Josefina Vicens

She is best known for her two novels, El libro vacío (‘The empty book;’ published first in Spanish in 1958 and in English in 1992[2]) and Los años falsos (‘The false years;’ first published in Spanish in 1982[3] and in English in 1989[4]) and for her pioneering contributions to twentieth-century Mexican politics and political thought through her activism and journalism.

[1] The family was very musical, and her mother kept a notebook of poetry and song lyrics;[1] perhaps this influenced Vicens’ own appreciation for writing.

In the early 1920s, the Vicens family moved to Mexico City and settled in the prosperous Colonia Roma neighborhood.

[1] After the family settled in Mexico City, Vicens’ father started working for a hot sauce manufacturing company of which he later became the owner.

There, Vicens perceived great inequality between the managers of the factory, including her father, and its workers, causing conflict for her.

She agreed to work at the hospital only if, she recounted later in an interview, the director would let her speak to patients after she had finished her secretarial tasks for the day.

This was also where she, singled out because she was the youngest worker in the division, earned the nickname “La Peque.”[1] In 1938, she was chosen to be the Secretary for Women's Action of the National Confederation of Farmers.

[8] Art formed an important part of this struggle, and she allied with some artists who were her contemporaries in order to advocate for social justice, including: Juan Soriano, Antonio Peláez, and Ramón Gaya.

In 1979, she wrote her last screenplay, El testamento, and in 1982 she published her second and final book, Los años falsos.

[17] Josefina Vicens fully developed her writings in the 1950s, the decade in which Mexico City became the center of modernity in the country, where many intellectuals and artists met and collaborated.

Both the studies and influences of the period were very diverse: Los poetos malditos, surrealism, French existentialism, the philosophy of Nietzsche, etc.

Many studies consider Vicens’ marriage and solid friendship with Jose Ferrel and authors like RImbaud and Gide to be her point of contact with the group of los Contemporáneos.

The Empty Book David Lauer, University of Texas Press (1992), ISBN 0-292-72067-X) won the Villaurutia prize for literature.

The book, a work of metafiction, addresses the struggle to express universal ideas while living in what José considers a mediocre life.

He writes of the tension between imagination and real life, unsure how to reconcile his desire for truth with his search for a compelling story.

It follows 19-year-old protagonist Luis Alfonso Fernandez Jr. as he stands at the grave of his father, who died years earlier when he accidentally shot himself.

Through this reflection on the clash of generations, Vicens criticizes Mexico's political corruption and the lasting influence of familial traditions on contemporary life.

Her screenplays were considered unique in their originality; in those days, most scripts were commissioned by production companies and so Vicens’ stood out because she wrote them without being paid to do so.

These films addressed political or surrealist themes, and tackled weighty issues about identity, self-definition, and mortality that also appeared in her novels.

[29] When Vicens accompanied her father on his first return trip to Spain after 20 years, she was intrigued by the bullfighting scene she found there.

She decided to co-found a newspaper with a friend, and she revived her pseudonym to bad-mouth a boxer who threatened to beat up Pepe Faroles.