Adolfo Carrillo
Adolfo Carrillo (1855-1926) was a prominent Mexican journalist and writer known for his advocacy of press freedom. Born in Sayula, Jalisco, he pursued journalism early on, establishing publications such as La Picota and La Unión Mercantil, where he openly criticized the state government, leading to his exile. After imprisonment for opposing President Porfirio Díaz, Carrillo moved to Cuba and later to New York, where he connected with political exiles and studied law in Europe. His life took him to San Francisco, where he opened a print shop and contributed to the Mexican Revolution by publishing the pro-revolution newspaper México Libre. Carrillo's literary works include two anonymously published books and Cuentos californianos, a collection of short stories about the experiences of displaced Mexicans in California. Despite facing challenges in his writing career, he is recognized as a precursor to later Chicano writers, reflecting the complexities of cultural displacement and identity. Carrillo's legacy is honored for his unwavering spirit and commitment to social justice.
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Adolfo Carrillo
- Born: July 1, 1855
- Birthplace: Sayula, Jalisco, Mexico
- Died: August 24, 1926
- Place of death: Los Angeles, California
Biography
Adolfo Carrillo endured persecution, prison, and exile as a champion of freedom of the press in Mexico; in the United States, he wrote short stories about the life of displaced Mexicans in California. Carrillo was born in July, 1855, in Sayula, Jalisco, Mexico, and educated at the Seminario de Guadalajara. Pursuing an early interest in journalism, he began publishing La Picota in 1877 and La Unión Mercantil in Guadalajara the following year. In both newspapers he criticized the state government, and he was forced to leave Jalisco because of this criticism. He moved to Mexico City, where he became editor of El Correo de los Lunes.
In 1885, his criticism of President Porfirio Díaz led to his arrest and imprisonment. Upon his release he was exiled to Cuba and eventually went to New York. There he became part of the circle surrounding Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, the former president of Mexico whom Díaz deposed in 1876. When Lerdo died in 1889, Carrillo traveled to Spain and then France, where he studied law at the Sorbonne. Diplomatic pressure from Mexico forced him out of both countries, and he returned to the United States, settling in San Francisco in 1897. He married and opened a print shop, which was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. A supporter of the Mexican Revolution, in 1914, he became publisher of the prorevolution newspaper México Libre at the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles, but he lost the position after reproaching the revolutionary government for injustices. Carrillo died in Los Angeles on August 26, 1926, honored for his spirit and integrity.
Scholars have attributed to Carrillo two books published anonymously. The first, Memorias ineditas del Lic. Don Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada (1889), contains the reminiscences and secrets that former president Lerdo revealed to Carrillo; the book became a political tool for Díaz’s opponents in Mexico. The second,Memorias del Marqués de San Basilisco(1897), is a picaresque novel. Its protagonist, Jorge Carmona, survives by his wits from job to job, migrating to the United States and then back to Mexico, where he fights for Emperor Maximilian’s French army and marries a rich Frenchwoman, who buys him the aristocratic title of marquis.
Cuentos californianos (c.1922) bears Carrillo’s name. In it are nineteen short stories about the life of Mexicans in California. Carrillo based many of the stories upon manuscripts he found in old Catholic missions, but he also drew upon his knowledge of San Francisco and other locations for his settings. While literary critic Luis Leal judged Carrillo’s protagonists to be caricatures of the pocho (culturally displaced Mexican) rather than fully developed characters, he nevertheless considered Carrillo a worthy precursor to later Chicano writers.