David Huerta


David Huerta was a Mexican poet and the son of well-known poet Efraín Huerta. His wife was the writer Verónica Murguía.

Biography

He was born in Mexico City, the son of the poets Efraín Huerta and Mireya Bravo Munguía, and was immersed from childhood in Mexico's literary environment. He studied Philosophy, and English and Spanish literature at the National [Autonomous University of Mexico]. There he met Rubén Bonifaz Nuño and Jesús Arellano, who published his first book of poems, The Garden of Light.
Huerta spent many years translating and editing for the Fondo de Cultura Económica, an institution where he directed the magazine La Gaceta del FCE. In addition to his poetry and essays, he wrote an opinion column in the political weekly Proceso. He opposed cuts to the cultural budget by the Mexican government, struggling in particular to preserve the home of the poet Ramón López Velarde, which has often been threatened by a shortage of resources.
His advocacy of literature and poetry was extensive as a coordinator of literary workshops in the Casa del Lago of UNAM, Instituto Nacional de [Bellas Artes y Literatura|INBA], and Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers. He was also a teacher of literature at the Octavio Paz Foundation and the Foundation of Mexican Letters.
Of himself as a poet, Huerta said:
Huerta died of kidney failure on 3 October 2022.

Awards and recognition

Huerta received numerous awards, most notably the Carlos Pellicer poetry award in 1990, the Xavier Villaurrutia Award in 2006 and in 2015 the National Prize for Arts in the Linguistics and literature category. He was a Fellow of the Mexican Writers' Centre, the John [Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|Guggenheim Foundation], and the National Endowment for Culture and Arts. Since 1993 he was a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte.

Works