Miguel Ángel Asturias Rosales (Spanish: [mi(ˈ)ɣel ˈaŋxel asˈtuɾjas]; 19 October 1899 – 9 June 1974) was a Guatemalan poet-diplomat, novelist, playwright and journalist.

Winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1967, his work helped bring attention to the importance of indigenous cultures, especially those of his native Guatemala.

[1] While in Paris, Asturias also associated with the Surrealist movement, and he is credited with introducing many features of modernist style into Latin American letters.

The following year he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the second Latin American author to receive this honor (Gabriela Mistral had won it in 1945).

Asturias's parents were of Spanish descent, and reasonably distinguished: his father could trace his family line back to colonists who had arrived in Guatemala in the 1660s; his mother, whose ancestry was more mixed, was the daughter of a colonel.

While enrolled in El Instituto Nacional de Varones (The National Institute for Boys) he took an active role, such as organizing strikes in his high school, in the overthrow of the dictatorship of Estrada Cabrera.

[10] In 1922, Asturias and other students founded the Popular University, a community project whereby "the middle class was encouraged to contribute to the general welfare by teaching free courses to the underprivileged.

[21] Asturias devoted much of his political energy towards supporting the government of Jacobo Árbenz, successor to Juan José Arévalo Bermejo.

[24] In 1966, democratically elected President Julio César Méndez Montenegro achieved power and Asturias was given back his Guatemalan citizenship.

On 9 June 2024, President Bernardo Arévalo announced that the family of Miguel Ángel Asturias had agreed to repatriate his remains to Guatemalan territory.

Asturias' fascination with pre-Columbian texts such as Popul Vuh and Anales de los Xahil, as well as his beliefs in popular myths and legends, have heavily influenced the work.

[30] Academic Jean Franco describes the book as, "lyrical recreations of Guatemalan folk-lore gaining inspiration from pre-Columbian and colonial sources.

The noted French poet and essayist Paul Valéry wrote of the book, "I found it brought about a tropical dream, which I experienced with singular delight.

"[36] One of Asturias' most critically acclaimed novels, El Señor Presidente was completed in 1933 but remained unpublished until 1946, where it was privately released in Mexico.

[39] While completing the novel, Asturias associated with members of the Surrealist movement as well as fellow future Latin American writers, such as Arturo Uslar Pietri and the Cuban Alejo Carpentier.

[42] El Señor Presidente uses surrealistic techniques and reflects Asturias' notion that Indian's non-rational awareness of reality is an expression of subconscious forces.

[22] Although the author never specifies where the novel takes place, it is clear that the plot is influenced by Guatemalan president, and well-known dictator, Manuel Estrada Cabrera's rule.

[31] The plot revolves around an isolated Indian community (the men of maize or "people of corn") whose land is under threat by outsiders, with the intent of commercial exploitation.

[53] This transformation is yet another reference to Mayan culture; the belief of nahualism, or a man's ability to assume the shape of his guardian animal, is one of the many essential aspects to understanding the hidden meanings in the novel.

This recognition marked Asturias as one of the few authors recognized in both the West and the Communist bloc during the period of the Cold War for his literary works.

[61] His quest to create an authentic Guatemalan national identity is central to his first published novel, Leyendas de Guatemala, and is a pervasive theme throughout his works.

When asked by interviewer Günter W. Lorenz how he perceives his role as a Latin American writer, he responds, "...I felt it was my calling and my duty to write about America, which would someday be of interest to the world.

[64] El Señor Presidente does not explicitly identify its setting as early twentieth-century Guatemala, however, the novel's title character was inspired by the 1898–1920 presidency of Manuel Estrada Cabrera.

[66] He believed that socio-economic development in Guatemala depended on better integration of indigenous communities, a more equal distribution of wealth in the country, and working to lower the rates of illiteracy amongst other prevalent issues.

[73] This particular story was the influence for Asturias' novel Hombres de maíz (Men of Maize), a mythological fable that introduces readers to the life, customs, and psyche of a Maya Indian.

However, Lourdes Royano Gutiérrez argues that his work remains valid because in this literary situation, intuition served as a better tool than scientific analysis.

[31] For example, Asturias used a lyrical and experimental style in Men of Maize, which Franco believed to be a more authentic way of representing the indigenous mind than traditional prose.

[52] When asked about his method of interpreting the Mayan psyche, Asturias was quoted saying "I listened a lot, I imagined a little, and invented the rest" (Oí mucho, supuse un poco más e inventé el resto).

[79] In Mulata de tal, Asturias fuses surrealism with indigenous tradition in something called the "great language" ("la gran lengua").

Among them, his friendship with Pablo Neruda, whom he met in 1940 in Mexico[87], stands out, as well as his relationships with Giuseppe Bellini, an Italian scholar[88], and Cristóbal Humberto Ibarra, a Salvadoran writer for whom he wrote the preface to the book Cuentos de sima y cima[89].