Revueltas, José, 1914-1976

Author and political activist José Revueltas was born on November 20, 1914 in Durango, Mexico and died on April 14, 1976 in Mexico City. As an adolescent Revueltas became involved in leftist political activities with the Partido Comunista Mexicano. Later he wrote and published numerous short stories, novels, and plays. Revueltas taught at Mexico's National University where he was active in student political groups and was imprisoned for his involvement in the October 2, 1968 Tlatelolco demonstrations.

José Revueltas Sánchez was born on November 20, 1914 in Durango, Mexico to José Revueltas Gutiérrez, a grocery store owner, and Romana Sánchez Arias. He had eleven brothers and sisters including Silvestre, a musician and composer, Fermín, a muralist, and Rosaura, a film and stage actress. At age thirteen, he came into contact with laborers who taught him about Marxism, an ideology that greatly impacted his life and became the focus of much of his writing.

By age fourteen, Revueltas had begun participating in political demonstrations. He increased his involvement in leftist activities, and he was admitted to the Partido Comunista Mexicano (PCM) in 1930. In 1932, he organized a strike at El Buen Tono, a Mexico City factory, and he spent five months in the penal colony, Islas Márias, as a result. He returned to Islas Márias two years later to serve a ten month sentence for organizing another strike. Revueltas returned from jail as a celebrated member of the Communist party, and he was sent as a delegate to the Seventh World Communist Congress in the Soviet Union.

While Revueltas remained committed to political causes, his personal life and his career became his focus in the late 1930s. In 1937, he married his first wife, Olivia Peralta, with whom he had four children. He wrote numerous short stories that appeared in journals, published his first novel, Los muros de agua, in 1941, and worked as columnist and reporter for El Popular . His second novel, El luto humano, was published in 1943 and won the Premio Nacional de Literatura. In 1944, he published his first collection of short stories, Dios en la tierra, and he began his career in the film business as a script writer.

In 1947, he divorced Olivia Peralta to marry María Teresa Retes. From 1948 to 1950, Revueltas had his first play, Israel, debut, he published his third novel, Los días terrenales, and his second play, El cuadrante de la soledad, became the first Mexican play to have one hundred consecutive performances. The novel and his second play received criticism from the left, and in a surprising move, Revueltas denounced both works calling for the novel to be withdrawn and the play to halt performances. From 1956 to 1964, he published three novels, En algún valle de lágrimas, Los motivos de Caín, and Los errores . He published his second collection of short stories, Dormir en tierra . He wrote a number of political works during this time including México: una democracia bárbara and Ensayo sobre un proletariado sin cabeza . In 1967, Revueltas received the Xavier Villaurrutia Literary Prize for Obra literaria .

While his professional life prospered, he grew increasingly dissatisfied with the Communist party throughout the years. Revueltas was expelled from the PCM in 1943 which led him to found an Independent Marxist Group, El Insurgente. He helped to found the Popular party in 1948, but he left to seek readmission to the PCM in 1955. He was expelled again in 1960, and he briefly joined the Mexican Workers-Farmers party before founding the Liga Leninista Espartaco (LLE). The leaders of the LLE expelled him 1963, and this ended his formal involvement with political groups.

While teaching at Mexico?s National University, Revueltas attended and participated in meetings held by politically active student groups. On October 2, 1968 he participated in a student demonstration in the Plaza de Tlatelolco that ended with many demonstrators dead or wounded. He was arrested on November 16th, 1968, and on November 12, 1970, he was sentenced to sixteen years in Lecumberri Prison where he had been held for the past two years. This imprisonment took a toll on him physically, but he wrote a number of short stories and a short novel, El apando, during his sentence.

After his release in 1971, Revueltas was given a position with the National Cinematographic Bank, and in 1972, he was a visiting lecturer at Stanford University. Here, he met and married his third wife, Ema Barrón. He returned to Mexico City where he published his third collection of short stories, Material de los sueños, and had a play he wrote in the 1950s, Pito Pérez en la hoguera, produced in 1975. Revueltas died in Mexico City on April 14, 1976 due to a heart attack.

Work Referenced:

Slick, Sam L. José Revueltas . Twayne's World Author Series. Edited by Luis Dávila. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1983.