Rafael Ramirez Heredia

Rafael Ramírez Heredia (Tampico, Tamaulipas, January 9, 1942 - Mexico City, October 24, 2006). Journalist, bullfighting chronicler, playwright, literature professor and Mexican writer.

Studies

He studied accounting at the Escuela Superior de Contabilidad y Administración (ESCA) of the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), not by vocation, but because he was a player on the American football team and following his classmates who went to those studies. He pursued that career for two years and then found his literary vocation and decided to "go from accountant to storyteller." He was a member of the National System of Art Creators and director of the General Society of Writers of Mexico (SOGEM).

Awards

In 1984 he won the Juan Rulfo Prize, in Paris, France, for his short story El ray Macoy; in 1990, the Juan Ruiz de Alarcón Prize for his book Por los Caminos del Sur, let's go to Guerrero, granted by the state of Guerrero. In 1993 the Society of Writers of the Former Soviet Union awarded him the International Prize for Letters for his published work. He was also awarded the Rafael Bernal Prize for his novel Al calor de Campeche, the Nuevo León National Literature Prize 1997 for "Con M de Marilyn", the prize for & #34;Literary Merit" awarded by the Universidad México-Americana de la Frontera in 2000, the "Gran Orden al Mérito Autoral" from the National Copyright Institute in 2003 and most recently the "Dashiel Hammett Award" (2005), awarded in Gijón, Spain, for his novel "La Mara".

Other activities

As a journalist, he was a correspondent in the Netherlands, Greece, Turkey, Italy, England and Ireland.

In Campeche, among many other places, he trained numerous young writers in literary workshops sponsored by the INBA.

Personal life

Son of a “very brave” unionist father and grandson of Rafael Ramírez Castañeda, an emblematic figure in the Mexican educational system for being the creator of the Rural School of Mexico and the Cultural Missions (the medal that Mexican teachers receive at 30 years of service is named after his grandfather). Ramírez Heredia surrounded himself with literature from a very young age; but it was only a complement to his childhood life: “I read all the time, but I was never a suckling child; no, I was a street fighter and disproportionately brave ”.

Compulsive traveler said that he had been to "so many countries that sometimes they get me confused: living in places as dissimilar as Iowa in the north of the US, or on Isla Mujeres - working as a boatman - or in Moscow - before utopia was broken - or in Madrid where another piece of me resides, or Lisbon, or Paris, or South America, in places like the last southern capital of the world that is Punta Arenas, in Chile, or Foz du Iguazú, on the tripartite border of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, among several others."

In his political criticism, Cáustico recognized with some frustration the cynicism with which the main white-collar Mexican bosses behave. Surrounded by friends in a canteen with a good rum in hand, he said that he had the weakness of being a sensitive man and he was always and everywhere. He also had a soft spot for dogs which he had of various breeds. He was attracted to bullfights, poker, cockfighting, roulette, 21, women... the silence of the churches and the silence of the libraries.

Died in Mexico City on October 24, 2006, as a result of lymphatic cancer.

About his work

Commenting on his work, he pointed out that: "The journalist writes about what he knows, and the narrator about what he thinks he does not know but does. My characters are people from the street, beings that have nothing extraordinary, men and women who are there, around the corner, confused among the people who board the subway, climb on buses, or circulate through the avenues and his face says nothing. I am too attracted to the dark side of people, rather, the gray side that is not seen but whose interior is as terrible as an epic battle, in such a way that my actors can be people I know or that I built from various beings., a kind of creature of various shades, and that is what my characters are based on, I have even been asked if one of them, the detective Ifigenio Clausel, has something of my own personality and I think not, or at least I suppose so...

The songs are felt, they are pulsated in the beat, they are sniffed, they are chewed, they arrive without asking or waiting for questions, they are there, everywhere, the joke is knowing how to squeeze them and get the juice they are asking for. As? I don't know either and at this point, I'm not even trying to find out, he let them out without charging them toll or cork duty."

Some of his latest works were:

"La Mara" (2004) (inspired by the Central American gang group Mara Salvatrucha) and "La esquina de los ojos rojos" (2006).

His work has been published in the United States, Honduras, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Spain, France, Germany, Russia, and Bulgaria, and has been translated into German, French, English, Bulgarian, and Russian.

Works

"Cara_o, but how he's not going to be afraid, not having it is crazy, only mad people are not afraid, but shark doesn't know who's crazy and who isn't. Ramon, if Ramon were here he would know what to do, but a detective in a neighborhood, a detective who knows about canteens and prostitutes, corrupt politicians, bombs in cars, who knows old boleros..."

Al Calor de Campeche, Joaquín Mortiz, Mexico, 1992

Novels

• 1967 El Ocaso (Editorial Costa Amic)
• 1970 Camándula (Editorial Diana. New Reprint in Premiá Editors in 1985)
• 1972 Time Without Hours (Editorial Diana)
• 1976 In The Place of Acts (Diatorial Diana)
• 1979 Metal Trap (Editorial Universe-Diana. Reprint at Editorial Domés in 1985. Reprint at Editorial Planeta - Mortiz 1992)
• 1983 The Hero Site. (Editorial Diana. Reprint in Contemporary Literature Collection of the Editorial. Planet - Origin in 1994
• 1985 Death in the Road (Nine edition at the Editorial Planeta Mortiz.)
• 1989 The Jaula De Dios (Editorial Planeta - Mortiz and Massive Reprint on the Conacult Planet, within its current Narrativa Mexican collection in 1999)
• 1992 Al Calor de Campeche (First edition - reduced version - published in Spain in Revista Cambio 16 More three editions - full version - in Planeta – Mortiz, Mexico)
• 1997 M de Marilyn (Four editions Editorial Alfaguara Mexico-Spain)
• 2004 La Mara (Editorial Alfaguara in Spain and Mexico)
• 2006 The corner of the red eyes (three police novels)
• 2010 To arrive Daniela (Novela postuma, Alfaguara)

Stories

• 1945 Lupe (Tropic)
• 1965 El Enemigo (Editorial Costa Amic)
• 1973 King Aguarda (Editorial Diana)
• 1980 De Viejos y Niñas (Editorial Diana)
• 1984 El Rayo Macoy (Ten editions in Planet Mortiz. In 1986, reprinted in Mexican Readings of 40 thousand copies)
• 1987 Paloma Negra (Seven editions on Planet Mortiz)
• 1988 The territories of La Tarde (Two editions on Planet Mortiz)
• 1989 Reading Material (UNAM Edition)
• 1991 Personal Anthology (Editorial 7 Change)
• 1995 The Media Round and Other Tales (Anthology-Editorial IPN -SOGEM)
• 1995 Talent Anthology (IPN Edition)
• 1996 De Tacones y Gabardina (Two editions Editorial Alfaguara)
• 1998 Mexican Tales (Antología. Editorial LOM- Santiago de Chile)
• 1999 The Rayo Macoy (New Version, Corrected, published by Alfaguara within its pocketbook collection)
• 1999 The Rumbos del Calor and Other Tales (Editorial ISSSTE, pocket book, 20 thousand copies)
• 2001 Del Trópico (three editions in Editorial Alfaguara Mexico-Spain)
• 2002 Quadrilátero (Editorial Aldus- Conaculta)
• 2003 The Condition of Time (Choosed Counts) (Editorial: Fund of Economic Culture, Mexican Letters Collection)
• 2005 Again the Holy One (Editorial: Alfaguara - Santillana General Editions, S. A. de C. V. Mexico, D. F. 2005)

Chronicles and reports

• Tauromagias (2001).

and many more

Awards won

• 1976 National Theatre Award, which delivered Protea (Teatral Producers) for his work "Dentro de estos Ocho Muros"
• 1977 Honorary Mention at the International Theatre Prize, for his work "Los Piojos"
• 1978 Novela National Prize. (Given the First Plane Club) for his book "In the Place of Acts"
• 1980 Diana Gold Award. (which was delivered by Editorial Diana to its best-selling authors) for his report "The Other Face of Oil"
• 1983 National Police Talent Award. (which was delivered by the Journal Ovaciones and Aeroméxico) for its text "Together to Tampico"
• 1984 "Juan Rulfo" International Prize delivered in Paris by the Government of France through Radio France International, to the best tale of the world in Spanish, for its text "El Rayo Macoy".
• 1990 "Juan Ruiz de Alarcón" Award given by the Government of the State of Guerrero, for its book, "By the Ways of the South, Let's go to Guerrero."
• 1990 International Prize of Letters delivered by the Society of Writers of the former Soviet Union. For the whole of his work.
• 1993 "Rafael Bernal" Award presented by the SOGEM - General Society of Writers of Mexico- and the Office of the Attorney General of Justice of the Federal District, to the best police novel, "Al Calor de Campeche", - of those published in Mexico during the years of 1991 and 1992.
• 1997 National Literature Prize, and Nuevo León Culture Council, for the best novel published in Mexico between 1995 and 1997, for his book "With M de Marilyn".
• 1997 National Polytechnic Institute Award.
• 1997 Medalla "Rafael Ramírez Castañeda", for 25 years at the service of the national teachers.
• 1999 Medal "John of God Bátiz", for 25 years at the service of the National Polytechnic Institute.
• 2000 Literary Merit Award awarded by the American University of the Border.
• 2001 Medalla "Ignacio M. Altamirano", for his 40 years at the service of the national teachers.
• 2003 Great Order of National Honor to the Authoral Merit, which delivers the SEP and the Institute of Copyright.
• 2004 Award of the Art Critics Circle of the Republic of Chile to the best foreign book of the year, for the novel, "La Mara".
• 2005 Dashiel Hammett Prize, 2005, which delivers the Black Week of Gijón, Asturias, Spain, for the novel "La Mara"