Conversation with novelist and university professor Rigoberto Gil Montoya about his novel Mi Unicornio Azul: a reflection on student movements in Colombia

Abstract

This interview emerges from a desire to initiate a dialogue between history, specifically the student movements, and literature. With this objective in mind, I proposed to Professor Rigoberto Gil Montoya (La Celia, Risaralda, Colombia, 1966) that we engage in a conversation about his novel Mi unicornio azul. The novel, which won the XXXII National Literature Award in the novel category at the University of Antioquia in 2014, was subsequently republished by the publishing house of the Technological University of Pereira (UTP) in 2018. Delving into a little-explored dimension of university life, the narrative un­folds within the tumultuous context of contemporary student movements. The author injects a rich dose of dark humor, challenging the significant paradigms and paradoxes that fueled the ideals of student movements in the 1960s and 1970s. Despite being somewhat anachronistic, these concepts persist in the ideologies and mobilization repertoires of the new student movements and collectives in Colombia.