Manuel Sánchez Mármol

Manuel Sánchez Mármol (May 25, 1839 – March 6, 1912) was a Mexican writer, journalist, lawyer, politician, and a member of the Mexican Academy of Language.

Life and career Manuel Sánchez Mármol was born to Ceferino Sánchez and Josefa Mármol on May 25, 1839, in Cunduacán, Tabasco, Mexico. His primary studies were carried out at a private school in his home town and, thanks to a scholarship, he went to study at the Conciliar Seminar of San Ildefonso in Mérida, Yucatán, when he was 14 years old. Still being young, around 1854, he got interested in journalism, and along with a classmate, he published two manuscript newspapers: El Rayo (The Lightning) and El Investigador (The Investigator). He later collaborated with El Album Yucateco (The Yucatecan Album) and with El Repertorio Pintoresco (The Colorful Repertory). He was also a representative for the states of Veracruz and Mexico.

He was appointed Secretary of Justice to President José María Iglesias. After the triumph of the Revolution of Tuxtepec, Sánchez Mármol retired to Tabasco, where Governor Simón Sarlat Nova appointed him Director of the Juárez Institute, nowadays Juárez Autonomous University of Tabasco, of which he became the first director since the opening of the institute on January 1, 1879, until the year of 1888.

In 1892, Sánchez Marmol moved to Mexico City where he opened his law firm. He worked at the National Preparatory School where he taught History of Mexico and Literature.

Work Manuel Sánchez Mármol is considered an elegant castizo writer, belonging to the group of great Mexican novelists of the latter years of the 19th century and the beginnings of the 20th century, standing among other writers such as Rafael Delgado, Emilio Rabasa, José López Portillo y Rojas, Porfirio Parra, Victoriano Salado Álvarez and Federico Gamboa, figures of the Mexican literary realism. It is possible to see the influence of Juan Valera throughout his fiction writings. His first novel, El misionero de la cruz (The Missionary of the Cross), written in 1860, opened the road to the novel of the natives of Tabasco, even though the novel has Yucatán as a setting, state to which the destiny of Tabasco has been historically associated to. In 1871, Sánchez Mármol wrote Brindis de Navidad (Christmas Toast), a brief story published in Álbum de Navidad (Christmas Album).

Works Novels El misionero de la cruz (1860) Pocahontas (1882) La pálida (1892) Juanita Sousa (1901) Antón Pérez (1903) Previvida (1906) Essay Las letras patrias (1902) México, su evolución social (1902)