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Augusto Monterroso

Biography

Augusto Monterroso is perhaps most famous for his short story The Dinosaur The complete story is Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí. (When s/he woke up, the dinosaur was still there). He was born in 1921 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. His father was Guatemalan and his mother Honduran. The family moved between the two countries, finally settling in Guatemala City in 1936. As a result of these moves, he had little formal schooling and was, to a great extent, self-taught. He was active in the movement opposed to Jorge Ubico and his successor Ponce Vaides. He founded an opposition paper which was suppressed and, with the government arresting those involved in the paper, he went into exile to Mexico. He stayed there till 1963, when he was appointed to a post in the Guatemalan Embassy in Bolivia. A coup d’état in 1954 meant further exile, this time in Chile. He stayed for two years before returning to Mexico where he lived till he died in 2003. He specialised in the micro-relato (microstory), many of which, like the one above, are very short.

Other links

Augusto Monterroso
Obituary
Obituary
Augusto Monterroso (in Spanish)
Augusto Monterroso (in Spanish)
Augusto Monterroso (selection of online texts – in Spanish)
Obituary (in Spanish)
Interview (in Spanish)

Bibliography

1959 Obras completas (y otros cuentos) (Complete Works and Other Stories – includes Movimiento perpetuo)
1969 La oveja negra y demás fábulas (The Black Sheep and Other Fables)
1972 Movimiento perpetuo (Complete Works and Other Stories – includes Obras completas (y otros cuentos) (stories, essays, aphorisms)
1972 Animales y hombres (stories)
1978 Lo demás es silencio (The Rest Is Silence)
1981 Viaje al centro de la fábula (interviews)
1983 La palabra mágica (essays)
1987 La letra e: fragmentos de un diario [The Letter E: Fragments of a diary]
1991 Las ilusiones perdidas y otros relatos
1993 Los buscadores de oro (novel)
1994 Sinfonía concluida y otros cuentos
1995 El eclipse y otros cuentos
1996 La vaca (essays)
1998 Pájaros de Hispanoamérica (biographies)
1999 Llorar orillas del río Mapocho (stories)
2000 Fabulaciones y ensayos
2001 Literatura y vida
2006 La exportación de cerebros (stories)