Fernando Vallejo
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Fernando Vallejo Rendón (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 hometown early in life. He started studies in Philosophy at the National University of Colombia in Bogotá, but after one year he abandoned the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. 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.Template:Fact
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. His books are written in first person, in an autobiographical style.
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 United States 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
- Logoi : una gramática del lenguaje literario (1983) ISBN 9681613244
- Barba Jacob, el mensajero (1984) ISBN 9687234008
- The Blue Days - Los días azules (1985) ISBN 9586142299
- The Secret Fire - El fuego secreto (1987) ISBN 9586141977
- The Roads to Rome - Los caminos a Roma (1988) ISBN 9586142612
- Years of Indulgence - Años de indulgencia (1989) ISBN 958614299X
- El mensajero (1991) ISBN 9586143252
- Among ghosts - Entre fantasmas (1993) ISBN 9586143783
- La virgen de los sicarios - [Our Lady of the Assassins](1994) ISBN 9582401419
- Chapolas negras (1995) ISBN 9582402830
- The Darwinist Tautology - La tautología darwinista (1998)
- The Reef - El desbarrancadero (2001) ISBN 9588061628
- Rambla Paralela- "La rambla paralela" (2002) ISBN 842044457X
- My Brother the Mayor - Mi hermano el alcalde (2003) ISBN 8420400971
- Brief Handbook of Impostorology in Physics- "Manualito de imposturología física" (2005)
- The Whore of Babylon- "La puta de Babilonia" (2007) ISBN 9703703267
He received the Rómulo Gallegos Prize in 2003, one of the most prestigious prizes for Literature in the Spanish language for El desbarrancadero.
