René Avilés Fabila

Biography

René Avilés Fabila was born on November 15, 1940 in Mexico City.

He earned a BA in International Relations and did post graduate studies at the University of Paris. His bibliography is extensive and includes stories, novels, memoirs, essays and articles. His most important novels are:

His other books include:

and autobiographical books like:

His work has been included in numerous anthologies and abroad is translated into several languages and are currently appearing in his Collected Works Editorial Nueva Imagen. Fifteen books to date.

In his more than forty years of literary work, teaching and journalism, he has won numerous awards and recognitions. In 1991 the Mexican government awarded him the National Journalism Award for Dissemination of Culture. He also has national and international prizes awarded by various institutions. In 1972 the House of Americas, Havana, Cuba, gave one of its awards to the Fairy Tales and Hollywood's Disappearance. In 1997, the INBA and the state of Colima, gave him the award for best book of fiction. The book’s title was called Prodigious Animals work prefaced by the poet Rubén Bonifaz Nuño and illustrated by Jose Luis Cuevas. It has also been repeatedly recognized by the Journalists Club of Mexico. In 1964 he was a Fellow of the Mexican Center of Writers, where under the direction of Juan Rulfo, Juan Jose Arreola and Francisco Monterde wrote his first book of short stories, Towards the End of the World published by the Fondo de Cultura Economica, and also by the Sistema Nacional de Creadores. He has been awarded many times by public and private institutions, universities and news organizations and cultural associations. It is worth noting that the tributes were held to celebrate his intense literary activity. They took the Fondo de Cultura Economica, UNAM, UAM, IPN, INBA, Casa Lamm, Alejo Peralta Foundation, the SOGEM and CONACULTA in various forums of Mexico City and spread to other cities like Tampico, Orizaba and Campeche. La Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana conducted a series of round tables on his first novel, The Games, 1967, there appeared a book published by the same institution called Eleven Points of View by René Avilés Fabila. In culture and art he has an extensive track record that goes from teaching at the University to public relations. He lectures at the Faculty of Political Sciences at UNAM since 1975 and is a full-time professor at La Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana at Xochimilco. He has held various positions in the cultural area: Director General of Cultural Diffusion of the UNAM (1984–1986), Director of the Writing Center "Juan Jose Arreola" Lamm House of 1989-1993, and during the period 1998-2002, Coordinator of University Extension of the UAM-Xochimilco. Since 1996 he has been a member of the European Society of Culture (Venice), whose honorary chairman until his death, was Norberto Bobbio. He has lectured at various national and foreign universities at the UNAM, UAM, Universidad Iberoamericana, Yale, University of Kansas, University of Paris, University of Copenhagen, Helsinki University and UCLA, among others. In journalism, since 1962, he has collaborated in several national newspapers: El Día, El Universal, El Nacional, Excélsior. He was one of the founders of the newspaper Unomásuno.

He founded and directed the cultural section of Excélsior (1984–1986), El Buho- (The Owl) (1985–1999). He led from 2004 to 2006, Journal of Journals publication dean of Mexico, founded in 1910. They emphasize their articles for national magazines such as Siempre, La Crisis, Revista de Bellas Artes, Mexico en la Cultura, Revista de la UNAM, Mester and House of Time (UAM). And in international affairs he has worked in the New World (Buenos Aires), Casa de las Americas (Havana), Cuadernos Semester Tale (Lima), Free Trade Zone (Caracas), Theorem (Bogota) and Hispamérica (Buenos Aires). For over ten years had their own programs in the Mexican Institute of Radio and the XEW, all cultural and special literature.

Since 1999 he is founder and editor of the monthly cultural magazine El Buho (The Owl), with a circulation of 5,000 copies distributed free to promote reading. He has his own foundation to promote culture.

Among his political activities, René Avilés Fabila was part of the Organizing Committee of the Plebiscite Citizen, whose members developed the document entitled "20 Commitments for Democracy" of the Truth Commission 68, set up to investigate events during the student movement 1968, and San Angel Group. He currently writes for Excelsior, The Chronicle and the magazine Siempre! The UAM named him Distinguished Professor in 2009.

This year, 2010, UNAM in the Minería Book Fair highlighted that the writer turns 70 years old and made a tribute to that effect. He died on October 9, 2016 of a heart attack.