Joaquín Gutiérrez  Joaquín Gutiérrez Mangel (30 March 1918 – 16 October 2000) was a Costa Rican writer who won multiple awards, and whose children's book "Cocorí" has been translated into ten languages. In addition to writing children's books, Gutiérrez was a chess champion, war correspondent, journalist, story-teller, translator, professor, and communist activist. Born to Paul Gutiérrez and Estela Mangel Rosas in Limón on the Caribbean coast, the geographic area that inspired "Cocorí," Gutiérrez moved to San José when he was nine years old and studied at Buenaventura Corrales Elementary and then the Colegio Seminario (Seminary School). While attending Liceo de Costa Rica (Costa Rica High School), Gutiérrez and five other students founded a group called the Leftist Student Wing. In 1934, he graduated from Liceo de Costa Rica. He began studying law but was expelled during a student strike. Gutiérrez's father sent him to New York to study English for a year. During his year in New York, he cultivated a friendship with Costa Rican communist Manuel Mora, one of the leaders of the Costa Rican Civil War. In 1937, he published his first book, "Poesías" ("Poems"). His second book of poetry was published in 1938, titled "Jicaral". In 1939, at the age of twenty-one, Gutiérrez was named Costa Rica's national chess champion and he traveled to Argentina to compete in the World Chess Championships; however, the outbreak of World War II prevented him from further competing. He worked for a time at the Central Bank of Costa Rica and joined the People's Vanguard Party, a communist party. Shortly thereafter, Gutiérrez traveled to Chile. He was attracted by the election of Pedro Aguirre Cerda, Chile's first leftist president. He returned to Costa Rica but was drawn back to Chile by a job offer from Editorial Nascimiento, one of Chile's largest publishing houses. He began working there while also contributing to Frente Popular (People's Front) and El Siglo (The Century), two leftist newspapers. In 1941, Gutiérrez was awarded the Rapa Nui Prize for Literature in Chile. There, he met his wife, Elena Nascimento, with whom he had two daughters. Gutiérrez's communist sympathies increased during this time.