Fernando Vallejo

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**Ferenando Vallejo**

Born:	October 24, 1942 Medellin, Colombia
Occupation(s):	novelist, film director, screenwriter, biographer and biologist
Genre(s):	“Inmoral”

Fernando Vallejo (born 1942) is a Colombian author and film director. He was born in Medellín, where he also was raised, and then studied cinema in Italy. He has been living in Mexico since 1971. Despite time spent in other locales, like Europe and the U.S.A, all of his novels take place in Colombia. Some of his themes are violence, pederasty, adolescence, drugs, death and philosophy coming from lands such as Antioquia and Medellín, but his main theme is the violence in Colombia. His books are semi-autobiographical.

Vallejo is also a great lover of dogs and other animals. He has made public his desire that upon his death his wealth and royalties be used to rescue stray dogs from the streets of Colombia.

His most well-known novel, La virgen de los sicarios, has been translated into English as Our Lady of the Assassins. It deals with his fictionalized return to Medellín, and his pederastic relationships with two teenagers caught in the local cycle of violence.

1 Selected works
2 Interviews
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] Selected works

The Blue Days - Los días azules (1985)
The Secret Fire - El fuego secreto (1987)
The Roads to Roma - Los caminos a Roma (1988)
Years of Infulgence - Años de indulgencia (1989)
Among ghosts - Entre fantasmas (1993)
La virgen de los sicarios - [Our Lady of the Assassins](1994)
The Darwinist Tautology - La tautología darwinista (1998)
The Reef - El desbarrancadero (2002)
My Brother the Major - Mi hermano el alcalde (2003)
Manualito de imposturología física (2005)

The autobiographical/fiction La virgen de los sicarios was made into a full feature film in 2000 and released in the U.S. as Our Lady of the Assassins.

He received the Rómulo Gallegos Prize in 2003, one of the most prestigious prizes for Literature in Latin America for El desbarrancadero.