Ajeno was born in 1928 in Villavicencio, 100 kms south-east of Bogotá on the edge of the cattle-ranching plains.  His father worked for the city’s botanic garden, becoming its director.  The period from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s in Colombia is known as La Violencia because of anti-Communist terrorism, murders, and destruction of property.  From 1946 to 1949 the young Ajeno studied English at the Universidad Nacional, Bogotá, then he became a schoolteacher in Bogotá.

In 1958 he published Selva de Sueños (“Jungle of Dreams”), and in the following year perhaps had an affair – however brief -- with “Marilyn” who may have worked at the American Embassy (if the affair happened at all; and Marilyn wasn’t simply an iconic & ironic symbol).
In 1965 he published Punzadas del Placer (“Pains of Pleasure”) and lost his teaching job, accused of immorality.  The failure of the book, and savage criticisms, prompted Ajeno to vow to write only for himself in future.  However, alerted by a newspaper report, the Hungarian consul & socialist poet János Szantai obtained copies of Ajeno’s two books of poetry before all Spanish copies vanished.

After a period of hardship Ajeno gained a job teaching Indian children in a small town in the southerly Caquetá department, where he married fellow teacher Isabel.  Unwilling to have children themselves, in a world of so many poor and abandoned children, they adopted two orphan Indian boys and a girl.  When the girl, Angela, grew up, she emigrated with her husband to Spain for work, settling in Andalucía – from which many statues and other religious artwork came to Colombia in the colonial past.

After the period of La Violencia, Colombia was still bedevilled by guerrilla organisations.  The biggest, Movimiento 19 de Abril (M19), aimed to achieve democratic socialism by such exploits as kidnappings, but in 1989 M19 gave up its weapons & become the Alianza Democrática.  The other main terrorist organisation was FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia), which was pro-Communist.  After 20 years of guerrilla activity, a truce between FARC and  the government came about in 1984.   

In 1980, Ajeno’s two volumes of poetry were translated into Hungarian.   As a result, in 1983 he was invited to Budapest for a Concourse of Socialist Poets.  Ajeno was presented with the Szolidaritás Award, but in his acceptance speech he attacked Communism, and was expelled from Hungary.  Ajeno believed that KGB agents in Colombia caused the burning down of his house in 1984 by FARC guerrillas who ought to have admired his sympathy with the rural poor.  Maybe this attack caused Ajeno’s extreme reluctance ever to have his photograph taken.  At any rate, no photographs survive that show his face.

Aside from guerrilla groups and paramilitaries who opposed them, another major factor in ongoing violence was the huge cocaine trade, especially the part controlled by  the “Medellín Cartel,” headed by Pablo Escobar, who finally accepted custody in a specially built luxury prison, but who then escaped in July 1992 and instigated violence  to put pressure on the government to offer him better terms of surrender.   As a reaction to this violence, relatives of Escobar’s victims and members of the rival Cali drug cartel formed the PEPE (‘Perseguidos Por Pablo Escobar’) to target members of Escobar’s family.  In November 1993 Isabel Ajeno was murdered by the PEPE, mistaking her for a distant relative of Pablo Escobar.  (Escobar was finally shot by the army on 2 Dec 1993 in Medellín.)

After long negotiations with FARC, the government finally conceded a large zona de despeje (demilitarised zone) in Caquetá department.  FARC now effectively controlled Caquetá department, and their violence and extortion continue.  Perhaps mindful of how FARC burned down his house previously, in 1995 Ajeno (now 67 and retired from teaching) moved to Tunja, 150 kms north-east of Bogotá, the highest and coldest departmental capital in the country, once the starting point of expeditions to find the El Dorado of legend.

Angry at being excluded from negotiations, the ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional) increased their own violence.  Paramilitaries, armed landowners and ex-military, who wished to preserve their position in the country, also continued to be ruthlessly violent.  The drugs trade continued to be powerful and rich, despite the US Congress pumping in $1.6 billion to finance military and anti-narcotics equipment, and to fund sustainable alternative agriculture instead of coca for cocaine.

In 2002 Ajeno travelled to Almería, Spain, to stay with Angela and her family.  Angela boasted to La Voz de Almería newspaper about her “famous” prize-winning visitor, causing interest among local literary circles, and an invitation to give a reading of his works, some of which he had with him, at the Centre for Andalusian Studies.  There, Ajeno met the teacher, translator, and poet Luisa María García Velasco.  Ajeno’s frustrating career as a poet moved Luisa, and she begged to make photocopies of Ajeno’s poetry. 

Frictions between Ajeno and Angela soon caused him to return to Colombia, where Ajeno found that his house in Tunja had been destroyed – apparently by right-wing drug-cartel-supported paramilitaries.  All remaining manuscripts were presumed lost. 

In the following year, 2003, Ajeno committed suicide aged 75.  In a letter to Angela he wrote, “I find I have Alzheimer’s disease.  Before I forgot who I am, I shall complete my life as the same person, not as someone ajeno a Ajeno.  Disease shall not steal the poems one by one from my mind, where alone they now exist… apart from those surviving in Hungarian, which is like existing in Martian.”  

When Luisa heard about this, she decided to translate those poems of Ajeno’s which she had into English, persuading English author Ian Watson (www.ianwatson.info) to assist her, and to try to promote Ajeno’s reputation by setting up a web-site -- Spanish editors weren’t interested in publishing translations even though Luisa offered to reconstruct the Spanish partly from memory, partly by reverse translation.

Unfortunately, many of the photocopies were accidentally thrown out in the rubbish from Luisa’s house amongst other old papers, and some of the translations also went astray – Miguel Ajeno is indeed a poet blighted by misfortunes Consequently only a small number of Ajeno’s poems are on this web-site, and only one of them (“Muerte de un poeta deconocido”) is in the original Spanish as well as in English translation.  Interestingly, Ajeno did also write poems in English (such as “Ode to Marilyn” and “Masquerade”)  – no doubt in keeping with his vow to write only for himself.   Had the events of his life been different, Ajeno might now be recognized as one of the most important voices in Latin American poetry.