SERGIO PITOL: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE, WORKS, PHRASES - BIOGRAPHIES - 2025

Sergio Pitol Deméneghi (1933-2018) was a Mexican writer, essayist, novelist, and short story writer. His literary work was prolific and he published more than forty books, in addition to multiple editions that he made as a translator. His work in the field of letters lasted until the end of his life.

One of the most prominent elements in Pitol's work was emotional expressiveness, to the point of transmitting great nostalgia to the reader. The development of his stories and novels included two stages: the first was marked by pessimism, while the second was more reflective and focused on the psychological and moral.

Sergio Pitol. Image taken from: zendalibros.com

The best-known titles of this intellectual were: Everyone's Hell, Bukhara Night, The House of the Tribe, The Love Parade and Taming the Divine Heron. Pitol received several awards and recognitions throughout his career, among them the National Literature and the Miguel de Cervantes.

Biography

Childhood and family

Sergio was born on March 18, 1933 in Puebla. The writer was orphaned at an early age. He first lost his father when he was just four years old. After that tragedy, the family moved to El Potrero, Veracruz, and misfortune came back to Pitol's life when his mother drowned in a river.

This undoubtedly marked Pitol's childhood, who had been in the care of relatives from the age of five. There he completed his primary and secondary studies, which were interrupted many times by the malaria he suffered until he was twelve years old.

The time he spent confined at home due to illness was spent reading authors such as Charles Dickens, Leon Tolstoy, William Faulkner, Franz Kafka and Pablo Neruda. When he finished high school, he went to Mexico City to study law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

First tasks

After completing his university studies, he began teaching at UNAM and at the Universidad Veracruzana. In 1959 the fondness he felt for literature since he was a child led him to publish his first book of short stories, Tiempo Cercado. At that time he was a professor at the University of Bristol, UK.

Coat of arms of the UNAM, Pitol's study and work site. Source: Both, the shield and the motto, José Vasconcelos Calderón, via Wikimedia Commons

Diplomatic career

Sergio Pitol began his diplomatic career in the 1960s, when he was barely twenty-seven years old. He served as a cultural representative of Mexico in several European cities: Budapest, Moscow, Prague, Paris and Warsaw.

During his stay in the Old World, he learned other languages, related to advances in literature, and kept writing. In 1967 he conceived No such place, his second work of stories. Later he studied and worked as a translator in Barcelona from 1969 to 1972.

Last years and death

The writer spent the last years of his life dedicated to his literary production and traveling through various countries working as a translator. Some of his most recent publications were: Trilogy of memory, Icarus, An underground autobiography and The third character.

For more than two decades he lived in Xalapa, Veracruz. As time passed, her health began to weaken and she suffered a stroke that caused several complications. She passed away on April 12, 2018 in Mexico at the age of eighty-five.

Recognitions and awards

- Prize from the magazine Aventura y Misterio in 1957, for the story Amelia Otero.

- Rodolo Goes Award by the National Institute of Fine Arts in 1973, for The sound of a flute.

- The Word and Man Award in 1980, for Asymmetry.

- Xavier Villaurrutia Award in 1981, for the story Nocturno de Bujara.

- Colima Narrative Fine Arts Award for Work Published in 1982.

- National Prize for Literature in 1983.

- Herralde Novel Prize in 1984, for The Love Parade.

- National Prize of Sciences and Arts in Linguistics and Literature in 1993.

- Mazatlán Prize for Literature in 1997, for the memory El arte de la fuga.

- Member of the Mexican Academy of Language since January 23, 1997.

- Doctor Honoris Causa from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in 1998.

- Juan Rulfo Award in 1999.

- Juan Rulfo Prize for Latin American and Caribbean Literature in 1999.

- Award Internazionale Bellunesi che Hanno Onorato the Province in Italia e nel Mondo in 2000, Venice.

- Francisco Xavier Clavijero National Award in 2002.

- Miguel de Cervantes Award in 2005.

Medal of the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, awarded to Pistol. Source: Heralder, via Wikimedia Commons– Roger Caillois Award in 2006.

- Alfonso Reyes International Award in 2015.

Style

Pitol's literary style was characterized by the use of clean, well-crafted, and above all expressive language. His work was influenced by his personal experiences, hence the nostalgia traits. There were two stages that distinguished his work.

The author's first writings focused on memories, on the stories he heard from a child about his country and the different armed struggles that marked its history. While the second stage of his literary career was one of maturity, growth and reflection on the evolution of the human being.

Plays

Story

Bukhara Night

It was one of Sergio Pinol's best-known storybooks. It is also known as Waltz of Mephisto, after the edition that came out in 1984. The work was conceived during the years she lived outside of Mexico, and with it she won the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize in 1981.

The narratives of the titles that make up this work are related to travel, and in a deeper sense are linked to the destination, what is and what is desired. Loneliness and nostalgia also stood out in the stories. The book was made up of four stories:

- "The Venetian tale of Billie Upward".

- "Night of Bukhara".

- "Asymmetry".

- "Mephisto-Waltzer".

Excerpt from "The Venetian tale of Billie Upward"

Tame the divine heron

It was a novel by Pitol in which he combined various narratives to tell the story. There is a narrator who made known the experiences of a writer, while this exposed those of Dante C. de la Estrella. The latter became the protagonist of his own experiences in Rome and Istanbul.

Fragment

Phrases

- “One is the books he has read, the painting he has seen, the music heard and forgotten, the streets traveled. One is her childhood, her family, a few friends, some loves, a lot of annoyances. One is a sum diminished by infinite subtractions ”.

- "Inspiration is the most delicate fruit of memory."

- "A book read at different times is transformed into several books."

- «I do not write for anyone, but for what I am writing, run the adventure and find, if you find them, your readers”.

- "The only influence from which one must defend oneself is that of oneself."

- "I am convinced that not even the inexistence of readers will be able to banish poetry."

- "Everyone, both the chaste and the lascivious, have learned that suffering is the shadow of all love, that love unfolds into love and suffering."

- "A novelist is someone who hears voices through voices."

- “From my beginnings, my writing has been surrounded by narrow limits: a few themes and characters, a limited time. I have not jumped to the present ”.

- “An attribute of memory is its inexhaustible capacity to bring surprises. Another, its unpredictability ”.

References

1. Díaz, M. (2006). Tame the divine heron: Sergio Pitol. (N / a): Literary Apostilles. Recovered from: apostillasnotas.blogspot.com.
2. Sergio Pitol. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.
3. 20 immortal phrases by Sergio Pitol. (2018). Mexico: MX City. Recovered from: mxcity.mx.
4. Sergio Pitol. Biography. (2019). Spain: Instituto Cervantes. Recovered from: cervantes.es.
5. Sergio Pitol. (2018). (N / a): Writers Org. Recovered from: writers.org.