The world of literature is in mourning. José Agustín Ramírez Gómez, a Mexican writer who signed his works simply as José Agustín, has died at the age of 79 in his native country. At the moment the exact causes of death are unknown, although his son had already warned through his Facebook account that the author was in serious condition.
The Mexican Ministry of Culture announced the death of the illustrious writer through a publication on the microblogging platform X (previously known as Twitter). The organization accompanied the brief statement with a black and white image of the artist: ”The Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico regrets the sensitive death of José Agustín, narrator, essayist, film scriptwriter, translator, playwright and Mexican journalist (. ..) In 2011 he was recognized with the National Prize for Sciences and Arts in Linguistics and Literature.
The death of José Agustín has left the entire country in shock, as well as fans and followers around the world. It should be noted that Augustine was an indispensable figure in Mexican writing due to his rebellion, his colloquialisms, and his warrior and free spirit.
Throughout his career, the Mexican dared with all kinds of styles, achieving great recognition both within the country and outside its borders. José Agustín wrote novels (The Tomb, In Profile, Two Hours of Sunshine), screenplays (El Abando, Here Comes the Plague), short stories (The Look in the Center, There Is No Censorship, Inventing What a Dream), theater (Abolition of the property), essays (The Hotel of Lonely Hearts, The New Classical Music, Against the Current), anthologies (Juan José Arreola, The Sacred Word), etc.
He said ‘I do’ with his first wife when he was older and married for the second time when he was only 19 years old. He was in jail because the authorities caught him with marijuana and when he came out he became very popular, a position that he took advantage of to publicly advocate for the decriminalization of drugs. In 2009, the winner of the National Literature Prize Juan Ruiz de Alarcón suffered a fall during a book signing that caused various fractures to his skull and ribs. Because of this accident, José Agustín had to spend 20 days in intensive care.
Although he was against this idea on several occasions, many classify him as an indispensable member of the ‘Literature of the Wave’ movement, an informal generation of writers of which Gustavo Sainz and René Avilés Fabila were also part.
