Hugo Gutierrez Vega

Hugo Gutiérrez Vega was a Mexican poet, lawyer, writer, academic, actor and translator. He had a distinguished career as a diplomat, serving as Mexico's Ambassador to Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Moldova, and Romania. He also worked as a cultural attache and adviser at the embassies in Rome, London, Madrid, and Washington D.C. He was a professor of Humanities and the Social Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a board member of La Jornada newspaper. He published more than 30 books of poetry and essays, and received numerous awards and honors, such as the National Prize for Arts and Sciences, the Xavier Villaurrutia Award, and the Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. His poetry has been translated into several languages, such as English, French, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, Russian and Romanian. He died from a long illness in Mexico City on September 25, 2015, at the age of 81.