Jesús Gardea

Jesús Gardea Rocha (Delicias, Chihuahua, Mexico; July 2, 1939 - March 2, 2000) was a Mexican writer of fiction and short fiction.

Biography

Jesús Gardea Rocha was born on July 2, 1939 in Delicias, Chihuahua, Mexico, to Vicente Gardea V. and Francisca Rocha. He studied at the Elementary School No. 306 in Delicias, and later went to study his secondary studies at Benjamin N. Velasco school in Querétaro and its high school in Mexico City. He studied Odontology at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara, and later established in Ciudad Juárez where he carried out such professional activity. [ [http://www.delicias.gob.mx/pdf/jesus-gardea.pdf "A Jesus Gardea en el 65 aniversario de su natalicio."] Municipal Government of Delicias, "Semblanzas y viñetas", 2005.] Jesús Gardea was discovered as a writer by poet Jaime Labastida. During the Writer's Meeting in Ciudad Juárez, Labastida pushed him to publish "Los viernes de Lautaro" in Siglo XXI publishing house in 1979. Six month's later, in 1980, he signed a contract with Joaquín Mortiz, another publishing house, to publish a book of short stories entitled "Septiembre y los otros días", which was awarded with the Xavier Villaurrutia Award, thus becoming the second Chihuahuan to win such award. In 1985, he won another prize, the "José Fuentes Mares" Award given by the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez on its first edition, which he rejected.

He was faculty professor of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez. He participated twice in the "Chihuahuan Writers Gatherings" organized since 1982 by Mario Arras, who proposed him as a candidate to receive the "Tomás Valles Vivar" Award in the subject of literature on its first edition, but lost to philosopher Federico Ferro Gay.

Gardea belongs to the group of Chihuahuan artists born during the 1940s decade made up of writers such as Victor Hugo Rascón Banda, Ignacio Solares, Joaquín Armando Chacón, José Vicente Anaya and Carlos Montemayor, and sculptor Sebastián. Most of these prolific artists moved to Mexico City looking forward to gain recognition and money; however, Gardea remained firm on his desire to live in his birth state.

Works

hort story

* "Los viernes de Lautaro" (1979)
* "Septiembre y los otros días" (1980), Xavier Villarrutia Award
* "De alba sombría" (1985)
* "The Lights of the World" ("Las luces del mundo", 1986)
* "Difícil de atrapar" (1995)
* "Stripping away the sorrows from this world" (1998), selection of stories and translation by Mark Schafer: "Trinitario", "Above the water", "Man alone", "From Alba", "The irrigation ditch", "The lights of the world", "This very afternoon", "Nazaria", "All the years of snow", "Forty springs", "Pale as dust -- Remember the silence -- According to Evaristo -- The aquarium -- No loss -- Garita, death itself -- The bureau -- The friends -- The dog -- like the world", "Bridge of shadows", "The forest gates", "Latitudes of Habacuc", "Everyone", "The guitar".
* "Donde el gimnasta" (1999)

Novel

* "El sol que estas mirando" (1981)
* "La canción de las mulas muertas" (1981)
* "El tornavoz" (1983)
* "Soñar la guerra" (1984)
* "Los músicos y el fuego" (1985)
* "Sóbol (1985)"
* "El diablo en el ojo" (1989)
* "El agua de las esferas" (1992)
* "La ventana hundida" (1992)
* "Juegan los comensales" (1998)
* "El biombo y los frutos" (2001)

Poetry

* "Songs for a Single Cord" ("Canciones para una sola cuerda", 1982), translation by Robert L. Giron.

References