José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi
1776–1827 · Mexican writer, journalist and political thinker
José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi (Mexico City, 1776-1827) was a writer from the late colonial period of New Spain, best known under the pen name El Pensador Mexicano. He lived through the end of Spanish rule and the first years of Mexican independence. He matters today because he is regarded as one of the first novelists in Latin America, thanks to The Mangy Parrot.
He worked mainly as a journalist. After the brief press freedom of 1812, he founded El Pensador Mexicano, in which he criticized the viceroy and the privileges of the time. His writing led to several spells in prison, and censorship later made it hard for him to write freely. When newspapers became too risky, he turned to the novel to pursue his aim of teaching and entertaining readers through a moralizing picaresque story. His plain, popular prose captures the customs and speech of his era.
After independence he backed a federal, liberal system and clashed with Agustín de Iturbide. He died in poverty in 1827 and was buried in an anonymous grave.
His legacy lies in his role as a forerunner of critical journalism and the Mexican novel, and in the value of his works as a record of the language and society of colonial Mexico.
Key works
- The Mangy Parrot (1816): the first novel written and published in Latin America, following a rogue whose adventures expose the vices of colonial society.
- Sad Nights and Joyful Days (1818-1831): a sentimental, moralizing novel modeled on Cadalso's Noches lúgubres.
- Quixotita and her Cousin Sister (1818-1819): a didactic novel aimed at women and their education and conduct.
- The Life and Deeds of the Famous Knight, Don Catrín de la Fachenda (1832): a picaresque novel published after his death, in which he tried to show he could write a novel without the excesses of his earlier works.
Curiosities
Studies left unfinished
Lizardi never earned his bachelor's degree. In his own words, he left his course when his father fell ill and he went to care for him.
A grave without the epitaph
Because of his family's extreme poverty, Lizardi was buried in an anonymous grave. The epitaph he had hoped for was: Here lie the ashes of the Mexican Thinker, who did the best he could for his country.
Original Filopedia text based on Wikipedia (es) and Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.