Ignacio Manuel Altamirano is one of the greatest luminaries of 19th century Mexico. Poet, novelist, critic, literary historian and politician, he also stood out as a protector of young aspiring to enter the world of letters, and as a promoter of a nationalist literature.
Altamirano died on February 13, 1893 in Tixtla, a small town located in the mountains of southern Mexico. His parents were pure Indians. During his childhood he only knew poverty and rough work in the fields.
One of his schoolmates wrote many years later: “Until the age of fourteen he was the type of the children of our indigenous people who had no more heritage than a milpa and some donkeys, a hut and a little willingness to work.
Altamirano lived like this, humble, almost wild, without knowing the Spanish language, with no other occupation than stoning the birds in the woods and engaging in huge childish fights with the homeless boys from the neighborhoods of his town.
In 1849 he entered the Literary Institute of Toluca. He later goes to the school of Miguel Domínguez, who in exchange for French classes for the students, gave him shelter and food. Later he embarks on a life of adventures: “he went through the towns, through the fields, a fellow comedian from the league, collecting images and considering the first great problems of the country”.
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