Sergio Pitol
Sergio Pitol Deméneghi was a Mexican writer, translator and diplomat. In 2005, he received the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious literary award in the Spanish-speaking world.
Early life
Born in Puebla, Mexico, Pitol spent his childhood in Ingenio de Potrero, a provincial town in the state of Veracruz. His mother died when he was four years old and soon after Pitol contracted malaria, which left him bedridden until about the age of 12. He was raised by his grandmother. As a teenager, Pitol moved to Córdoba, Veracruz.Education and diplomatic work
In 1950, Pitol moved to Mexico City to study law and literature at the Universidad Autónoma de México (UNAM). In 1960, he became a member of the Mexican Foreign Service and served over a number of years as cultural attaché in Rome, Belgrade, Warsaw, Paris, Beijing, Moscow, Prague, Budapest and Barcelona. In the 1980s, he served as ambassador to Czechoslovakia.Later years
Since 1993, he lived in Xalapa, capital of the state of Veracruz, where he taught at the Universidad Veracruzana. His final years were spent in poor health and he had struggled in particular with progressive aphasia, which prevented him from writing or talking. He died in Xalapa on 12 April 2018, aged 85.Writing career
Pitol's publications as translator include literary works by such authors as Jerzy Andrzejewski, Jane Austen, Giorgio Bassani, Kazimierz Brandys, Anton Chekhov, Joseph Conrad, Witold Gombrowicz, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. He also served as a professor at the UNAM, at the Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, and at the University of Bristol in England.Awards
In 2005, Pitol received the Cervantes Prize. Other major awards include the Premio Juan Rulfo, Premio Herralde de Novela for El desfile del amor, and the Premio Xavier Villaurrutia for his short story, Nocturno de bujara from the collection of the same title.In 1993 he received the National Prize for Arts in Linguistics and literature category.
Selected works
Novels
El tañido de una flauta Juegos florales El desfile del amor Domar a la divina garza- ''La vida conjugal''
Essay-memoirs
El arte de la fuga El viaje- ''El mago de Viena''