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He was born in Guatamala on October 19, 1899. He was the first son of Ernesto Asturias Girón, lawyer and judge, and María Rosales, school teacher. -
He had a younger brother, Marco Antonio, who was born in 1901. -
In 1905, fearing persecution by the dictatorship of Manuel Estrada Cabrera, his family moved to the small town of Salamá, where Asturias learned about Mayan culture from his mother and his nanny. -
In 1908, when Asturias was nine years old, his family returned to the suburbs of Guatemala City. -
He entered college to study medicine at the University of San Carlos in 1917, but quickly switched to law. -
He obtained his law degree in 1923 and received the Gálvez Award for his thesis on the problems of the indigenous people. He also received the Falla Award for being the best student of his faculty. -
After graduating in Law at the University of San Carlos de Guatemala, Asturias settled in Paris, where he studied Ethnology at the Sorbonne of Paris. The French professor Georges Raynud believes he sees in Asturias' profile "the typical Mayan". During the trip he meets great writers from whom he imbibes French surrealism. -
He begins the translation of the Popol Vuh, a work that takes him almost 40 years. -
His first major work, Leyendas de Guatemala (1930), describes the life and culture of the Maya before the arrival of the Spanish. -
Upon his return to Guatemala, Asturias founded and directed "Diario del Aire", a radio magazine. During this period he published several volumes of poetry, beginning with Sonetos (1936). -
Asturias married his first wife, Clemencia Amado (1915-1979), in 1939. -
In 1946 he embarked on a diplomatic career, and continued to write while serving in various Central and South American countries. In addition, he publishes "The president". -
Publication of "Hombres de maíz", one of his greatest works. 1949. -
After having two sons, Miguel and Rodrigo Angel, and after divorcing his first wife, Asturias met and married his second wife, Blanca Mora y Araujo, in 1950. -
When Asturias was deported from Guatemala in 1954, he went to live in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. -
From 1966 to 1970 he was Guatemala's ambassador to Paris, where he took up permanent residence. -
Asturias won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1967. -
He lived in his wife's homeland for eight years. They remained married until Asturias' death in 1974. -