 El Señor Presidente is a 1946 novel by Guatemalan Nobel Prize @-@ winning writer and diplomat Miguel Ángel Asturias . Although the novel does not explicitly identify its setting as early twentieth @-@ century Guatemala , Asturias was inspired by the 1898 – 1920 presidency of Manuel Estrada Cabrera for his title character . This novel explores the nature of political dictatorship and its effects on society , and is an overtly political novel in which Asturias denounces Latin American dictators . By keeping time and place ambiguous , Asturias 's novel represents a break from former narratives , which until this point had been judged on how adequately they reflected reality . Asturias 's distinctive use of dream imagery , onomatopoeia , simile , and repetition , combined with a discontinuous structure consisting of abrupt changes of style and viewpoint , sprang from surrealist and <unk> influences . Furthermore , it made early use of a literary technique that would come to be known as magic realism . The President went on to influence a generation of Latin American authors , becoming an early example of the " new novel " and a precursor to the Latin American literary boom . 
