Otto René Castillo

Otto René Castillo (1934 – 1967) was a Guatemalan poet and revolutionary.

Early life and activism

Castillo was born in Quetzaltenango in 1934 to middle-class parents. Active in progressive politics as a high school student, Castillo went into exile in El Salvador in 1954 after the overthrow of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz by a Central Intelligence Agency-orchestrated coup d'etat.

"In [1954], US intervention put an end to the Guatemalan democratic experiment, and the country's cultural leaders fled into exile." ^[1]:[21]

In El Salvador, Castillo met Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton and founded an influential literary circle. He spent the next several years in and out of exile, including a period of time spent in East Germany at the University of Leipzig.

A handful of younger writers—those who were just beginning to publish or had not yet done so—headed for El Salvador, joining up with young Salvadorans sharing the same concerns. The Salvadorans had already gathered around the most charismatic figure among them: Roque Dalton. ... One of the recently arrived Guatemalans, Otto Rene Castillo, quickly captured Dalton's attention and became the group's ideologue. During the 1960s, these young writers joined up in Mexico with the group of writers that had left Guatemala in 1954.^[2]

Publications and death

The early to mid-1960s saw the publication of the only two volumes of work put into print during Castillo's lifetime, Poema Tecún Umán and Vámonos patria a caminar. In 1966, he clandestinely returned to Guatemala and joined the guerrilla struggle with the Rebel Armed Forces, where he served as the chief of propaganda and education. After operating in the Sierra de las Minas for several months, he was captured by government forces and taken to Zacapa barracks alongside his comrade, Nora Paíz Cárcamo in March 1967. There they were interrogated, tortured, and immolated.

"In March 1967 Otto Rene Castillo was captured, tortured for four days, and burned alive." ^[3]:[715]

References