Manuel Zapata Olivella


Manuel Zapata Olivella was a Colombian physician, anthropologist and writer.

Biography

Zapata Olivella was born on 17 March 1920 in Santa Cruz de Lorica. When he was a boy, his father, the professor Antonio María Zapata Vásquez, moved with his family to Cartagena. Zapata Olivella's younger sister, Delia Zapata Olivella, was a Colombian dancer and folklorist.
He studied medicine at the National University of Colombia in Bogotá. In Mexico City, he worked in the Psychiatric Sanatorium of Dr. Ramírez and afterward in the Hospital Ortopédico of Alfonso Ortiz Thrown. He also worked for the magazine Time and for the magazine Events for All. He argued against his brother Virgil by defending the United States, but he later changed his mind after being racially discriminated against during a trip to the country.
During his stay in Mexico, he wrote the unpublished novel "Bitter Rice". He published several studies on the cultures of Afro-Colombians. He taught at several universities in the United States, Canada, Central America, and Africa. He founded and directed the literary magazine National Letters.
His father, a mulatto, and his mother, a mestiza, instilled a deep sense of pride in his own cultural roots, leading him to explore the narratives, histories, and cultures of the inhabitants of the Colombian Caribbean, especially the lives of Blacks and Natives. His most important work is the novel Changó, an extensive work that is presented as an epic of the afroamericanos, narrating their origins in Africa. In a sense, Changó is a culmination of all of his previous writings.
His previous novel In Chimá is born a saint was a finalist in two contests, the Esso of 1963, in which it was defeated by Gabriel García Márquez with The bad hour, and the Prize of Brief Novel Seix Barral, in which first place went to The city and the dogs by Mario Vargas Llosa.

Works

Short stories

  • 1948 – Pasión vagabunda
  • 1952 – He visto la noche
  • 1954 – China 6 am
  • 1961 – Cuentos de muerte y libertad
  • 1962 – El cirujano de la selva
  • 1967 – ¿Quién dio el fusil a Oswald?
  • 1990 – ''Fábulas de Tamalameque''

Novels

  • 1947 – Tierra mojada
  • 1960 – La calle 10
  • 1963 – Detrás del rostro
  • 1963 – Chambacú, corral de negros, honorable mention at the Premio Casa de las Américas
  • 1964 – En Chimá nace un santo
  • 1983 – Changó, el Gran Putas 1983 – Historia de un Joven Negro
  • 1986 – El fusilamiento del Diablo
  • 1989 – ''Hemingway, el cazador de la Muerte''

Essays

  • 1997 – "La rebelión de los genes"

Works in English