Elena Poniatowska
| Elena Poniatowska | |
|---|---|
 Elena Poniatowska in 2008 |
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| Born | May 19, 1932 Paris, France |
| Occupation | Journalist, Author |
| Spouse | Guillermo Haro (deceased) |
| Children | Emmanuel Haro Poniatowski (1965), Felipe Haro Poniatowski (1968), Paula Haro Poniatowski (1970) |
Elena Poniatowska (born May 19, 1932, in Paris, France, as Princess Hélène Elizabeth Louise Amélie Paula Dolores Poniatowska Amor) is a Mexican journalist and author. Her generation of writers include Carlos Fuentes, José Emilio Pacheco and Carlos Monsiváis.[1]
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[edit] Life
Poniatowska was born in Paris to Prince Jean Joseph Evremont Sperry Poniatowski and Paula Amor Yturbe. Her father was a French nobleman who was a descendant of the brother of King Stanislaus II of Poland, the last king of Poland. The Poniatowski brothers of King Stanislaus were granted Princely titles as relatives to the King. She also is descendant of King Louis XV of France through her paternal great-grandmother Louis Le Hon. Her mother, Paula Amor de Yturbe, was a Mexican of mixed French ancestry, and also a descendant of Mexican nobility.
Poniatowska fled from France with her mother during the Second World War. The family settled in Mexico City, where the young Elena and her sister Kitzia learned Spanish from an Indian servant. In 1943,[2] Elena was sent to study to the United States. She returned to Mexico in 1953 and started her career as a journalist working for the newspaper Excélsior.
She is best known for her 1971 work La noche de Tlatelolco (published in English as Massacre in Mexico), in which she relates her interviews with survivors and families of those who died in the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City. Since then she has published several works of fiction, testimonial literature, as well as book compilations of her interviews with writers, artists, and politicians. In recent years her prominence as a public intellectual and political figure in Mexico has increased.
Since 2005, Poniatowska has been an active supporter of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. In April 2006 she appeared in a series of television commercials denouncing the attempts of the other two major parties, particularly the National Action Party, to link López Obrador to leftist President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.[3]
Her aunt was Mexican aristocrat and poet Guadalupe 'Pita' Amor (1918-2000). Her sister lives abroad.
On June 2, 2011, World Literature Today announced that Poniatowska had been nominated for the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature for 2012, her nomination being put forth by juror Norma Elia Cantú, a Chicana writer and a professor of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
[edit] Works
- 1954 - Lilus Kikus (collection of short stories)
- 1956 - "Melés y Teleo" (short story, in Panoramas Magazine)
- 1961 - Palabras cruzadas (chronic)[clarification needed]
- 1963 - Todo empezó el Domingo (chronic)
- 1969 - Hasta no verte, Jesus mío (novel)
- 1971 - La noche de Tlatelolco, about the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre (historical account) [The Night of Tlatelolco]
- 1978 - Querido Diego, te abraza Quiela (collection of fictional letters from Angelina Beloff to Diego Rivera)
- 1979 - Gaby Brimmer, co-written autobiography of Mexican-born author and disability rights activist Gabriela Brimmer
- 1980 - Fuerte es el silencio (historical account)
- 1982 - Domingo Siete (chronic)
- 1982 - El último Guajolote (chronic) [The Last Turkey]
- 1985 - ¡Ay vida, no me mereces! Carlos Fuentes, Rosario Castellanos, Juan Rulfo, la literatura de la Onda México (essay)
- 1988 - La flor de lis (novel)
- 1988 - Nada, nadie. Las voces del temblor, about the 1985 Mexico City earthquake (historical account) [Nothing, Nobody: The Voices of the Earthquake]
- 1989 - De noche vienes (collection of short stories)
- 1991 - Tinísima (novel)
- 1994 - Luz y luna, las lunitas (essay)
- 1997 - Guerrero Viejo (photos and oral histories of the town of Guerrero, Coahuila, flooded by damming of the Rio Grande) ISBN 9780965526807
- 1997 - Paseo de la Reforma (novel) [Paseo de la Reforma]
- 1998 - Octavio Paz, las palabras del árbol (essay)
- 1999 - Las soldaderas (photographic archive) [The Soldier Women]
- 2000 - Las mil y una... La herida de Paulina (chronic)
- 2000 - Juan Soriano, niño de mil años (essay)
- 2000 - Las siete cabritas (essay)
- 2001 - Mariana Yampolsky y la buganvillia
- 2001 - La piel del cielo (novel, Winner of the Premio Alfaguara de Novela 2001)
- 2003 - Tlapalería (collection of short stories) [Hardware Store]
- 2005 - Obras reunidas (complete works)
- 2006 - El tren pasa pimero (novel, Winner of the Rómulo Gallegos Prize)
- 2006 - La Adelita (children's book)
- 2007 - Amanecer en el Zócalo. Los 50 días que confrontaron a México (historical account)
- 2008 - El burro que metió la pata (children's book)
- 2008 - Rondas de la niña mala (poetry, songs)
- 2008 - Jardín de Francia (interviews)
- 2008 - Boda en Chimalistac (children's book)
- 2009 - No den las gracias. La colonia Rubén Jaramillo y el Güero Medrano (chronic)
- 2009 - La vendedora de nubes (children's book) [The Seller of Clouds]
- 2011 - Leonora (historical novel on the surrealist painter Leonora Carrington, Seix Barral Biblioteca Breve Prize)
[edit] Awards
- Premio Xavier Villaurrutia (declined, 1971)
- Premio Nacional de Periodismo (1979)
- Premio Alfaguara de Novela (2001)
- Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur (2004)
- Lifetime Achievement Award, International Women's Media Foundation (2006)
- Rómulo Gallegos Prize (2007)
- Premio Biblioteca Breve (2011)
[edit] Ancestry
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[edit] Notes
- ^ Stevenson, Mark (June 19, 2010). "Mexican author Carlos Monsivais dies at age 72". The Boston Globe. boston.com. http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2010/06/19/mexican_author_carlos_monsivais_dies_at_age_72/. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
- ^ Nextext.info capsule biography
- ^ ´La Ponia´ films ad for PRD - El Universal Online - Miami Herald at www.eluniversal.com.mx
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- English
- The writing of Elena Poniatowska: engaging dialogues, Beth Ellen Jorgensen, 1994
- Elena Poniatowska: an intimate biography, Michael Karl Schuessler, 2007
- Reading the feminine voice in Latin American women's fiction: from Teresa de la Parra to Elena Poniatowska and Luisa Valenzuela, María Teresa Medeiros-Lichem, 2002
- Through their eyes: marginality in the works of Elena Poniatowska, Silvia Molina and Rosa Nissán, Nathanial Eli Gardner, 2007
- Spanish
- Elenísima : ingenio y figura de Elena Poniatowska, Michael Karl Schuessler, 2003
- Catálogo de ángeles mexicanos : Elena Poniatowska, Carmen Perilli, 2006
- Me lo dijo Elena Poniatowska : su vida, obra y pasiones, Esteban Ascencio, 1997
- Elena Poniatowska, Margarita García Flores, 1983
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Elena Poniatowska |
- Works by or about Elena Poniatowska in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- A reading by Elena Poniatowska at Sonoma State University
