Martin Luis Guzman

Martín Luis Guzmán Franco (Chihuahua, October 6, 1887 - Mexico City, December 22, 1976), known as Martín Luis Guzmán, was a writer, Mexican journalist and diplomat who is considered, along with Mariano Azuela and Nellie Campobello, a pioneer of the revolutionary novel, a genre inspired by the experiences of the 1910 Mexican Revolution, which he observed following the troops of General Francisco Villa. And later, from his exile in the United States and Spain, those of Generals Adolfo de la Huerta and Francisco R. Serrano. He founded newspapers, weekly magazines, and advertising companies. In 1958, he was awarded Mexico's National Prize for Literature.

Stage of the Mexican Revolution

Guzmán was born in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, on October 6, 1887. He studied law in Mexico City and in 1914 joined the troops of Francisco Villa, with whom he worked closely. After being imprisoned in 1914, he went into exile in Spain, and in 1915 he published in Madrid La querella de México , his first book.

His work

Between 1916 and 1920 he lived in the United States. Since 1917 he directed a Spanish-language magazine in New York called El gráfico , and collaborated with the magazine Universal . With the articles he published in them he composed his second book, in 1920, On the banks of the Hudson.

She returned to Mexico and continued as a journalist. He was elected as a national deputy, but had to go into exile from 1924 to 1936 in Spain, where he wrote several newspapers. His book The Eagle and the Serpent, published in 1928, contained memories of civil strife in Mexico. In 1929 he published the novel La sombra del caudillo which characterized an analysis of the political crisis in Mexico. Later, Guzmán published new novels such as Memories of Pancho Villa, in 1940, and Historical Deaths, in 1958, which earned him the National Award of Sciences and Arts in Literature and Linguistics. Also noteworthy is his biography of Xavier Mina, Mina El Mozo: Héroe De Navarra, Espasa Calpe. Madrid, 1932.

The personality and work of Martín Luis Guzmán can be outlined in three essential aspects: liberal politician, combat journalist and historical background novelist. During the revolutionary period he was firstly a follower of Francisco I. Madero and later Francisco Villa. In the 1930s he felt inclinations and sympathies towards communism, which are clearly perceived at the beginning of the Second World War. He persisted in this position for some time, until he became convinced of the incompatibility of such inclinations with his liberal sense, and from then on he decisively raised the liberal banner of the Mexican Revolution. In this regard, he rendered great services to the Mexican governments, especially as head of the National Commission for Free Textbooks for primary schools. As a journalist, he founded the biweekly newspaper La Juventud in Veracruz at the age of fourteen, directed El Gráfico in New York in 1917, founded the evening newspaper El Mundo in 1922; He wrote for El Sol and La Voz in Madrid, collaborated with El Heraldo de México and El Universal, and finally founded and directed the weekly Tiempo, one of the best political-literary magazines in America since 1942..

Public life

• He was founder in 1939 of the Ediapsa publishing house.

• In 1940 he was appointed a member of the Mexican Academy of Language, on February 19, 1954 he entered as a numbering member, occupied the 13th chair.

• He was founder and editorial director, until his death, of the magazine Time from Mexico.

• He was the first holder of the National Commission on Free Text Books (Conaliteg) when he was founded in 1959 and served until 1976.

• He was Ambassador of Mexico to the United Nations from 1953 to 1958.

• During the events of the 1968 movement in Mexico, then President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz spoke in favor of the journal "Time", where he supported the repression of the students and the actions of the government.

• From 1970 to 1976 he was a senator of the republic.