The Committed Generation ''(la Generación Comprometida in Spanish)'' was a literary generation that emerged in

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

during the 1950s, in which writers from various Latin American countries lived in El Salvador in exile or for diplomatic reasons. Among them are

Otto René Castillo Otto René Castillo (April 25, 1934 – March 23, 1967) was a Guatemalan poet, activist, guerrilla fighter and revolutionary. Early life and activism Castillo was born in Quetzaltenango on April 25, 1934, to middle-class parents. Active i ...

and

Miguel Ángel Asturias Miguel Ángel Asturias Rosales (; 19 October 1899 – 9 June 1974) was a Guatemalan poet-diplomat, novelist, playwright and journalist. Winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1967, his work helped bring attention to the importance of i ...

from

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

, Guillermo Calderón Puig from

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

Rigoberto López Pérez Rigoberto López Pérez (May 13, 1929 – September 21, 1956) was a Nicaraguan poet, artist and composer. He assassinated Anastasio Somoza García, the longtime dictator of Nicaragua. On September 21, 1981, 25 years after his death, the Sand ...

from

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

Manuel Mejía Vallejo Manuel Mejía Vallejo (23 April 1923 – 23 July 1998) was a Colombian writer and journalist. The specialist Luís Carlos Molina says that Mejía represents the Andean aspect of the contemporary Colombian narrative, characterized by a world ...

from

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

and Darío Cossier from

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, among others. The name "Committed" ''(Comprometida)'' was coined by the poet

Ítalo López Vallecillos Ítalo López Vallecillos (November 15, 1932 – February 9, 1986) was a Salvadoran poet, historian, journalist and editor. Biography He was the creator and ''guide'' of the mythical Committed Generation of El Salvador, to which Roque Dalto ...

, influenced by Sartrean thought. It had two stages: the first, with the founding nucleus, made up of López Vallecillos himself, Irma Lanzas,

Waldo Chávez Velasco Waldo may refer to: People and fictional characters * Waldo (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Waldo (surname), a list of people * Waldo (footballer), Brazilian footballer Waldo Machado da Silva (1934–20 ...

, Álvaro Menen Desleal, Eugenio Martínez Orantes and others. The second, with the emergence in 1956 of the Círculo Literario Universitario, founded in the Faculty of Law of the University of El Salvador. The Circle integrated the poets

Roque Dalton Roque Antonio Dalton García (14 May 1935 – 10 May 1975), known professionally as Roque Dalton, was a Salvadoran poet, essayist, journalist, political activist, and intellectual. He is considered one of Latin America's most compelling poets ...

, Roberto Armijo,

José Roberto Cea José Roberto Cea is a pre-eminent contemporary Salvadoran novelist and poet. Cea was born in the city of Izalco, department of Sonsonate, El Salvador, on April 10, 1939. He studied journalism and literature Literature is any collectio ...

Manlio Argueta Manlio Argueta (born 24 November 1935) is a Salvadoran writer, critic, and novelist. Although he is primarily a poet, he is best known in the English speaking world for his novel '' One Day of Life''.

and Tirso Canales. Armijo, Cea, Argueta, Canales, and the poet

Alfonso Quijada Urías Alfonso Quijada Urías (born 8 December 1940), is a Salvadoran poet and an author. Quijada has published various poems such as the anthology "De aquí en adelante" (San Salvador), in conjunction with the poets José Roberto Cea, Manlio Argueta, ...

directed, during the 1960s until 1979, the cultural magazine entitled La Pájara Pinta. The Committed Generation influenced subsequent literary promotions, both for its desire to delve into Salvadoran reality, and for its search for aesthetic renewal, which had the most heterogeneous concretions: from science fiction and the theater of the absurd by Álvaro Menéndez Leal, going through the poetic renewal of Roque Dalton, to the indigenism and popular tone of José Roberto Cea.

Members of the Committed Generation

* Álvaro Menéndez Leal (also known as Álvaro Menen Desleal) * Oswaldo Escobar Velado * José René Arteaga Rebollo *

* Irma Spears * Eugenio Martinez Orantes * Ricardo Bogrand * Armando López Muñoz *

Mercedes Durand Mercedes Durán Flores (August 9, 1933 – July 7, 1999), better known by the pseudonym Mercedes Durand, was a Salvadoran poet and journalist. She was a member of the Committed Generation, a literary generation established in El Salvador in the 1 ...

Jose Roberto Cea Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. Given name Mishnaic and Talmudic periods * Jose ben Abin *Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galilean *Jose ben Halafta * ...

* Roberto Armijo * Tirso Canales * Miguel Angel Parada Some authors include within this Generation the painter

Camilo Minero Camilo Minero Nochez (11 November 1917 – 6 May 2005) was Salvadorian painter, muralist, and an engraver. As a painter, he worked with oil painting, prints, serigraphs, watercolours, and murals. The color yellow is prevalent in his work, and ...

and the writers

and Ricardo Castrorrivas.

References

{{Authority control Salvadoran literature

Members of the Committed Generation

See also

References