Elena Poniatowska - Career

Career

Poniatowska has published novels, non-fiction books, journalistic essays, and many forwards and prologues to books on Mexican artists. Much of her writing has focused on social and human rights issues, especially those related to women and the poor.

She began her writing career in 1953 at 18 years of age with the newspaper Excélsior and the next year with a publication called Novedades de México, both of which she still occasionally writes for. Her first writing assignments consisted of interviews of famous people and society columns related to Mexico’s upper class. Her first published interview was with the ambassador of the United States. She stated that she began “like a donkey” knowing nothing and learning on the job. She was first published under her French name of Hélene but later changed it to Elena, or sometimes using Anel. Poniatowski published her first book in 1954, called Lilus Kikus and since then her career has been a mix of journalism and creative writing. Despite that the years from the 1950s and 1970s offered limited opportunities for women, she eventually moved from interviews and society stories into literary profiles and stories about social issues. She emerged as a subtly present female voice in a patriarchal society even though she was referred to as “Elenita” (little Elena) and her work often dismissed as naïve interviews and “children’s” literature. The progressed by persistence rather than by direct confrontation.

Poniatowska most influential work has been “testimonial narratives,” writings based both on historical facts and accounts by people who normally are not recorded by the media. She began writing on social issues after a visit to Lecumberri, a famous former prison, to interview several incarcerated railway workers who had gone on strike. She found prisoners eager to talk and share their life stories. She interviewed Subcomandante Marcos in 1994. Much of this work has been compiled into seven volumes including Todo México (1991-1999), Domingo siete (1982) and Palabras cruzadas (1961) . Her best known book of this type is La noche de Tlatelolco which contains the testimonies of the victims of the 1968 student massacre in Mexico City.

She is one of the founders of La Jornada newspaper, Fern, a feminist magazine, Siglo XXI a publishing house and the Cineteca Nacional, the national film institute.

Her works have been translated into English, Polish, French, Danish and German, starting in the 1990s. She has translated Sandra Cisnero’s The House on Mango Street into Spanish. She wrote one play called Meles y Teleo: apuntes para una comedia a year after the birth of Emmanuel. and one novella De noche vienes (“You Come by Night”) was made into a feature film in 1997 directed by Arturo Ripstein starring María Rojo and Tito Vasconcelos .

She frequently makes presentations at home and abroad in her three languages and is especially sought for talks and seminars in the United States.

She has also published biographies, of the Nobel laureate Octavio Paz and artist Juan Soriano .

Today, Poniatowska is considered to be Mexico’s “grande dame” of letters but she has not been recognized around the world like other prolific Latin American writers of her generation. She has also not been fully integrated among Mexico’s elite, never receiving diplomatic appointments, like Carlos Fuentes, and turning down political opportunities nor has she spent much time in the elite literary circles in Mexico. Fuentes commented on this once that she was too busy in the city’s slums or shopping for groceries to have time for him and others. Although she admits such comments are said in jest, she contends that it shows that they consider her more of a maid, a cook or even a janitor in the “great House of Mexican Literature.” For over thirty years, she has taught a weekly writing workshop. Through this and other efforts, she has influence a generation of Mexican writers including Silvia Molina and Rosa Nissán .