Miguel Ángel Asturias’s Ashes Repatriated to Guatemala From France
Indigenous guides and state authorities paid tribute on Saturday to the writer Miguel Angel Asturias at the Mayan archaeological park of Kaminaljuyú, following the repatriation of his ashes from France fifty years after his death, TV5MONDE – Informations reported.
The ceremony at the western edge of Guatemala City featured ancestral rituals and offerings presided over by Mayan spiritual guides known as ajq’ijab’, according to SWI swissinfo.ch. The ashes arrived in an urn shaped like a green corn grain, placed on a wheeled wooden table amidst burning copal, incense, and colored candles.
Rigoberta Menchú, the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, attended the gathering and spoke about the author’s legacy. “Today, we celebrate something extraordinary, not only his eternal presence in Guatemala, but also his eternal presence in the world, because he was a universal man,” she said.
Menchú added that Asturias remains “one of the sons of Guatemala who illumines the minds, who challenges the youth, not for them to do the same thing, but for them to choose their life,” as noted by Swissinfo. Government officials and the author’s 85-year-old son, Miguel Angel Asturias Amado, also joined the commemorations.
Asturias Lived in Exile After a Coup
Asturias won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1967 for his vibrant literary work deeply rooted in national characteristics and indigenous traditions of Latin America. Born in Guatemala in 1899, he worked as a lawyer and before a US-backed coup in 1954 ended a decade of democratic reforms.
Following that political upheaval, the regime stripped Asturias of his nationality and banned his books, forcing him into exile in Argentina and Chile. He made a brief return in 1959 under a safe-conduct pass, and visited for the last time in 1966 when a new government restored his rights and appointed him ambassador to Paris, where he lived until moving to Spain.
Asturias died of cancer in Madrid on June 9, 1974 at the age of 74. He was buried in Paris at Père-Lachaise Cemetery alongside figures like Honoré de Balzac, Édith Piaf, and Jim Morrison.
Family Brings the Writer's Remains to Guatemala
The urn carrying the writer’s remains arrived at the international airport in Guatemala City on Thursday, November 12, greeted by a guard of honor holding white roses while musicians played traditional Mayan instruments including the tum drum and chirimia, franceinfo reported. President Bernardo Arévalo and Asturias Amado attended the airport arrival.
“I am overcome by emotion at this very important moment for my family,” Miguel Angel Asturias Amado told TV5MONDE – Informations.
Asturias Amado explained to reporters that the family chose to bring his father back “with the idea that he be a factor of unity for Guatemala,” following the election of the president Bernardo Arévalo in 2024. He admitted that the choice to move the writer’s remains away from France was difficult because his father loved living there.
Later on Saturday evening, the urn was transferred to the National Palace of Culture for a ceremony where President Arévalo laid white roses before a portrait of the author.
An official burial is scheduled for Sunday at the main cultural center in Guatemala City bearing the author’s name, according to franceinfo.
Guatemalan Delegation Meets with National Library of France
Earlier in November, a Guatemalan delegation that included Minister of Culture Luis Méndes Salinas and Ambassador Rubén Estuardo Nájera Contreras met with National Library of France officials in Paris to affirm links regarding the author’s legacy.
The writer had previously bequeathed all of his manuscripts and archives to the library, requesting that they be gathered in a single accessible location. Following presentations by Manuscripts Department Director Guillaume Fau and Contemporary Manuscripts Service Head Laurence Le Bras, the library’s president, Gilles Pécout, spoke about future collaboration.
“The Bibliothèque nationale de France se réjouit de la rencontre fructueuse du mardi 3 novembre avec le ministre de la Culture du Guatemala et la famille de Miguel Ángel Asturias,” said Gilles Pécout, president of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.