Agustin Yanez

Yáñez, Agustín 

(also Augustín Yáñez). Born May 4, 1904, in Guadalajara. Mexican writer and state figure.

Yáñez studied law at the University of Guadalajara. He served as governor of the state of Jalisco from 1953 to 1959 and as secretary for public education from 1964 to 1970. In 1974 he became director of the Mexican Academy of Languages.

Yáñez first achieved literary fame with his novel The Edge of the Storm (1947). Set in a Mexican province before the Mexican Revolution of 1910–17, the novel shows the interrelation and interdependence between events in a remote corner of the country and the impending eruption of the revolution. It initiated the modern era of Mexican realistic prose. Imbued with social criticism, the novels The Fertile Land (1960) and The Lean Lands (1962) also deal with Mexican provincial life. The novel The Creation (1959) recounts the fate of a composer.

In addition to critical essays on prominent Mexican cultural figures, Yáñez has published the study The Social Context of Ibero-American Literature (1944) and several short stories.

REFERENCES

Kuteishchikova, V. N. Meksikanskii roman. Moscow, 1971.
Carballo, E. Agustín Yáñez. [Havana, 1966.]