JOSÉ JOAQUÍN FERNÁNDEZ DE LIZARDI: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, better known as “Lizardi”, was a Mexican writer and politician who is credited with writing the first Latin American novel, published in 1816. In addition to being a prominent writer of the time, Lizardi also he worked as an editor and writer of pamphlets. His work made him go down in history as a prominent figure in the literary aspect of the Mexican liberation movement.

The most important quality that the writer had was his ability to describe with remarkable perfection the unfolding of daily events in New Spain. Lizardi's works not only explain with great accuracy the way in which people spoke at the time, but also the way in which they carried on from day to day.

See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons

His ideas helped to improve the educational level of the entire American continent, because, at the time, it was considered quite deteriorated and very backward compared to the European system.

Biography

Early Years

José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi was born on November 15, 1776 in Mexico City, when the Mexican capital still belonged to the Viceroyalty of New Spain, a colonial property of the Spanish Crown.

The Lizardi family was, in one way or another, linked to the literary field. His father was a physical therapist who worked in Mexico City (or in its surroundings, if the opportunity arose), but on many occasions he worked as a writer to obtain additional income for the home.

His mother, although she did not come from an upper-class family, also had literary knowledge. Lizardi's maternal grandfather had worked as a bookseller.

The young Lizardi began his studies at the prestigious Colegio San Ildefonso, one of the few relatively high-level educational institutions that existed in colonial Mexico. However, after his father's death in 1798, he had to drop out of school to start producing income for his home.

As a consequence of this, he enlisted in the civil service to act as a magistrate for the Taxco region. There he met his future wife, whom he married in 1805.

Beginnings in writing

Shortly after becoming a magistrate, Lizardi found himself needing to start producing more income in order to support his family. The only way he could do it was through writing, the same medium his father used in times of need.

For this reason, in 1808, Lizardi began his career as a professional writer. The first piece written by the then prominent author, was a poem in honor of Ferdinand VII, who by then was the King of Spain.

This poem may have been controversial given the despotic nature of the then Spanish monarch, but little was known of his actions in colonial America in the early 19th century. In fact, by the time Lizardi wrote his first poem, Spain was being invaded by Napoleon's troops.

Napoleon Bonaparte's brother, in 1808, became the provisional monarch of Spain during the period of the French invasion. It was as a consequence of this fact that Lizardi wrote the poem in honor of his king, an action seen as patriotic in the Mexican intellectual circle of the colonial era.

Political role

The most important political role that Lizardi played was during his stay in the Taxco region. By 1810, when the start of the Mexican War of Independence had already broken out, Lizardi had the most important position in the government of the colonial region of Taxco.

When the insurgent army reached the region, Lizardi was faced with a dilemma. To resolve it, and after the defeat of government forces, the politician acted as a mediator between the insurgents and the government.

Lizardi gave all the arms of the city to the rebels, but informed the viceroyalty about the independence activities.

Although at some point his actions may have seemed hypocritical, Lizardi explained the reasons for his actions in his future works. The poet argued that the insurgent movement had reformist merits, but was also against violence.

For him, handing over the Taxco region to the rebels represented a way to avoid losing the lives of the locals, since the responsibility for the well-being of the city fell on his person.

When Spain recaptured the city, he was taken as a prisoner of war and considered a “rebel sympathizer”. However, he used the argument that he only wanted to avoid the loss of local life to justify his actions, which the Viceroy accepted before releasing him from jail.

Back to writing

Although Lizardi was released from prison and was free, he remained in Mexico City without a job or possessions, having lost everything after the Taxco insurgency.

The desperate situation of the author caused him to become a full-time writer, dedicating all his knowledge to the production of literary content. In 1811, he created and published more than 20 satirical works to earn income and feed his family.

In 1812, a law was declared in Mexico that allowed freedom of the press, albeit somewhat limited. Following this law, Lizardi established one of the first newspapers created in the country, which obtained the name "El Pensador Mexicano."

The great merit of Lizardi in founding this newspaper was that he managed to do so only four days after freedom of the press was allowed, on October 9, 1811, the day the first edition was published.

From this moment, Lizardi began to write works of a mainly journalistic nature. Everything published in his newspaper revolved around the political developments in Mexico at the beginning of the 19th century.

Life as a journalistic writer

Previous satirical works written by Lizardi changed form after he created El Pensador Mexicano. His mild social criticism turned into direct criticism of the autocratic actions of local politicians in the Viceroyalty. In addition, he used his newspaper to support the decisions of the Spanish courts.

The way in which Lizardi wrote and the ideas that he used in his texts denoted the great influence that the European Enlightenment had for the writer.

The ideas of French thinkers such as Rousseau and Voltaire could only reach Mexico clandestinely. This happened by smuggling books from Europe to America. Many literary leaders of the time managed to obtain copies of these books, which influenced the thinking of many, including Lizardi.

Lizardi's writings were very direct by the standards of the time. In one of his first editions, he wrote a text against the Spanish Viceroy that attacked him directly. As a consequence of this, Lizardi was imprisoned for the second time.

The focus of his newspaper changed somewhat during his incarceration. He applied self-censorship, which is why he did not publish any more direct criticism against the viceroy or the system in which he was imprisoned. This negatively affected the opinion of his pro-independence readers.

Freedom and continuity in your work

In March 1813, a new viceroy was appointed to replace the then current Francisco Venegas, who had been responsible for imprisoning Lizardi after his criticism. The new Spanish political leader, Félix María Calleja, released Lizardi after he publicly acclaimed him in an edition of his newspaper.

After his release, his criticism had to diminish as a result of the greater attention that the Viceroyalty government was paying to the authors of the time.

A bigger problem arose after the expulsion of the French from Spain. The Spanish courts, which Lizardi had widely supported, were eliminated. Furthermore, the new leadership of the Spanish Crown neutralized freedom of the press almost entirely.

To combat these new censorship actions, Lizardi abandoned his journalistic activities in favor of a more open writing, which from now on would be literary in nature. Under his new ideals as a writer, the author went on to express his social criticism in a new way.

This caused him to write "El Periquillo Sarniento", the first novel written in his career and the first novel written in Latin America.

Return to journalism

The liberal constitution of Spain was reestablished in 1820, so Lizardi decided to resume journalistic activity again. However, his new criticisms were not well received by the Spanish high command. He was attacked, jailed and subjected to a regime of censorship.

His political enemies varied over time, but he was never at peace with those whom he criticized so much. The royalists, who supported the Spanish Crown, persecuted and repressed it until the eventual independence of Mexico in 1821.

However, even after independence, he was attacked and persecuted by a large number of centralist politicians, as his writings tended to represent Mexico's federalist ideals.

The Catholic Church also acted against Lizardi, who all his life had had favorable opinions about the movement of the Freemasons, enemies of the Church.

Last years

Lizardi died at a relatively young age, in his 50s, as a result of an unsuccessful fight against tuberculosis.

According to the author of his biography, Lizardi wanted his grave to have an inscription written saying that he "did the best he could" for his country, but the lack of financial resources of his family did not allow this to be possible.

Lizardi, while one of the most important writers in colonial America, never became acclaimed enough to generate significant monetary funds.

Plays

The Sarniento periquillo

In addition to being the first novel written in Mexico and Latin America, El Periquillo Sarniento is the most important work of José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi.

This novel is considered as the pillar in the construction of a Latin American nation, as it was written at the time of transition between Colonial America and Independent America.

The play is about the life of Pedro Sarmiento, a man whom his friends called "Periquillo Sarniento." Sarniento was a man with a family similar to Lizardi's, who belonged to the Creole class of colonial Mexico.

The history of the man's life is as ironically satirical as it is complex, as he tries to exercise a series of different professions trying to make a living in Mexico, without much success. The man, at one point, becomes a thief, but at the end of his life he decides to take an honest path.

He criticizes, through this work, the social state of Mexico and the difficult conditions to which journalists were subjected, who preferred to give a critical opinion than to tell mundane facts without any significance.

This work influenced the creations of other later Mexican authors, and this is marked in the Latin literature of the 19th century.

The Mexican Thinker

El Pensador Mexicano was one of the first newspapers created in Mexico after the press freedom law. It gets its name from Lizardi himself, who was nicknamed in the same way. It was a newspaper with liberal tendencies, so Lizardi was later persecuted by the centralists.

The newspaper had a large number of publications, reaching 17 supplements by 1813, the year it ceased publication. Furthermore, the newspaper had three different volumes.

His publication was full of political, social and religious criticism. Through this newspaper, Lizardi attacked both political leaders and the Catholic Church during the Spanish Inquisition in the world.

Other works

In addition to his two main works, Lizardi created a large number of satirical novels before becoming the editor and writer of El Pensador Mexicano.

Although there is no extensive record of these works, it is known that he first published them to obtain additional income in the early nineteenth century.

He also wrote an autobiography in 1818, entitled Sad Nights and Happy Days, in addition to four additional novels.

References

1. Mexico's Voltaire: José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, J. Tuck, 1999. Taken from mexconnect.com
2. José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi Biography, Great Authors of World Literature - Critical Edition, (nd). Taken from enotes.com
3. José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, Wikipedia in English, 2018. Taken from Wikipedia.org
4. The Mangy Parrott, Wikipedia in English, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org
5. José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, Portal Cervantes Virtual, (nd). Taken from cervantesvirtual.com
6. José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2010. Taken from yourdictionary.com