VICENTE LEÑERO: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE, WORKS, PHRASES - BIOGRAPHIES - 2025

Vicente Leñero (1933-2014) was a Mexican writer, journalist, playwright, academic and civil engineer who stood out for developing a prolific literary work full of naturalness and precision. This author encompassed genres such as the novel, the short story, the theater and the essay.

The most predominant features of Leñero's work were a clear and precise language, accompanied by spontaneity and subtlety in the narrative, qualities that gave his texts a pleasant and attractive tone. The particularity of his work made him one of the most widely read intellectuals in Mexico.

Vicente Leñero. Source: gob.mx.

The most outstanding publications of Vicente Leñero were: Cajón de sastre, Feeling of guilt, More people like that, The bricklayers, The journalists, The drop of water, The visit of the angel and How soon it is late. The writer's literary work has earned him several awards, including: the National Science and Arts Award and the National Journalism Award.

Biography

Birth

Vicente Leñero Otero was born on June 9, 1933 in the city of Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco. He came from a cultured, middle-class family and his parents were Vicente Leñero and Isabel Otero. From a young age, Leñero was instilled with the love of letters and reading, orientations that early prepared his path as a writer.

Studies

Leñero studied his first years of academic training in his hometown. When he finished high school, he went to the capital of the country to study civil engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), but around that time he began to take an interest in literature and fell behind in his career.

He managed to graduate as an engineer and immediately began journalism studies at the Carlos Septién García School of Journalism. The young Vicente graduated at the age of twenty-three in 1956, and from then on he made writing his greatest passion. In 1959, the nascent writer released his first publication La polvareda y otros cuentos.

First steps

Vicente Leñero began his professional career as a journalist in various print media in his country. He worked for the magazine Signal and many of his writings were published in the pages of the newspapers Excélsior and El Heraldo de México. In the early sixties, the Centro Mexicano de Escritores gave him a scholarship to further his literary career.

Professional boom

The Mexican writer had the opportunity to publish his first novel in 1961, which he titled La voz adolorida. With this writing, Leñero proved to be a realistic and at the same time sensitive author, he described with psychological depth the experiences of a patient with metal disorders.

The 1960s was quite productive for Leñero, he published five novels and also wrote several essays and newspaper articles. In 1967 he was awarded the Guggenheim scholarship and in 1968 he began his production as a playwright with Rejected People.

Theatrical development

Leñero's professional career was constantly growing and creative. At the beginning of the seventies he dedicated himself to producing librettos for the theater, which resulted in works such as: Los albañiles, La carpa and Los Hijos de Sánchez, based on the ethnographic work of the North American anthropologist Óscar Lewis.

At that time the playwright also published the play The Trial: The Jury of León Toral and Mother Conchita. In journalism, in 1976 Vicente participated in the creation of the Proceso magazine and served as deputy editor for more than two decades.

Participation in the cinema

Leñero did not settle for being a novelist, short story writer, journalist and playwright, but his taste for writing also led him to be a screenwriter. So in 1973 he ventured into the seventh art with the film El monasterio de los vultures, and from that date to 2010 he wrote eighteen scripts.

Last years and death

The last two decades of the life of this Mexican intellectual were spent dedicated to his journalistic and literary work. The cinema, theater and social media of his country were the main witnesses of his talent and intellectual capacity.

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

His most recent publications were: La vida que se va, Vivir del teatro, Dramaturgia terminal and El antado. Vicente Leñero's life ended on December 3, 2014 in Mexico City, when he was 81 years old.

Awards and honours

- Short Library Prize in 1963.

- Mazatlán Prize for Literature in 1987.

- Juan Ruiz de Alarcón National Prize for Literature in 1992.

- Fernando Benítez National Prize for Cultural Journalism in 1997.

- Xavier Villaurrutia Award in 2000, for the work The innocence of this world.

- National Prize for Literature and Linguistics in 2001.

- Mayahuel de Plata in 2007.

- Salvador Toscano Medal in 2008.

- Sinaloa Literature Award in 2009.

- Fine Arts Medal in 2011.

- Carlos Septién García National Journalism Award in 2010.

Style

Vicente Leñero's literary style was characterized by the use of simple, precise language and sometimes with touches of irony and sarcasm. His works had a realistic character and were developed in depth and managed to reflect the reality of Mexican society from its various nuances.

His subjects were varied, he wrote about life, religion, chess, theater and literature itself, always from the fun and attractive. Her simplicity and good humor when telling made her win a wide audience, both nationally and internationally.

Plays

Stories

- "Raquel Welch's sad night."

- "The loaded".

- "Arreola: chess lesson".

- "The tour".

- "Let the earth tremble in its center."

Pure stories

It was made up of the following stories:

- "The dust."

- "Rage".

- "Dirt road".

- "The dust."

- "The dead bricklayer."

- "San Tarsicio".

- "Next September."

- "Too bad."

- "Pink Zone".

Self-portrait at 33 and six stories

The work was made up of the following stories:

- "The punishment".

- "Self-portrait".

- "Wallet".

- "The cigar".

- "Nothing".

- "The perfect adventure".

- "Who killed Agatha Christie?"

Guilty feeling. Tales of the imagination and reality

Composed by:

- "Flashbacks".

- "Guilty feeling".

- "Stanley Ryan".

- "Piece touched".

- "The day that Carlos Salinas".

- "Where did I put my glasses."

- "Reading Graham Greene."

- "Maybe it's on the cover."

- "It is not a lack of affection."

- "They are robbing an old man!"

- "Hallowed be thy name".

- "A certain Juan Rulfo."

- "Touch of sacrifice".

- "Revenge".

People like that. Truths and lies

It was made up of the following stories:

- "The range".

- "Of literature".

- "Injuries and applause for José Donoso".

- "In the manner of O'Henry".

- "The novel of the young Dostoevsky".

- "The four hundred years of Hamlet."

- "Resentment".

- "Dear Oscar Walker."

- "Opening Topalov".

- "Chess players".

- "Twins".

- "Hotel Ancira".

- "Cajón de Alfonso Sastre".

- "The minimal and poor Tomás Gerardo Allaz".

- "Full moon".

- "The death of Iván Illich".

- "Belen".

- The children of Sánchez (1972).

- The move (1979).

- Alicia, maybe (1980).

- The white nights (1981).

- The visit of the angel (1981).

- The martyrdom of Morelos (1981).

- They will fight ten rounds (1981).

- Do you remember Rulfo, Juan José Arreola? (1986).

- Lady (1986).

- Jesus Christ Gómez (1987).

- Nobody knows anything (1988).

- Hell (1989).

- Long time ago (1990).

- The night of Hernán Cortés (1992).

- We are all Marcos (1995).

- The losers (1996).

- It is soon getting late (1996).

- Don Juan in Chapultepec (1997).

Film scripts

- The monastery of the vultures (1973). Written jointly with the director Francisco del Villar.

- The cry of the turtle (1975).

- The bricklayers (1976). Developed in conjunction with Luis Carrión and Jorge Fons.

- Those from below (1978).

- Life sentence (1978).

- When the spiders weave (1979). Script developed jointly with Francisco del Villar and Fernando Galiana.

- Las grandes aguas (1980). Written jointly with the director of the film Servando González.

- Mariana, Mariana (1987). Based on the narrative work The battles of the desert by José Emilio Pacheco.

- Miroslava (1993).

- Love that kills (1994). Screenplay written with Patricia Sentíes and Javier González.

- The alley of miracles (1995).

- Herod's Law (1999).

- The blue room (2002).

- The crime of father Amaro (2002, directed by Carlos Carrera and nominated for an Oscar).

Carlos Carrera, director of the film The Crime of Father Amaro, whose script was written and adapted by Leñero. Source: Guadalajara International Film Festival, via Wikimedia Commons

- The move (2003). Written with Gabriel Retes.

- Out of heaven (2006).

- Alabaster woman (2006).

- The attack (2010). Based on the novel The File of the Attack of Álvaro Uribe.

Phrases

- “All writers what we do when writing novels is to reinvent and tell our own lives, for that we invent characters. Reality helps you to say what you feel ”.

- “Dramaturgy is enduring. The theater is ephemeral ”.

- "The journalist is not called to resolve crises, he is called to say them."

- “I don't like stories to end, not in the movies, not in literature, not in life. There always has to be more possibilities, more ways, more answers ”.

- "Irony is the best weapon that the journalist and the writer have."

- “I recognize that the best thing about me is not my imagination. I can't think of original stories. "

- “Journalism and literature have been my purifying forces. Camus has a lapidary phrase: 'When the mystery ends, life ends'. I take it as a personal warning ”.

- "At some time I wanted to write my scripts to find a director, but all directors, or almost all directors in Mexico and in the world have their own story."

- "Love of that, as a young man, who is content with pure illusion and who is becoming great with absence".

- "Reality makes one write more interesting stories than one can imagine."

References

1. Loustaunau, M. (2017). 13 profound phrases of the great Vicente Leñero. Mexico: MX City. Recovered from: mxcity.mx.
2. Vicente Leñero. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.
3. Vicente Leñero. (2018). Mexico: Encyclopedia of Literature in Mexico. Recovered from: elem.mx.
4. Vicente Leñero. (2013). Mexico: Durango Más. Recovered from: durangomas.mx.
5. Vicente Leñero. (S. f.). Mexico: Cultural Journalism Collection. Recovered from: cultura.gob.mx.