Dunedin Writer Spotlight: Rogelio Guedea

By Otago Daily Times | Posted:

University of Otago lecturer Dr Rogelio Guedea is living a double life as a top author in Mexico, with his most recent novel among the five best-selling books in that country.

Dr Guedea's novel El Crimen de Los Tepames or The Crime of Los Tepames, the final in his trilogy centred on crimes in and around the city of Colima, has hit the bestsellers list in his home country and remains in the top five three weeks after it was released.

The novel, based on a true story, is centred around the murder of two peasants in the town of Los Tepames in 1909. The crime had resonance in Mexico to this day, because many — including Dr Guedea - believed the governor of Colima was behind the crime and that the pair were killed for the gold on their land.

Dr Guedea was ''delighted'' about the novel's reception, which he put down to factors including the popularity of the previous two in the trilogy and that the crime remained well known.

The novel also embraced Mexican popular culture and showed a rural side of the country, which had been neglected by other authors.

Dr Guedea credited much of his success to living in New Zealand and believed he would not have been able to write the trilogy had he stayed in Mexico, with the decision to take up a job at Otago University in 2005 coming at a time when he was suffering from writer's block. Continue reading...