Otto-Raúl González was a Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

n writer, poet, and lawyer. A longtime communist ideologue, during the social revolution

Social revolution

The term social revolution may have different connotations depending on the speaker.In the Trotskyist movement, the term "social revolution" refers to an upheaval in which existing property relations are smashed...

 of the administration of Jacobo Arbenz

Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán

Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as Defense Minister of Guatemala from 1944–1951, and as President of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954....

 he was appointed undersecretary of the land reform

Land reform

[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...

 program. González welcomed Che Guevara

Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...

 to Guatemala and gave him a government job. However, he had to flee his country following the 1954 overthrow of the government and for two years lived in Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

 then went to Mexico.

González obtained a law degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico

National Autonomous University of Mexico

The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México is a university in Mexico. UNAM was founded on 22 September 1910 by Justo Sierra as a liberal alternative to the Roman Catholic-sponsored Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (National Autonomous...

.

Many decades later, he was allowed back to Guatemala by President Vinicio Cerezo

Vinicio Cerezo

Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo is a Guatemalan politician. He served as President of Guatemala from 14 January 1986 to 14 January 1991 and currently sits in Congress.-Career:...

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During his liftetime, González published more than 60 books with a number translated to several different languages. He was awarded the Premio Nacional de Poesía Jaime Sabines

Jaime Sabines

Jaime Sabines Gutiérrez was a Mexican contemporary poet. Known as “the sniper of Literature” as he formed part of a group that transformed literature into reality, he wrote ten volumes of poetry, and his work has been translated into more than twelve languages...

 from Mexico and the 1990 Guatemala National Prize in Literature

Guatemala National Prize in Literature

The Miguel Ángel Asturias National Prize in Literature is the most important literary award in Guatemala...

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External links

• Otto-Raúl González on the Guatemalan Literature Webpage