José Franco (poet)

José Franco (Calobre, March 24, 1936 - Las Tablas, May 9, 2022) was a Panamanian poet, diplomat and constitutionalist, author of Panamá Defendida (1958).

Biography

He studied at the Juan Demóstenes Arosemena school and graduated with a Bachelor's and Teaching Degree in Letters from the University of Panama. He also studied at the Central University of Ecuador.

He was ambassador of Panama in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. He directed the National Institute of Culture and the Information Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1972 he joined the drafting commission of the Draft Political Constitution of Panama, as a main member. He was an advisor and columnist for Editora Renovación and directed the newspaper La República.

He has obtained several recognitions as a poet, journalist and diplomat. Among them, he won the Ricardo Miró National Literature Competition three times, as a poet and playwright. He won the National Folklore Award three times in the Tenth category (1966, 1967, 1968) and the National Journalism Award in the categories of reportage (1964), Column (1947 and 1985) and Editorial (1966 and 1984).

He was nominated for the Prince of Asturias Award in 1998. He is an honorary Doctor from Columbia University.

He died on May 9, 2022 at the age of 86

Works

Poetry

• Anonymous solitudes (1955)
• Panama defended (1958)
• Homeland of pain and crying (1961)
• Singing the Revolution (1972)
• Poems to my homeland (1975)
• Seed in flower (1973)
• Testimony hours (1976)
• Holy Land (1974)
• Sleep with the dead (1974)
• Copies and fables to Pelusa (1977)
• A green cross on the road (1979)
• The blood shed (1984)
• The moon between the pines (1997)

Theatre

• Redobles to dawn

r (Theatre-1977)

Novel

• The pantheon of the alleys (1990)
• The fireflies of death (1995)
• Plutonium operation 239 (1994)

Others

• The verses of Panama (Morgan and Morgan, collection Audio Books1994)
• Romances of the reverted areas, Literary tradition by the Panama Canal, UNESCO1997)