Context González lived during the beginning of the 20th century (1895–1964), a time of change, political turbulence and revolutions in industry. He was born seven years after the new political agreement of a more conservative constitution (1888) that gave great influence to the
Catholic Church in Colombian society, especially in the education of future generations. Four years after, when he was 4 years old, the nation fell in a bloody
civil war, the 1899 - 1902
Thousand Days War. The other important event that happened during his life was in 1903 when Colombia lost
Panama. In 1926 the
Banana massacre gave evidence of the labor problems of the different growing Colombian industries. He lived also in one of the principal trade centers of the country, the
Metropolitan Area of Medellín, the first to start an
Industrial Revolution in Colombia during the 1930s. González was also a witness of the emergence of
Fascism in Italy when he was consul of Colombia in that country. In 1948 the killing of the presidential candidate
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán opened the doors of a new political instability with
El Bogotazo. All these events are reflected in the works and thoughts of Fernando González Ochoa.
Early life Fernando González Ochoa was born in
Envigado, a city in the
Aburrá Valley (
Antioquia State). He was the second of seven children. His parents were Daniel González and Pastora Ochoa. His father was a school teacher, the inspiration of one of his books (
El Maestro de Escuela). He was expelled from the school of the
Presentation of Envigado because he insulted a sister after being punished. Something similar would happen soon after he joined the
Jesuit College of
Medellín, but this time because he was caught reading Shopenhauer and
Nietzsche. The young González faced his teacher of philosophy, Rev. Quiroz, saying that nothing can be and can not be at the same time. He was a sophomore in high school when the Jesuits asked him to leave the school.
Formation In 1915 he became a member of
Los Panidas, a group of sceptics, with
León de Greiff,
Ricardo Rendón, Félix Mejía Arango, Libardo Parra Toro, José Manuel Mora Vásquez and Eduardo Vasco, among other young writers, artists and intellectuals. In 1916 González published his first book,
Pensamientos de un viejo (Thoughts of an Oldman). The presentation was written by
Fidel Cano, the founder of
El Espectador newspaper. In 1919 González got his diploma in law at
University of Antioquia, however his thesis, "
El derecho a no obedecer" (The Right Not To Obey) was not welcome by the Academic Council of the university. González had to make some modifications to the text and published it under the title of "Una tesis" (A Thesis).
Judge Snow Mountain in 1929 during the visits that inspired his work "
Viaje a pie" ("Trip By Foot"). In 1921 he became Judge of the Superior Tribunal of
Manizales. In 1922 he married in Medellín Margarita Restrepo Gaviria, the daughter of former president
Carlos E. Restrepo. In 1928 he is nominated Second Judge of the Medellín Tribunals where he knew Benjamín Correa who would become one of his best friends. With Correa he visited several towns in the states of Antioquia,
Caldas and
Valle del Cauca. From those visits he got the inspiration to one of his most popular books,
Viaje a pie (Journey on Foot), published in 1929, but banned by the
Archbishop of Medellín under the penalty of mortal sin. González went to
Venezuela in 1931 to meet dictator
Juan Vicente Gómez. He considered Gómez a sprout of Libertador
Simón Bolívar and they became friends. The dictator was the godfather of one of the sons of González and he dedicated a work to him, "
Mi compadre".
Diplomatic activity: Consul in Italy González was nominated by President
Enrique Olaya Herrera as consul of Colombia in
Genoa, Italy in 1932. He went with his family to
Europe and that same year
Le Livre libre, a publishing house of
Paris, published his book
Don Mirocletes. About that work
Manuel Ugarte wrote a letter to him from
Nice saying: From Spain he received two letters of
José Vasconcelos on December 14 and 30, 1932. Vasconcelos wrote: He received other letter of the Colombian writer
José María Vargas Vila, who was exiled in
Madrid. Vargas wrote to him: In 1933 the Italian police found his notes with criticisms of the regime of
Benito Mussolini and
Fascism. He was transferred to
Marsella due to a petition of the Italian government. Those notes were the origin of his work
El hermafrodita dormido (The Sleeping Hermaphrodite), a book with his experiences in the classic art museums of Italy. The book was published in Spain in 1934.
Bucarest Villa In 1934 González returned to Colombia establishing in his town, Envigado, a small farm on which to live that he named "Bucarest Villa". There he started to publish the
Antioquia Magazine until 1945. In 1935 the
Arturo Zapata Printing Press of
Manizales published his "
El Remordimiento" (The Remorse), an essay in theology written in Marsella (France) and
Letters to Estanislao Zuleta. The former president of
Ecuador,
José María Velasco Ibarra, who was exiled in Colombia, visited González in Bucarest Villa in 1936 and they became very good friends. To Velasco he dedicated some chapters of
Los negroides (The Negroid People) where González called Velasco the first "Politician-Thinker" of the Americas. By his part, Velasco called González in his work
Conciencia o barbarie: exégesis de la Conciencia política americana (Conscience or Barbarism: Exegesis of the American Political Conscience), published first by the
Atlantida Printing Press of Medellín, "the most original and deep of the South American sociologists". In that year died in
Madrid the
Venezuelan novelist
Teresa de la Parra with whom González had been friends since 1930 when she visited him in Envigado. It was also the year of
Los negroides publication, an essay on New Granada (
Colombia,
Venezuela and
Ecuador), saying that it is the only American region where the merger of races will create an original culture for a unified man. Such merger is a principle of promises and appalling realities at the same time. The writers
Gabriela Mistral,
Jacinto Benavente and
Miguel de Unamuno admired his work. In September 1957 González returned to Colombia, to his
Otraparte villa, remaining until his death in 1964. In 2006 President
Álvaro Uribe approved Law 1068 to exalt the memory, life and work of the philosopher Fernando González and declared
Otraparte Home Museum, in Envigado, as a national patrimony. == Thought ==