Salvador Castañeda

Salvador Castañeda Álvarez (31 July 1946 – 1 April 2026) was a Mexican writer and cultural functionary. He was also a founding member of the guerrilla group, on account of which he was incarcerated for seven years in Lecumberri Prison.

Life and career Salvador Castañeda Álvarez was born on an in the municipality of Matamoros, Coahuila, on 31 July 1946. He studied geological engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and agronomy at the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University in Moscow. Upon returning to Mexico, he was one of the founders of guerrilla group, active during the Mexican Dirty War of the 1960s and 1970s. Because of his involvement with the rebels, Castañeda was arrested and detained in Mexico City's Lecumberri Prison from 1971 to 1978.

During his incarceration, he discovered his vocation as a writer. He was the recipient of an National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA) scholarship for narrative writing in 1978 and his first published work, ¿Por qué no dijiste todo? – a novel based on his time in prison and the events leading to his arrest – won him the Juan Grijalbo Novel Prize in 1979. La patria celestial (Cal y Arena, 1992) El de ayer es Él (Ediciones El Aduanero, 1996) Papel revolución (Ayuntamiento de Torreón, 2000) Diario bastardo (Instituto Coahuilense de Cultura, 2004)