Monday, September 4, 2023

Ramón Amaya Amador

Ramón Amaya Amador (1916 –1966) was a Honduran journalist, author, and political activist, known for his most recognizable works "Prision verde" and "Cipotes".

A leading Honduran communist, he moved to Guatemala in 1944 fleeing political persecution, where he worked on the Nuestro Diario (Our Daily) newspaper and was very supportive of the left-wing government of Jacobo Arbenz. 

It was at the beginning of this period that he wrote what is considered his finest novel, Prisión verde (Green prison), which for many years was banned in Honduras, and described life on the banana plantations in the Bajo Aguán valley of northern Honduras, and the consequences of a laborstrike there.

When the Arbenz government fell in June 1954, Amador sought refuge in the Argentine embassy before being granted asylum in Argentina. With his family he moved to Prague, Czechoslovakia where he worked on a magazine called Problems of Peace and Socialism until he died at 50 years of age in a plane crash in 1966 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.

In September 1977 his remains were returned to the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa.

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