), is a Mexican writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and novelist.

Taibo has lived in Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 since 1958 when his family fled from Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 to escape the fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Taibo II (or PIT, as he likes to be called) is a Mexican intellectual, historian, professor, journalist, social activist, union organizer, and world-renowned writer. Widely known for his policial novels, he is considered the founder of the neopolicial genre in Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

 and is the president of the International Association of Policial Writers. One of the most prolific writers in Mexico today, over 500 editions of his 51 books have been published in 29 countries and over a dozen languages, and include novels, narrative, historical essays, chronicles, and poetry.

Some of PIT's novels have been mentioned among the "Books of the Year" by The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, Le Monde

Le Monde

Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...

, and the Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

. He has received numerous awards including the Grijalbo, the Planeta/Joaquin Mortiz in 1992, the Dashiell Hammett three times for his policial novels, and the 813 for the best police novel published in France. His biography of Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Ernesto Guevara, tambien conocido como el Che, 1996) has sold over half a million copies around the world and won the 1998 Bancarella Book of the Year award

Premio Bancarella

The Premio Bancarella is an Italian literary prize established in 1953; it is given in Pontremoli every year, the last Saturday or the last Sunday in July....

 in Italy.

PIT's readership has developed into a cult following. Once when he gave a talk about Mexican Independence hero Miguel Hidalgo

Miguel Hidalgo

Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor , more commonly known as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or simply Miguel Hidalgo, was a Mexican priest and a leader of the Mexican War of Independence.In 1810 Hidalgo led a group of peasants in a revolt against the dominant...

 in Mexico City, his presentation turned into a rally. His readers consider him their friend and when his presentations are over, people approach him to give him gifts such as cigarettes, apples, and sodas.

A socially- and politically-conscious writer, PIT's writings respond to and speak of the social pressures he experienced as a young man and allow him to tell what's behind every criminal story: corruption and repression of the political system in Mexico. A militant and veteran of the 1968 student movement in Mexico, his book 68 (2004), inspired by the events of that year and direct personal experience, tells the story of the movement including the Tlatelolco massacre

Tlatelolco massacre

The Tlatelolco massacre, also known as The Night of Tlatelolco , was a government massacre of student and civilian protesters and bystanders that took place during the afternoon and night of October 2, 1968, in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City...

 of student protesters in Mexico City by government troops: At the La Plaza de las Tres Culturas, thousands of people were arrested, hundreds killed, and hundreds are still missing. To date nobody has been held accountable for these crimes.

Some of PIT's most popular works include the series of around Mexican independent detective called Héctor Belascoarán Shayne introduced in the novel Días de combate. PIT wrote eight more novels with this character. Other novels include: Muertos incómodos (The Inconvenient Dead) (with Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos), Cuatro manos (Four Hands), Sombra de la sombra (Shadow of the Shadow), Amorosos fantasmas, and Temporada de Zopilotes: Una historia narrativa sobre la Decena Trágica (Buzzards´ season: A narrative history about the Ten Tragic Days).

PIT organizes the 'Semana Negra' ("The Noir Week"), a crime fiction festival held every year in Gijón

Gijón

Gijón , officially Gijón / Xixón, is a coastal industrial city and a municipality in the autonomous community of Asturias in Spain. Early mediaeval texts mention it as "Gigia". It was an important regional Roman city, although the area has been settled since earliest history...

, Spain.

Family

He is the son of Paco Ignacio Taibo I

Paco Ignacio Taibo I

Paco Ignacio Taibo I , birth name Francisco Ignacio Taibo Lavilla González Nava Suárez Vich Manjón, was a prolific Spanish/Mexican writer and journalist....

 (†, 6/19/1924-11/13/2008) and the brother of movie producer Carlos Taibo and poet Benito Taibo.

External links

• (es) Biography
• (tetun) Translation into tetun (Timor-Leste)