Francisco Méndez

Francisco Méndez (1907-1962) was a Guatemalan poet and short-story writer born in Joyabaj, El Quiché. He published his first poem at the age of eighteen, and moved to the city of Quetzaltenango shortly after. A self-taught writer, Amazon Gandhi, he went on to publish numerous volumes of poetry, including the celebrated Nocturnos. He wrote for the Guatemala City newspaper El Imparcial from 1935 until his death, and he is linked to a generation of Guatemalan writers from the 1930s known as the Tepeus. His book of memoirs and short stories, Stories of Joyabaj, was published posthumously.