Ramon Rocha Monroy

Ramón Rocha Monroy (Cochabamba, February 20, 1950), is a Bolivian writer, gourmet and journalist, National Novel Award 2002. El run run de la calavera It is among the 15 fundamental novels of Bolivia, a collection edited by the Ministry of Cultures and selected by more than 50 critics and literature professors from that country. He is also a member of the Bolivian Bicentennial Library (BBB) and his chronicles appear in the Anthology of the gastronomic chronicle.

Biography

Son of Sixto Rocha and Carmela Monroy, he was presumed dead at birth. Many years later, the writer would relate this fact in a book and in a 2012 interview he said: "My relationship with death is very early and I told it in a book published by the El País publishing house, The Cave and the weather. Confidences of the Glass Eye, because I was stillborn. It is a fact. They took me out as best they could to save my mother, who was in a coma, and they threw me into the garbage dump, technically dead. Fortunately, my aunt Maruja worried about me. She came in, she saw my mother in a coma and asked about the child. She was the only one who cared. I was thrown in the garbage can, she heard me and I still had the “tic tock”. Thanks to her I live. I think that in that initial state, of the greatest possible helplessness, I took my fists with death and defeated it.

Rocha Monroy studied Law at the Universidad Mayor de San Simón, where he graduated as a lawyer. Later, while in exile, he would pursue a master's degree in Political Science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

As a journalist, he is known for his chronicles of Cochabamba, his hometown. Columnist for the newspaper Los Tiempos, he was press advisor at the Bolivian embassy in Mexico (1990-1992).

Previously, he had directed the Bolivian Institute of Culture (1979) and later, from 1998 to 2000, he served as vice minister of Culture under the government of Hugo Banzer Suárez in alliance with the MIR, a party of which he was a member until withdrawal of its legal status in 2006.

Years later he joined the MAS and in 2014 he was named candidate for first senator for the department of Cochabamba by that party, but he could not be registered due to missing some documents. At the beginning of that year he was appointed member of the council of administration of the Cultural Foundation of the Central Bank of Bolivia.

University professor, he became famous with his columns published under the pseudonym Glass Eye.

The writer

An award-winning writer, he received his first prize, the Franz Tamayo, with the essay titled Pedagogy of Liberation during the celebrations of Bolivia's sesquicentennial, in 1975.

The first volume of fiction he published was one of short stories, titled Allá Far (1978), and his first triumph as a novelist was obtained with El run run de la calavera by winning second place (the first was declared void) of the defunct Erich Guttentag Prize —along with The Infertile Tomb by René Bascopé— awarded by the publisher Los Amigos del Libro. This work, published in 1983, has also been selected among the 15 fundamental novels of Bolivian literature by more than 50 critics and researchers invited by the Ministry of Cultures. It must be said that the novel was not published and appeared only after that he humorously claimed by publishing "an obituary notice indicating the end of the year mass of El run run de la calavera". "Then they sent me this man from the jury who told me “the second part is very bad, why don't we just publish the first part?” "As I have never been sure of what I do, I accepted and then the first edition - which is the one that almost everyone knows - is only the first part," he said in an interview.

With his novel Potosí 1600 he won the Alfaguara National Novel Award.

He has published three books together with the newspaper Los Tiempos: 200 Biographies of the Bicentennial (2010), Anecdotes of Cochabamba (2011) and < i>Women, mothers, heroines, tribute to the Heroines of the Crown.

He is also renowned for his comments as a gourmet, reader of Michel Onfray and culinary critic, "simply highlighting his bohemian life and given to his own pleasures" of a sybarite, he vetoes that he has exploited for many years in his column Critique of Pure Seasoning and in his book Philosophy of the Belly. Secrets of the Glass Eye Diet. Cultivator of the purest Cochabamba Creole cultural manifestations, he is part of the Committee for the Conservation of Local Culture.

His prose is characterized by having a picaresque air that manages to capture the syncretic and diverse spirit of the American man, with special emphasis on his closest Bolivian incarnation. A faithful witness to his reality and his time, he is, through his work, a tribute to the Mexican narrator Juan Rulfo, the Frenchman Boris Vian and the Argentinean Julio Cortázar.

Works

• Pedagogy of liberation, essay, Editorial Casa Municipal de la Cultura Franz Tamayo, 1976
• Over there, stories, The Friends of the Book, La Paz, 1977; contains 5 texts:
  • The aleph; Vespers, The music of the deaf, My elders e Lex report
• The godfather. Balance or storytelling, The Friends of the Book, La Paz, 1979
• National question and class struggle in Latin America, Universidad Mayor de San Simón, Instituto de Estudios Sociales y Economía, Cochabamba, 1982
• The run of the skull, novel, The Friends of the Book, La Paz, 1983
• I'm flying low, novel, The Friends of the Book, La Paz, 1997 (corrected and improved edition, La Tirana, 2009)
• The empty box, novel, Afaguara Bolivia, La Paz, 1998
• Ladies Night, novel, 2000
• Potosí 1600, novel, Alfaguara Bolivia, La Paz, 2002
• Criticism of pure season, gastronomic chronicle, El País, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 2004
• Belly philosophy. Diet Secrets of the Glass Eye2005
• Just keep the dead! Life of Antonio José de Sucre, El País, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 2006
• The utopia made. Biography of a dissident, life and work by Luis Ernesto Espinoza SánchezCochabamba, 2006
• All comins lead aroma, gastronomic chronicle, El País, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 2007
• Life by bike, columns, Kipus, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 2008
• Never again.written with the documentaryist Roberto Alem on the tragic events of 11 January 2007 in Cochabamba; El País, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 2008
• Urgent biographies, "Reúmenes de vida de 16 íconos del pensamiento político en Bolivia y de 14 forjadores del movimiento indígena nacional", Kipus, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 2009
• Iskay, novel La Hoguera, 2009
• 200 Biographies of the Bicentennial, on illustrious cochabambins; The Times, Cochabamba, 2010
• The cave and the weather. Trusts of the Glass Eye, novel autobiography, El País, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 2011
• Anecdotes of Cochabamba, The Times, Cochabamba, 2011
• The shadow of the drum, novel based on the newspaper of José Santos Vargas during the War of Independence, El País, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 2012
• Women, mothers, heroines, The Times, Cochabamba, 2012
• Why keep believing, essay, Ministry of Communication, 2013
• By cunning or by forceessay on the conflict on mediterraneanity of Bolivia, MinCommunication, 2014
• Lead to sticks. History of the neoliberal repression of the coca movement in Bolivia, essay, MinCommunication, 2014
• 20 topics to decolonize political philosophy in Bolivia, essay, MinCommunication, 2014
• Zulma Yugar, life and commitment to Bolivian music, biography, Editorial Group Kipus, Cochabamba, 2014
• Tips for writing (more) better, essay, Editorial Kipus, 2014
• Eduardo Arze-Loureiro, essay, Editorial Kipus Group, 2014

Awards and recognitions

• Grand Sesquicentennial Essay Award in the Franz Tamayo 1975 contest Pedagogy of liberation
• Second Erich Guttentag Award for 1983 The run of the skull (ex aequo with René Bascopé for The foul grave
• Erich Guttentag 1994 Award I'm flying low
• Novela National Award 2002 for Potosí 1600
• 15 fundamental novels of Bolivia (2009). By Cochabamba were selected novels by: Nataniel Aguirre, Adela Zamudio, Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz and Rocha Monroy. His novel The run of the skull appears in this collection and in the Bolivian Library of the Bicentennial, as well as his texts in the Anthology of the Gastronomic Chronicle of the same Library.
• Honorary title of Cronist of the City, awarded by the Municipal Council of Cochabamba (2011)