Guillermo Samperio (1948-2016) was a Mexican writer who developed a wide literary work. In his career he spanned several genres, such as poetry, novels, essays and short stories. His intellectual work made him one of the most relevant authors in his country.
Samperio's work was characterized by the use of expressive and precise language. Humor and the unusual were predominant features in his writings, as well as his vision of life and the world was unique. This intellectual also devoted himself to teaching courses on literature inside and outside of Mexico..
The most prominent titles of this author were: When touch speaks, Ambient fear, Wireless Ventriloquism Y Glasses for abstraction. The literary quality of Guillermo Samperio gave him worldwide recognition and to be included in several anthologies.
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Guillermo Samperio was born on October 22, 1948 in Mexico City to a cultured family and artists. It is known that his father was the musician William Samperio Ruiz, a member of the Tamaulipeco musical group of the Samperio Brothers. Guillermo was the eldest of six siblings.
Samperio and his family went through several difficult times during the writer's childhood. One of the crudest situations was being left homeless because of a bet that his father lost at the horse track. The precarious economic situation of the family forced Guillermo to work since he was ten years old.
Samperio studied primary and secondary school in his hometown. Music and reading were an important part of his training, influenced by his father's knowledge and experience. At twenty-one years of age he entered the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN).
At the IPN he was trained in the courses and workshops organized by the writer Juan José Arreola. There he was a student of Andrés González Pagés and began to develop his literary work. Towards 1972 he made a pause to join the political life of his country.
Guillermo returned to writing after his political experience. Already in 1973 he opted for a scholarship at the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA) and obtained it. At first some of his stories were to be published by the INP, however the production process was stopped.
It was in 1974 when the writer managed to publish his book of short stories When touch takes the floor, thanks to the help of INBA. With that work he made himself noticed and then made known Any day saturday. At that time his literary career took off.
Guillermo Samperio's particularity and effectiveness as a writer quickly led him to win awards. In 1976 he was awarded in the Poplar Museum contest for "Still Life". The following year he published Scary environment and was recognized with the Casa de las Américas Award for said work.
Samperio also showed an interest in storytelling and production. He participated in the radio programs: Cultural Newsletter Y Literature Today. He stood out as editor, literary advisor and head of the literature department of the National Institute of Fine Arts.
The storyteller's literary skills opened the doors to him in various print media in Mexico. So he collaborated with several newspapers and magazines, including: The Illustrated Herald, The Cultural Rooster, Word Game, The Cultural Day, Central American Literature Magazine Y Fine Arts Magazine.
Guillermo Samperio was an intellectual who used new technologies to promote culture, reading and writing. In addition to having a Facebook profile with more than 3,500 followers, he managed the blog "Tekstos de la Komoda Web". There he published short stories, essays, poetry, microfiction, and prose..
Guillermo Samperio lived his entire life dedicated to writing and spreading cultural values. Among the last books he published were: Dreams of scarab, Sanctuary and satanarius Y Juggling wonders. The writer died on December 14, 2016 in his native Mexico due to respiratory arrest.
- Chopo Museum Competition in 1976. First place with the story "Still Life".
- Casa de las Américas Award in 1977 for the book of stories Scary environment.
- Medal of Arts for the Eastern Countries in 1985, Prague.
- National Prize for Literary Journalism in 1988.
- Member of the Binational Commission in the Trust for Culture Mexico / USA in 1993 and 1994.
- National Tribute at the Palacio de Bellas Artes for his 25 years as a writer in 1999.
- Instituto Cervantes de Paris Award within the Juan Rulfo 2000 Competition in France.
- Member of the International Microfiction Organization in 2002 from the University of Salamanca, Spain.
- Special Mention by the University of Salamanca, Spain.
- Letterario Nazionale di Calabria e Basilicata Award in 2010 for The Mona Lisa in 2010.
Guillermo Samperio's writings were unique and independent and did not belong to any literary movement. His first publications were characterized by the use of a cultured language mixed with colloquial. In the eighties, his works took a turn and were more expressive and loaded with rarity.
The author had the creativity and ingenuity to combine the genres he developed. It was common to observe a story with rehearsal characteristics, but without losing its story features. On the other hand, he focused on the fictitious and surprising, as well as the ironic and the rhythm of language..
- When touch takes the floor (1974).
- Any day saturday (1974).
- Out of the ring (1975).
- Scary environment (1977).
- Lenin in football (1977).
- On this side and on the other (1982).
- City people (1985, 1993, 1997).
- Environment fear and other fears (1986).
- Imaginary notebook (1989).
- Personal anthology (1990).
- The man in the gloom (1991).
- Stories (nineteen ninety five).
- When touch takes the floor, short story anthology 1974-1999 (1999).
- The cochineal and other short fictions (1999).
- The ghost of jargon (1999).
- Smoke in their eyes (2000).
- La Gioconda by bike (2001).
- They inhabited a story (2001).
- The woman in the red raincoat and other women (2002).
- Heartless (2003).
- Brevity is an orange ladybug (2004).
- Collected stories (2007).
- The hidden war (2008).
- Beetle dreams (2011).
- The date expert (2012). Digital book.
- Do you remember, Julia, short story and poetic prose (2013).
- History of a black dress (2013).
- Golden horses in the night (2013).
- In the background you hear the sound of the ocean (2013).
- Sanctuary and satanary (2014).
- Juggling wonders (2015).
- Glasses for abstraction (1994).
- Wireless ventriloquism (1996-1997).
- Emiliano Zapata, a dreamer with mustaches (2004).
- Juarez, paper hero (2010).
- Hidalgo, cunning adventurer with a big heart (2010).
- Morelos, addicted to the nation, fictionalized biography (2010).
- Marcos, the masked yarn. Unauthorized and fictionalized biography (2011).
- Almazán, the only revolutionary general (2011).
- Why Colosio? (nineteen ninety five).
- Tribulations for the 21st century (1999).
- The French from Mexico (2000).
- The independents club (2005).
- Prince Medusa and other essays (2012).
- At the edge of the moon (2005).
- The Panther of Marseille (2006).We heard that Mozart adage again (2016).
- Then a ship appeared. Recipes for new storytellers (2002).
- Tarantula on Let's finish the story (2002).
- The hand next to the wall, anthology of 20 Latin American stories (2004).
- Say something to break this silence (2005).
- How do you write a story. 500 tips for new storytellers of the 21st century (2008).
It was one of Guillermo Samperio's main storybooks. In this work, the author told particular stories of the daily life of Mexicans through a mixed language that mixed the colloquial and the cultured. It consisted of 34 stories, some of them included in previous editions. These were some of the stories that made up the work:
- "I arrived".
- "Lenin in football".
- "Naked".
- "Come to the world".
- "Another house".
- "The princess's shoes".
- "Still life".
- "A night of news".
“You see, he who does not become a coach, puts his business or makes commercials. I don't know if you've seen Reynoso doing commercials for Bimbo bread, and Pajarito advertising clocks against balls during a supposed claw game. I have been to one side of the goal and I have never looked at any watch, if up to the knees they bother him ... ".
"-So we can't see each other today.
-He gets like a little boy and he's right.
-Just look, and have you already given it other times?
-Two, but not half an hour has passed, he says that after half an hour things get fatal, according to the doctors.
-At least they would have waited for me ".
It was the first novel that Samperio published, which was characterized by being subtle and reflective on the subject of existentialism. It was about a young researcher who tried to use what he knew about poetry in the technological inventions he created. The work belonged to the science fiction genre.
“The second foot started looking for the next slippers. He came across various objects, but did not find her. Slowly, Enrique Medellín knelt on one side of the bed, still in the dark greater polyhedron ...
... he put on the other slippers, as if he were putting on a live cat ... He approached the bureau, groped on it and took some dark glasses. He put them on and looked at the blast of light ... ".
This work was perhaps one of the most creative and complex of the Mexican writer. Samperio involved the reader through a structure of messy metaphors that he himself must put together to understand the actions of the protagonists.
It narrated the life of a professional ventriloquist who, at the same time, was a superior personality or alter ego of the author. The novel developed aspects related to life, the real and imaginary, dreams, creative capacity and artistic consciousness. The woman had a place as muse of art.
“He strokes in a silent whisper the reddish hair of the Imaginary Lady with Golden Lips. In her, other women find a mirror, ways of loving, ways of being confused and they put their age and doubts on her ... Only occasionally is she very thin and her crying has allowed the Source to continue her monologue of Waters of Memory ".
“Yes, he did not know and never did know that the woman was sitting with her legs open wildly, letting the air that seeped through the dining room window to crash against her flaccid flesh, looking, due to a sudden break, over the of the storage room like a screen ... ".
- “The word is the principle of touch; touch is the beginning of life. The word is life ".
- “You know how sentimental women are and Elvira came out of the radicals, you already know her; but I thank you for your caresses on the nights when I looked very desperate ".
- "For women, three hours of delay is equivalent to a burnt rice or a soup that boils for hours and hours until noodle crusts stick to the dish".
- “… Red shoes are the heart of the feet. Red shoes look like the pretty woman ... Red shoes are the lips of sensuality ".
- "I mean that literature arises at the moment in which the written text is read or listened to, while it is stored in the drawer it does not exist".
- “Writing is a necessity; to correct, an obsession, and good literature arises from the union of both: you cannot publish a story without having control over each punctuation mark, each sound, each of its silences ".
- "The creative block arises mainly from fear".
- "The evolution of literature would not be possible without imitation, there is precisely the advance. First it is imitated, then it is proposed. There is no other way ”.
- “The storyteller never rests. Live to write. When he is not downloading his ideas to paper, he is observing the world to unravel it and then show it, through stories, to readers ".
- "The story is a hole in the wall that the author has opened so that readers can peek into a universe".
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