaki published 29 books in Spanish, French and Arabic. During his stay in Mexico, he collaborated on television channels 11 and 13 (at that time official) in programs alongside characters such as Ricardo Garibay and María Pia, and gained popularity thanks to his appearances on the radio newscast Monitor by José Gutiérrez Vivó and especially with the production of his own programs: El Banquete de Platón and El Ágora. His opinions used to be unorthodox. In his opinion, the generation of young people who participated in the 1968 student movement had been the intellectually poorest in Mexico of the XX century. . He also believed that democracy had no place in the family or at school and that plebiscites were an invention of fascism.

Those who treated her describe her as an extremely private person. Readers of hers, on the other hand, highlight the readability of her texts and lectures, the depth of her research, and the originality of her character. Antaki, on the other hand, defined herself as a teacher, not as a writer. Ikram Antaki received the Magda Donato Award in 1989 and the Juchimán de Plata Award in 1991.

Antaki passed away on October 31, 2000 in Mexico City. He is survived by an only son, fellow writer, Maruan Soto Antaki.

Famous quotes

• "Go to knowledge and you will know sadness"
• "In life we end up being the books we read and the friends of those around us."
• "Man is another man's medicine."
• "I was born twice cursed, born a woman and born in a Muslim country."
• "To everyone who chooses where he wants to be located: in the tranquility of the borrego or in the logging of questions of his dignity as a man. "
• "I think if I die right now, two books will stay from me: The spirit of Córdoba and The people who didn't want to grow up"
• "In relation to the problems of the spirit everything is accepted. But do not venture into experiences in men because they will make them suffer. "
• "It is hypocritical to talk about ending injustice. All we can do is talk about equity: give the chances for men to do things if they can do things. "
• "The best way to get to each other's hatred, racism, xenophobia, intolerance, is to begin with self-esteem. One begins by hating his own people, then he starts to hate everyone else. "
• "Life is not done by simple will and decisions. It is often done by chances. Moreover, one does not begin his life without ceasing. He does not do to the fifty what he did to the twenty."
• "The commemorations are nothing but a show of memory... and I don't cultivate shows, caring memory!
• "Citizenship is a private virtue, of public utility"
• "To act is to escape the decay of things"
• "I can't be in favor of the death penalty for the simple reason that we don't kill, we want to live, we love life and we know the power of our actions, killing someone is attacking himself"

Books published

• Deir Atieh (1973). Paris. Examination of rural anthropology in French.
• Hanna's adventures in good health until her death (1975) Beirut (in Arabic)
• I meet Yasser Arafat. (1980) Mexico. Interview.
• Hanna's adventures in history (1984) Mexico. Poetry.
• Poems of the Jews and the Arabs Mexico (1989). Poetry.
• The culture of the Arabs Mexico (1989). Essay.
• The pine (1990) Mexico. Poetry.
• Third culture. Our island-Arab roots (1990) Mexico. Art book.
• The book of the land-house Mexico (1991). Art book.
• Epiphany (1992) Mexico. Poetry.
• The Secret of God (1992) Mexico. Novel.
• Second rebirth. Thought and end of the century (1992) Mexico. Essay.
• The spirit of Córdoba (1994) Mexico. Novel.
• The banquet of Plato five volumes History, Religion, Philosophy, Science, Great topics. First series (1996-1997) Mexico.
• The banquet of Plato six volumes History, Science, Religion, Philosophy, Art, Great themes. Second series (1998) Mexico.
• The banquet of Plato three volumes Religion, Spirituality, Moral Issues. Third Posthumous Series (2000) Mexico.
• The people who didn't want to grow (1996) Mexico. I rehearse with the pseudonym of Polibio de Arcadia.
• Celebrate thought (1999) Mexico. Dating.
• Symbiosis of culture, immigrants and their culture in Mexico Mexico (1993). Essay.
• Consumption at the end of the millennium (1997) Mexico. Essay.
• Manual of the contemporary citizen (2000) Mexico. Essay.
• Around the Millennium (2000) Mexico. Posthumous rehearsal.