Renato Prada Oropeza

Renato Prada Oropeza (born October 17, 1937 – September 9, 2011) was a Bolivian and Mexican scientist-literary researcher and writer, author of novels, short stories and poetry books, hermeneutics, semiotics and literary theory. Many of his literary works have been translated into several languages. He was one of the most distinguished semioticians in Mexico and Latin America. He was born in Potosí, Bolivia, in 1937. In 1976, due to the dictatorship in Bolivia, he moved to Mexico, where in 1983 he became a citizen. From 1976, Prada was a professor at the Autonomous University in Xalapa, Mexico, and at the Autonomous University of Puebla. He was also an academician of the National Council for Science and Technology of Mexico (an analog of the Academy of Sciences in other countries).

He was married to the Mexican art historian Elda Rojas Aldunate. Their children are Ixchel Vanessa, who is a designer (especially a theatre designer); Ingmar, a researcher and professor of physics; and Fabrizio Prada, who is a Mexican film director.Oropeza died in Puebla, Mexico, on September 9, 2011; the cause of death was kidney cancer.