5 Contemporary Guatemalan Writers You Should Know — theculturetrip.com

Former Director of the Guatemalan National Library, Arévalo Martinez also founded influential Guatemalan political magazine, Juan Chapín, which became a vital method of propaganda for the literary/political movement known as Generation 1910, or ‘The Comet’. This Movement – long before the advent of the Latin American Boom or Surrealism – saw the political mobilisation of young Guatemalan writers, for whom Juan Chapín was central. In addition to his involvement with Juan Chapín, Arévalo Martinez is also known for The Man Who Resembled a Horse (1920), the tale of a man metaphorically torn between his spiritual and his animalistic facets. The book draws heavily on Freud’s theory of personality, yet presents the psychology in an entertaining and easy-to-digest format. The perpetual relevance of the themes addressed in his novels mean that they not only stand the tests of time, but have secured Arévalo Martinez a place in Guatemalan history.

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