Eduardo Lizalde Chávez (14 July 1929 – 25 May 2022) was a Mexican poet, academic and administrator. Lizalde was known as "El Tigre" for recurring themes in his work which stem from his childhood fondness for the stories of Salgari and

Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

. As he explains: "The tiger has been a fascinating figure from Biblical times until now, and I don't believe there has ever been a writer who has never made a reference to tigers. The tiger is an image of death, destruction and, also, of beauty..."

Career

Lizalde was born in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

in 1929. His father, an engineer, taught him to read at an early age and introduced him to literature. He also began writing early and published his first short poems in 1948, at the age of eighteen, in the magazine '' El Universal''. His first full book of poems, ''La Mala Hora'', was published when he was 27. While studying literature at the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

(UNAM), he also attended night classes at the National Conservatory of Music. In 1955, he became a member of the

Communist Party of Mexico The Mexican Communist Party (, PCM) was a communist party in Mexico. It was founded in 1917 as the Socialist Workers' Party (, PSO) by Manabendra Nath Roy, a left-wing Indian revolutionary. The PSO changed its name to the ''Mexican Communist ...

, but was expelled at the beginning of the 1960s, together with

José Revueltas José Revueltas Sánchez (November 20, 1914 in Santiago Papasquiaro, Durango – April 14, 1976 in Mexico City) was a Mexican writer, essayist, and political activist. He was part of an important artistic family that included his siblings Silves ...

. He and Revueltas then founded the "Liga Leninista Espártaco", an alternative movement with which they both soon became disenchanted. Shortly thereafter Lizalde, Enrique González Rojo, and Marco Antonio Montes de Oca started ''Poeticísmo'', a literary movement which quickly fizzled out. Lizalde himself severely criticized the movement in his book ''Autobiografía de un Fracaso'' ("Autobiography of a Failure"), in which he said the movement's goal to create poetry with "originality, clarity and complexity" was so vague that, in reality, "there was nothing". In fact, despite his continuing efforts to promote Mexican literature, Lizalde has expressed dissatisfaction with his own work and poetry in general, of which he has frequently said "no sirve para nada" (it's useless). He has served as the director of the Casa del Lago at

UNAM The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countries. It also has 34 ...

and has held several positions at the

Secretariat of Public Education In Mexico, the Secretariat of Public Education ( in Spanish ''Secretaría de Educación Pública'', ''SEP'') is a federal government authority with cabinet representation and the responsibility for overseeing the development and implementation o ...

. He was also the director of the

José Vasconcelos Library Biblioteca Vasconcelos, also known as the ''Megabiblioteca'' by the press, is a library in the Buenavista neighborhood of Mexico City. It is dedicated to José Vasconcelos, the philosopher and former president of the National Library of ...

and co-hosted ''Contrapunto'', a weekday radio program from the

Instituto Mexicano de la Radio The Instituto Mexicano de la Radio (IMER; English: "Mexican Radio Institute") is a Mexican public broadcaster. It was founded in 1983 as a companion to the public TV broadcaster Imevisión, since privatized and known as TV Azteca. When Imevisió ...

(IMER).

Awards and honors

* 1970: Awarded the

Xavier Villaurrutia Prize The Xavier Villaurrutia Award (Premio Xavier Villaurrutia) is a prestigious literary prize given in Mexico, to a Latin American writer published in Mexico. Founded in 1955, it was named in memory of Xavier Villaurrutia. Its jury is composed of pre ...

* 1988: Awarded the Premio Nacional de Lingüística y Literatura * 2002: Awarded the Premio Iberoamericano

Ramón López Velarde Ramón López Velarde (June 15, 1888 – June 19, 1921) was a Mexican poet. His work was a reaction against French-influenced '' modernismo'' which, as an expression of a purely Mexican subject matter and emotional experience, is unique. He ach ...

* 2007: Elected to the

Academia Mexicana de la Lengua The Academia Mexicana de la Lengua (variously translated as the Mexican Academy of Language, the Mexican Academy of the Language, the Mexican Academy of Letters, or glossed as the Mexican Academy of the Spanish Language; acronym AML) is the cor ...

* 2011: Awarded the Alfonso Reyes International Prize * 2016: Awarded the Carlos Fuentes International Prize for Literary Creation in the Spanish Language

Selected works

* ''La Zorra Enferma'', Mortiz (1974) * ''Caza Mayor'', UNAM (1979) * ''Autobiografía de un Fracaso. El Poeticísmo'', INBA (1981) * ''Memoria del Tigre'', Katún (1983) * ''¡Tigre, Tigre!'', Fondo de Cultura Económica (1985) * ''Antología Impersonal'', SEP Cultura (1986) * ''Tabernarios y Eróticos'', Vuelta (1988) * ''Almanaque de Cuentos y Ficciones (1955-2005)'', ERA (2010) * ''El Tigre en la Casa'', Valparaíso (2013)

References

External links

Perfil de Eduardo Lizalde
by Luis Ignacio Helguera in

Letras Libres ''Letras Libres'' is a Spanish-language monthly literary magazine published in Mexico and Spain. History and profile ''Letras Libres'', printed since 1999 in Mexico and since 2001 in Spain, has an average of eighteen to twenty articles per issue ...

.
A Media Voz: Selected poems by Lizalde
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lizalde, Eduardo 1929 births 2022 deaths Mexican male poets Writers from Mexico City 20th-century Mexican poets 20th-century Mexican male writers 21st-century Mexican poets 21st-century Mexican male writers National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni National Conservatory of Music of Mexico alumni Academic staff of the National Autonomous University of Mexico Poets from Mexico City