Manuel Francisco Galich López (

Ciudad de Guatemala Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...

, 30 November 1913 –

La Habana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Guatemalan

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

.John Shillington Grappling with Atrocity: Guatemalan Theater in the 1990s - 2002 0838639305 Page 42 "Manuel Galich (1913-1984) Manuel Galich was a prolific playwright as well as a left- wing professor and politician. His playwriting evolved from historical drama and costumbristas to nationalistic plays. Carrillo describes him as "un dramaturge ..." He was born in Guatemala to María Isabel López Santa Cruz and Luis Dionisio Galich Urquía and was one of four children. In 1928 he received a scholarship and was accepted into the Escuela Normal para Varones, where he began his secondary schooling. Due to a strike at the Escuela Normal, he was transferred to the Instituto Nacional Central para Varones. There he obtained a masters in

Primary Education Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...

and a bachelor's degree in Science in Letter. Manuel's artistic gifts were confirmed this year as he wrote and directed his first play titled ''Los conspiradores,'' which began his development as a playwright. One year later he imparted chairs of

Pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

Literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

Grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

, and

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

in the Escuela Normal Central para Varones and in the Instituto Normal Central para Señoritas Belén. In 1933 Manuel Galich entered into the Universidad Nacional from which he graduated as a lawyer. Two years after graduation he was appointed as Vocal II for the College of Lawyers before the Joint Directive of Faculty for the Legal and Social Sciences. From a very early age Manuel Galich was involved in

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

. During his time as teaching, Manuel Galich wrote theatre pieces with his students as the assembly. He began as an actor when he was eleven years old and also did work as a member of the “radioteatro” (radio theatre) for the official radio TGW of Guatemala. After some time he became an author of very valuable works of theatre. Manuel Galich was one of the most representative young people fighting against the dictatorships of both

Jorge Ubico Castañeda Jorge Ubico Castañeda (10 November 1878 – 14 June 1946), nicknamed Number Five or also Central America's Napoleon, was a Guatemalan military officer, politician, and dictator who served as the president of Guatemala from 1931 to 1944. A Ge ...

and

Federico Ponce Vaides Juan Federico Ponce Vaides (27 March 1889 – 29 January 1956) was the acting President of Guatemala from 4 July 1944 to 20 October 1944. He was overthrown by a popular uprising on 20 October 1944 that began the Guatemalan Revolution. Life P ...

. He also served as a revolutionary during the Revolution of October 20, 1944. In his book ''Del pánico al ataque'' tells of the fights his generation had to fight against the dictatorship. From 1944 to 1954 he held various positions including President of the Congress, Minister of Education,

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

, and ambassador to

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

during the

Jacobo Árbenz Juan Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán (; 14 September 191327 January 1971) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the 25th president of Guatemala. He was Minister of National Defense from 1944 to 1950, before he became the secon ...

government.

References

1984 deaths 1913 births Guatemalan dramatists and playwrights Male dramatists and playwrights Presidents of the Congress of Guatemala Guatemalan diplomats 20th-century dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Guatemalan writers 20th-century Guatemalan male writers 20th-century diplomats Ministers of foreign affairs of Guatemala Guatemalan expatriates in Cuba {{Guatemala-bio-stub