Maruxa Vilalta


Maria Vilalta i Soteras was a Catalan-born Mexican playwright and a theatre director. Her plays have been translated, published and produced in numerous countries. She won the critic’s prize for the best play of the year ten times. In November 2010 she was awarded the National Prize for Arts and Sciences in the field of Linguistics and Literature, for her work which has national and international resonance. President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa gave her the award at Mexico's National Palace.

Early life and education

Maruxa Vilalta was born in Barcelona in 1932, daughter of lawyer Antonio Vilalta y Vidal, and María Soteras Maurí. Antonio Her father was a supporter for the Estatut de la Generalitat and one of the founders of Esquerra Republicana party. He was also a distinguished jurist, elected and proclaimed deputy of the Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Barcelona. María Soteras was the first woman to graduate with a degree in law from the University of Barcelona and she was also a member of the Colegio de Abogados. In 1936, at the start of the Civil War in Spain, they went in exile to Brussels and they arrived in Mexico by the way of New York City in 1939. She became a Mexican citizen at eight years of age. She received all her education in Mexico, from primary school and then six years of French baccalauréat at the Liceo Franco Mexicano. She enrolled in the School of Liberal Arts at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, where she studied for a master's degree in Spanish literature.

Early career

Vilalta started as a novelist. Her first works were El castigo in 1957, Los desorientados, reprinted several times in 1959, and Dos colores para el paisaje in 1961. She adapted Los desorientados for the theatre and since the first performance, in 1960, she began her career as a playwright. She wrote dramas and some short stories, among them El otro día, la muerte , a 1974 collection which includes Diálogos del narrador, la muerte y su invitado , Romance con la muerte de agua , Aventura con la muerte de fuego , and Morir temprano, mientras comulga el general .

Plays and awards

  • Los disorientados , 1960.
  • Un país feliz , 1964.
  • Soliloquio del Tiempo , 1964.
  • Un día loco , 1964.
  • La última letra , 1964.
  • El 9 , 1965.
  • Cuestión de narices , 1966. Prize for the Best Group and Best Director, Ramón Dagés, at the Manresa Theatre Festival, 1974.
  • Esta noche juntos, amándonos tanto , 1970. Juan Ruiz de Alarcón Best Play of the Year Prize, and Best Play of the Year Prize at the Las Máscaras Festival, Morelia.
  • Nada como el piso 16 , 1976. Juan Ruiz de Alarcón Best Play of the Year Prize and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Best Play of the Year Prize.
  • Historia de él , 1978. Juan Ruiz de Alarcón Best Play of the Year Prize and El Fígaro Best Play of the Year Prize.
  • Una mujer, dos hombres y un balazo , 1981. It contents four one act-plays that can be staged separately.
  • Pequeña historia de horror , 1985.
  • Una voz en el desierto. Vida de San Jerónimo Mexican Association of Theatre Critics Best Play of Creative Research Prize, 1991. Society of Theatre Journalists Prize and the Claridades Best Play of the Year Prize.
  • Francisco de Asís, 1992.
  • Jesucristo entre nosotros , 1994.
  • Ignacio y los jesuitas , 1997.
  • 1 9 1 0 , 2000/2001.
  • Con vista a la bahía '' is produced by Conaculta, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes and Centro Cultural Helénico, from May until September 2007.

    Death

She died on 19 August 2014, aged 81.