Ramón Amaya Amador facts for kids

Ramón Amaya Amador (born April 29, 1916 – died November 24, 1966) was a famous Honduran writer, journalist, and activist. He is best known for his important books like "Prisión verde" (Green Prison) and "Cipotes". His stories often showed the lives of ordinary people in Honduras.

A Writer's Life: Ramón Amaya Amador

Ramón Amaya Amador was born in a town called Olanchito in the Yoro region of Honduras. He went to school in La Ceiba. After finishing his education, he worked on the large banana farms along the northern coast of Honduras. This experience later inspired some of his most famous writings.

He started his writing career in 1939. By 1941, he became a journalist for a newspaper in La Ceiba called El Atlántico. In October 1943, he started his own weekly magazine in Olanchito, which he named Alerta (Alert).

Moving for Safety

In 1944, Ramón Amaya Amador had to leave Honduras. He moved to Guatemala because of political problems in his home country. In Guatemala, he continued his work as a journalist. He wrote for newspapers like Nuestro Diario (Our Daily), Diario de Centro América (Central American Daily), El Popular Progresista (The Popular Progressive), and Medioía (Midday).

During his ten years in Guatemala, he wrote what many consider his best novel, Prisión verde (Green Prison). This book described the tough lives of workers on the banana plantations in northern Honduras. It also talked about a big worker strike that happened there. For many years, this book was not allowed to be read in Honduras.

Life in Other Countries

In June 1954, the government in Guatemala changed, and Ramón Amaya Amador had to seek safety again. He found refuge in the Argentine embassy and then moved to Argentina. There, he worked for a popular educational newspaper called Sarmiento.

While in Argentina, he met and married Regina Arminda Funes. They returned to Honduras in May 1957. Back home, he worked for El Cronista (The Chronicle) and started a new magazine called Vistazo (View) in Tegucigalpa.

Soon after, Ramón Amaya Amador and his family, including his two young children, moved to Prague, which was then in Czechoslovakia. He worked for a magazine called Problems of Peace and Socialism. Sadly, he died at the age of 50 in a plane crash in 1966 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. In September 1977, his remains were brought back to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

Published Books

Ramón Amaya Amador's son, Carlos Amaya Fúnez, has worked hard to share his father's books with more people. The dates next to the book titles show when the books were written, not when they were first published. All these books were published in Spanish. Ramón Amaya Amador also wrote almost twenty other books that have not yet been published.

• Prisión Verde (1945)
• Amanecer (1947)
• El indio Sánchez (1948)
• Bajo el signo de la Paz (1952)
• Constructores (1958)
• El señor de la sierra (1957)
• Los brujos de Ilamatepeque (1958)
• Biografía de un machete (1959)
• Destacamento Rojo (1960)
• El camino de mayo (1963)
• Cipotes (1963)
• Con la misma herradura (1963)
• Jacinta Peralta (1964)
• Operación gorila (1965)
• Los rebeldes de la villa de San Miguel (1966) (This is the first part of a five-book series called Morazaneida)

See also

In Spanish: Ramón Amaya Amador para niños