Aridjis, Homero (1940–)

views updated

Aridjis, Homero (1940–)

Homero Aridjis (b. 6 April 1940), Mexican writer. Like many of his contemporaries in Mexico, Aridjis has had a varied career, including journalism, diplomatic service, and teaching. Trained as a journalist, he was a member of a writing workshop directed by the noted Mexican short-story writer Juan José Arreola and was awarded fellowships by the Centro Mexicano de Escritores (Mexican Writers Center) and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Aridjis has written poetry and prose, much of it first published in Mexican literary journals and Sunday cultural supplements of newspapers and subsequently appearing in numerous collected works. His many volumes of poetry, among them Antes del reino (1963) and Vivar para ver (1977), focus on themes of love, life, and death, and are heavily charged with emotion. More recently he has attempted to create the "poema nuclear" (nuclear poem), modifying his use of language and including social and historical themes. As a prose writer of stories and novels, he combines narrative and poetic elements (Mirándola dormir, 1964, and Perséfone, 1967), autobiography (El poeta niño, 1971), and the historical (1492, vida y tiempos de Juan Cabezón de Castilla, 1985). Much of Aridjis's writing has been translated into English and other languages. In recent years, he has been actively involved with other intellectuals in the Grupo de los Cien (Group of 100), Mexico's foremost ecological movement.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Manuel Durán, "Música en sordina: Tres poetas mexicanos. Bonifaz Nuño, García Terrés, Aridjis," in Plural, no. 8 (1972): 29-31.

Merlin H. Forster, "Four Contemporary Mexican Poets: Marco Antonio Montes de Oca, Gabriel Zaid, José Emilio Pacheco, Homero Aridjis," in his Tradition and Renewal: Essays on Twentieth-Century Latin American Literature and Culture (1975).

Frank Dauster, "Poetas mexicanos nacidos en las décadas de 1920, 1930 y 1940," in Revista Iberoamericana, 55, nos. 148-149 (1989): 1161-1175.