Ibargüengoitia, Jorge (1928–1983)

Jorge Ibargüengoitia (b. 22 February 1928; d. 27 November 1983), Mexican novelist, playwright, and journalist. Ibargüengoitia was born in Guanajuato, studied engineering and drama at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and won scholarships from the Sociedad Mexicana de Escritors (1954, 1955) and the Rockefeller (1955) and Gusseheim (1969) foundations. Among his works are the imaginative novels Los relámpagos de agosto (1964), La ley de Herodes (1967), and Maten al león (1969). His farcical comedies resemble those by Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter: Susana y los jóvenes (1954), Clotilde en su casa (1955), and Llegó Margo and Ante varias esfinges, both in 1956. Later a disagreement with his mentor Rodolfo Usigli and some unfortunate stage productions alienated Ibargüengoitia from the theater. His last play, El atentado (1962), a historical farce about a presidential assassination, received the Casa de las Américas Prize in 1963. Two of his books are available in English translation: Muertas (The Dead Girls, 1983) and Dos crímenes (Two Crimes, 1984).

His sardonic sense of humor and imaginative techniques made him one of the best writers of his generation. He died in a plane crash in Spain.

See alsoTheater .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Willis Knapp Jones, Behind Spanish American Footlights (1966).

Walter M. Langford, The Mexican Novel Comes of Age (1971).

Vicente Leñero, Los pasos de Jorge (1989).

Additional Bibliography

Batis, Huberto. Crítica bajo presión: Prosa mexicana, 1964–1985. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coordinación de Humanidades, Programa Editorial, 2004

González, Alfonso. Voces de la posmodernidad: Seis narradores mexicanos contemporaneous. Mexico City: Coordinación de Difusión Cultural, Dirección de Literatura/UNAM, 1998.

Reyes Fragoso, Arturo. Dos artistas en pantalón corto: Ibargüengoitia y Felguérez, scouts. Mexico City: Editorial Praxis, 2003.

Von Son, Carlos. Deconstructing Myths: Parody and Irony in Mexican Literature. New Orleans: University Press of the South, 2002.

                                 Guillermo Schmidhuber