Paco Ignacio Taibo II
Paco Ignacio Taibo II | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Native name | Francisco Ignacio Taibo Mahojo |
Born | (1949-01-11) January 11, 1949 (age 75) Gijón, Spain |
Pen name | Paco Ignacio Taibo II, PIT, Taibo II |
Occupation | Writer |
Nationality | Spanish and Mexican |
Paco Ignacio Taibo II (born Francisco Ignacio Taibo Mahojo; on January 11, 1949), also known as Paco Taibo II or informally as PIT is a Spanish-Mexican writer, novelist and political activist based in Mexico City. He is most widely known as the founder of the neopolicial genre of novel in Latin America and is also a prominent member of the international crime writing community. His Spanish language work has won numerous awards including two Latin American Dashiell Hammett Prizes.[1] In 2018, Taibo was appointed as head of the Fondo de Cultura Económica by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.[2]
Biography
Taibo has lived in Mexico City since the age of 9, when in 1958 his family fled from Spain to Mexico. Taibo II is an 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 and is the president of the International Association of Political Writers.[3][4] 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.[5]
Some of PIT's novels have been mentioned among the "Books of the Year" by The New York Times, Le Monde, and the Los Angeles Times. 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 in Italy.[4]
PIT's readership has developed into a cult following. Once when he gave a talk about Mexican Independence hero Miguel Hidalgo 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.[5]
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 (published by Seven Stories Press in 2004) was inspired by the events of that year and direct personal experience, it tells the story of the movement including the Tlatelolco massacre 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.[6] To date nobody has been held accountable for these crimes.[7]
Among PIT's most popular works is a series of detective novels, written against the prevailing bourgeois state in Mexico in the last few decades of the 20th century, with the protagonist, Mexican Private Investigator Héctor Belascoarán Shayne, who was introduced in the novel Días de combate. PIT wrote eight more novels with this character. The character has been adapted several times for film and television, most recently for the 2022 Netflix series Belascoarán starring Luis Gerardo Méndez.
Other novels include: 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) and, the last of the series, Muertos incómodos (The Uncomfortable Dead), co-authored with Subcomandante Marcos.
PIT organizes the "Semana Negra" ("The Noir Week"), a crime fiction festival held every year in his birth city of Gijón in Spain.
Family
He is the son of Paco Ignacio Taibo I (†, 6/19/1924-11/13/2008) and the brother of movie producer Carlos Taibo and poet Benito Taibo.
Awards and honors
- 1991 Dashiell Hammett (Spain) for his novel Cuatro Manos
- 1994 Dashiell Hammett (Spain) for his novel La Bicicleta de Leonardo
- 1998 Premio Bancarella (Italy) for his novel Senza Perdere la Tenerezza
Bibliography
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (October 2022) |
- Spanish
- Cuatro Manos, novel, Buenos Aires (Argentina): Ediciones Colihue SRL, 1991.
- La Bicicleta de Leonard, novel, Planeta, 1994.
- Ernesto Guevara, también conocido como el Che, novel, Planeta, 1997.
- Senza Perdere la Tenerezza, novel, Il Saggiatore, 1998.
- '68, nonfiction, New York: Seven Stories Press, 2004.
- Patria, three-part series, Planeta, 2017.
- Héctor Belascoarán Shayne detective series
- Días de combate, 1976. ("Days of Combat")
- Cosa Fácil, 1977. ("An Easy Thing")
- Algunas Nubes, 1980. ("Some Clouds")
- No habrá final feliz, 1981. ("No Happy Ending")
- Regreso a la misma ciudad y bajo la lluvia, 1989. ("Return to the Same City")
- Amorosos Fantasmas, 1990. ("Loving Ghosts")
- Sueños de frontera, 1990. ("Frontera Dreams")
- Desvanecidos difuntos, 1991.
- Adiós Madrid, 1993.
- English
- The Shadow of the Shadow, translated by William I Neuman, Scottsdale AZ Poisoned Pen Press
- No Happy Ending, Scottsdale AZ Poisoned Pen Press, 1981
- Return to the Same City, Scottsdale AZ Poisoned Pen Press, 1989
- An Easy Thing, translated by Willie Neuman, Scottsdale AZ Poisoned Pen Press, 1990
- Some Clouds, Scottsdale AZ Poisoned Pen Press, 1992
- Four Hands, translated by Laura C Dail, New York Picador, 1995
- 68, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith, New York: Seven Stories Press, 2004.
- The Uncomfortable Dead (with Subcomandante Marcos), translated by Carlos Lopez, New York Akashic Books 2010
References
- ^ "Paco Ignacio Taibo II". Restless Books. 20 January 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
- ^ Cooper, Marc (15 April 2019). "Paco Taibo's Republic of Readers". The Nation. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
- ^ "Sombra de la sombra. Paco Ignacio Taibo II". Archived from the original on 4 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-06.
- ^ a b Editor's introduction. Paco Ignacio Taibo II. 2003. Suenos de Frontera/Desvanecidos Difuntos/Adios Madrid. Editorial Planeta. Mexico.
- ^ a b "Paco Ignacio Taibo II: el personaje de su propia novela - La Jornada". Jornada.unam.mx. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
- ^ "Books | Seven Stories Press". Sevenstories.com. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
- ^ Taibo, P.I. 2004. 68. Editorial Planeta, Mexico.
External links
- (es) Biography
- (tetun) Translation into tetun (Timor-Leste)
- v
- t
- e
- 1953 Ernest Hemingway
- 1954 Giovannino Guareschi
- 1955 Hervé Le Boterf
- 1956 Han Suyin
- 1957 Werner Keller
- 1958 Boris Pasternak
- 1959 Heinrich Gerlach
- 1960 Bonaventura Tecchi
- 1961 André Schwarz-Bart
- 1962 Cornelius Ryan
- 1963 Paolo Caccia Dominioni
- 1964 Giulio Bedeschi
- 1965 Luigi Preti
- 1966 Vincenzo Pappalettera
- 1967 Indro Montanelli
- 1968 Isaac Bashevis Singer
- 1969 Peter Colosimo
- 1970 Oriana Fallaci
- 1971 Enzo Biagi
- 1972 Alberto Bevilacqua
- 1973 Roberto Gervaso
- 1974 Giuseppe Berto
- 1975 Susanna Agnelli
- 1976 Carlo Cassola
- 1977 Giorgio Saviane
- 1978 Alex Haley
- 1979 Massimo Grillandi
- 1980 Maurice Denuzière
- 1981 Sergio Zavoli
- 1982 Gary Jennings
- 1983 Renato Barneschi
- 1984 Luciano De Crescenzo
- 1985 Giulio Andreotti
- 1986 Pasquale Festa Campanile
- 1987 Enzo Biagi
- 1988 Cesare Marchi
- 1989 Umberto Eco
- 1990 Vittorio Sgarbi
- 1991 Antonio Spinosa
- 1992 Alberto Bevilacqua
- 1993 Carmen Covito
- 1994 John Grisham
- 1995 Jostein Gaarder
- 1996 Stefano Zecchi
- 1997 Giampaolo Pansa
- 1998 Paco Ignacio Taibo
- 1999 Ken Follett
- 2000 Michael Connelly
- 2001 Andrea Camilleri
- 2002 Federico Audisio
- 2003 Alessandra Appiano
- 2004 Bruno Vespa
- 2005 Gianrico Carofiglio
- 2006 Andrea Vitali
- 2007 Frank Schätzing
- 2008 Valerio Massimo Manfredi
- 2009 Donato Carrisi
- 2010 Elizabeth Strout
- 2011 Mauro Corona
- 2012 Marcello Simoni
- 2013 Anna Premoli
- 2014 Michela Marzano
- 2015 Sara Rattaro
- 2016 Margherita Oggero
- 2017 Matteo Strukul
- 2018 Dolores Redondo
- 2019 Alessia Gazzola