Everything about Alfonso Reyes totally explained
» For the professional basketball player, see Alfonso Reyes (basketball)
Alfonso Reyes Ochoa (
17 May 1889,
Monterrey, Nuevo León –
27 December 1959,
Mexico City) was a
Mexican writer,
philosopher, and
diplomat.
Alfonso Reyes, the son of General
Bernardo Reyes, was educated primarily in
Mexico City. In
1909, he and other like-minded young intellectuals such as
Martín Luis Guzmán and
José Vasconcelos, founded the
Ateneo de la Juventud to promote new cultural and aesthetic ideals and educational reform in Mexico. At the age of 21, Reyes published his first book,
Cuestiones estéticas. The following year,
1912, he wrote a short story,
La Cena ("The Supper"), considered a forerunner of
surrealism and of Latin American
magical realism. In that year he was also named Secretary of the Escuela Nacional de Altos Estudios at the
National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Reyes obtained his law degree in 1913 and joined Mexico's diplomatic service in
France. From 1914 to 1924, he was posted in
Madrid,
Spain, and was Mexico's
Chargé d'affaires, 1920-24. He also pursued a literary career as journalist, investigator, translator, critic, and writer. By virtue of this extended stay in Madrid, he was spared the violence of the
Mexican Revolution. In 1915, he wrote what is probably his best known essay, "Visión de Anáhuac (1519)," with its famous epigraph, "
Viajero: has llegado a la región más transparente del aire", the source of the title of
Carlos Fuentes's novel
La región más transparente.
Reyes continued his diplomatic service in Paris (1925-27), then served as ambassador to
Argentina (1927-30 and 1936-37) and
Brazil (1930-35 and 1938-39). In 1939, he retired from the diplomatic corps and returned to Mexico, where he organized what is today
El Colegio de México and dedicated himself to writing and teaching.
The great Argentinian writer
Jorge Luis Borges paid homage to the excellence of Reyes's style with the following words: "Alfonso Reyes, the greatest prose writer in the Spanish language of any age, said to me: '
Groussac taught me how to write in Spanish.' "
At least five avenues in
Monterrey's metropolitan area, and three in the municipality, are named after Reyes.
Selected works by Alfonso Reyes
Poetry:
Nonfiction:
Cuestiones estéticas
El suicida
Visión de Anáhuac
Vísperas de España
Cartones de Madrid
Simpatías y diferencias
Calendario
Homília por la Cultura
Capítulos de Literatura Española
Pasado Inmediato
Estudios Helénicos
La Filosofía Helenística
La X en la Frente
Memorias de Cocina y Bodega
Las Burlas Veras
Fiction:
Los Tres Tesoros
El Plano Oblicuo
Árbol de Pólvora
Quince Presencias
The Fondo de Cultura Económica published his complete works in 26 volumes, titled Obras Completas de Alfonso Reyes.
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