The day Angélica María’s mother rescued José Agustín from prison

The day Angélica María’s mother rescued José Agustín from prison – To talk about the recently deceased José Agustín is to talk about the writer who introduced many Mexicans to literature thanks to novels like La Tumba (1964).

By Megan Sauer

But it is also talking about a man who lived through episodes worthy of a fictional character and about which he wrote. For example, about his stay in prison accused of belonging to a criminal group and his release through the intervention of Angélica Ortiz, Angélica María’s mother.

In his autobiographical story The Rock of the Prison (1986), the writer narrated the period of his imprisonment in the old Lecumberri penitentiary, a prison also known as ‘the Black Palace’.

Through his lyrics he also brought us closer to the context of the so-called “Dirty War” in Mexico, that is, the stage of military, police and political repression against social movements and expressions of opposition to the regime.

His arrest was at the hands of one of the darkest characters in national history in terms of security and crime, Arturo ‘el Negro’ Durazo . On December 14, 1970, José Agustín was arrested during an arbitrary operation at the home of composer Salvador Rojo. They accused him of trafficking marijuana and being a member of an international gang that operated the transfer of narcotics in the region.

The writer and the composer had smoked some of the herb, of which they kept 60 grams in a jar.

Durazo and his agents – who at that time were carrying out covert actions as members of the ‘White Brigades’ group, a clandestine government group to dissolve and repress “threats” against the order of the government in power – incriminated them with 17 kilos to mark them as active elements of the a drug trafficking cell.

It was not surprising that Durazo went against writers and artists, since his animosity towards them was known for considering them “communists” and for his inferiority complex, this as a consequence of his anger at the rejection and contempt he suffered from superiors and commanders with high levels of intellectuality.

Another of those persecuted was Alejandro Jodorowsky, who carried out the famous raid that the newspaper La Prensa titled on its front page as Raid on a hippie orgy.

José Agustín entered Lecumberri at the same stage as Juan Gabriel. Inside, just as the singer-songwriter took advantage of the confinement to compose the songs that he would turn into hits when he left, the writer wrote his novel It’s Getting Late (Final in Laguna), published in 1973.

They did not meet as inmates, but they were destined beings. to artistic creation behind bars in those years.

“(Lecumberri) returned me to literature, which is my life. Actually in prison I wrote about all these circumstances. Prison is the most terrifying thing that has happened to me, but on the other hand it was a huge push,” declared the author of La panza del Tepozteco (1992) to the magazine El Búho about his stay in ‘El Palacio Negro’.

José Agustín’s release occurred on July 7, 1971 after producer Angélica Ortiz acted as an intermediary with the authorities to advocate for his freedom. She knew the writer very well because he was a partner of his daughter, the actress and singer Angélica María.

Ortiz went to the current Secretary of the Interior, Mario Moya Palencia, to request a review of the case and intervene to reduce the sentence. Because of the esteem he had for the producer and the admiration he felt for Angélica María, the official heeded the request and ordered the release of the prisoner unjustly accused of drug trafficking.

Once outside, José Agustín began to write, together with José Revueltas, the film script for El apando (1975), by Felipe Cazals, a film that recreates the harshness of what is suffered inside a prison like Lecumberri. One of the best films in the cinematographic history of Mexico.

In 1961, the producer did not want to interfere in her daughter’s romantic relationship to advise her not to marry Enrique Guzmán. She predicted a bad future with him given the reputation he had as a womanizer.

Angélica María listened to her suggestion and after forgiving some infidelities she ended her relationship with the singer.