Information about Fernando Vallejo

Fernando Vallejo

Born:	September 24 1942 (1942--) (age 65) Medellín,  Colombia
Occupation:	novelist, film director, screenwriter, biographer and biologist
Nationality:	Mexico
Genres:	biography, essay, novel

Fernando Vallejo (born 1942 in Medellín, Colombia) is a biologist, filmmaker and writer, born in Colombia. He obtained Mexican nationality in 2007.

He was born and raised in Medellín, though he abandoned his home town early in life. He started studies in Philosophy at the National University of Bogotá, but after one year he abandoned the Faculty of Philosophy and Lettres. Soon after he began new studies on Biology at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, which he finished. Then he spent one year in Italy at the film academy Cinecittá, where he obtained basic notions on cinema.

He then returned to Colombia with the project of filmmaking. Yet after difficulties with the Colombian Government in producing and, after he produced it, in presenting his first film (it was censored), he decided to leave his country.

In Mexico he produced and distributed three films about the violence in Colombia. He has been living in Mexico since 1971, where he not only produced his cinematographic pieces, but also the whole of his literary work. Despite time spent in other locales, mainly Europe and the United States, all of his novels take place in Colombia. Some of his themes are grammar, biology, philosophy, physics, violence, pederasty, adolescence, drugs, death and politics, mostly related to places such as Antioquia and Medellín; yet his main theme is his life. Written in an inconfoundable first person, his books are autobiographical.

Vallejo is also a great lover of dogs and other animals. He has made public his desire that upon his death his wealth and royalties be used to rescue stray dogs from the streets of Colombia.

His most well-known novel, La virgen de los sicarios, has been translated into English as Our Lady of the Assassins. It deals with his fictionalized return to Medellín, and his relationships with two teenagers caught in the local cycle of violence. The autobiographical/fiction La virgen de los sicarios was made into a full feature film in 2000 and released in the U.S. as Our Lady of the Assassins.

In April 2007, Vallejo obtained Mexican citizenship and published a letter in which he publicly renounced his Colombian nationality. The letter presents the reasons for his decision by mentioning several incidents during his career, among them the recent reelection of president Uribe, that eventually led him to this decision. [1]

Selected works

• The Blue Days - Los días azules (1985)
• The Secret Fire - El fuego secreto (1987)
• The Roads to Roma - Los caminos a Roma (1988)
• Years of Indulgence - Años de indulgencia (1989)
• Among ghosts - Entre fantasmas (1993)
• La virgen de los sicarios - [Our Lady of the Assassins](1994)
• The Darwinist Tautology - La tautología darwinista (1998)
• The Reef - El desbarrancadero (2001)
• Rambla Paralela- "La rambla paralela" (2002)
• My Brother the Mayor - Mi hermano el alcalde (2003)
• Brief Handbook of Impostorology in Physics- "Manualito de imposturología física" (2005)
• The Bitch of Babylon- "La puta de Babilonia" (2007)

He received the Rómulo Gallegos Prize in 2003, one of the most prestigious prizes for Literature in the Spanish language for El desbarrancadero. Acceptance speech at the Romulo Gallegos prize, in Spanish: [2]

Interviews

"La sinceridad puede ser demoledora" Ciberletras, 13. Lehman University. [3]

Two hours of a very open interview in Spanish, on Caracol Radio, 10/27/2006

See also

• Famous Colombians

References

• (Spanish) Revista Semana; A su estilo, con humor negro, el escritor Fernando Vallejo renuncia a la nacionalidad colombiana

External links