Vicente García-Huidobro Fernández (; January 10, 1893 – January 2, 1948) was a
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
an poet born to an
aristocratic
Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'.
At the time of the word' ...
family. He promoted the
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
literary movement in Chile and was the creator and greatest exponent of the literary movement called ''
Creacionismo'' ("Creationism").
Life and work
Early years
Huidobro was born into a wealthy family from
Santiago, Chile. He spent his first years in Europe, and was educated by French and English governesses. Once his family was back in Chile, Vicente was enrolled at the Colegio San Ignacio, a
Jesuit secondary school in Santiago, where he was expelled for wearing a ring that he claimed was a wedding ring.
In 1910 he studied literature at the Instituto Pedagogico of the
University of Chile
The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843. , but a good part of his knowledge of literature and poetry came from his mother, poet
María Luisa Fernández Bascuñán. She used to host "tertulias" or
salons in the family home, where sometimes up to 60 people came to talk and to listen to her talk about literature, with guests including members of the family, servants, maids and a dwarf. Later, in 1912, she would help him financially and emotionally to publish his first magazine "Musa Joven" (Young Muse).
In 1911 he published ''Ecos del alma'' (''Echoes of the Soul''), a work with
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
tones. The following year he married Manuela Portales Bello. In 1913 he published ''Canciones en la noche'' (''Songs in the Night''). The book included some poems previously published in "Musa Joven" as well as his first
calligram
A calligram is text arranged in such a way that it forms a thematically related image. It can be a poem, a phrase, a portion of scripture, or a single word; the visual arrangement can rely on certain use of the typeface, calligraphy or handwr ...
, "Triángulo armónico" ("Harmonic Triangle").
In 1913, along with Carlos Díaz Loyola (better known as
Pablo de Rokha
Pablo de Rokha (born Carlos Ignacio Díaz Loyola; 17 October 1894 – 10 September 1968) was a Chilean poet. He won the Chilean Premio Nacional de Literatura (National Literature Prize) in 1965 and is counted among the four greats of Chilean ...
), he published three issues of the magazine ''Azul'' (Blue), and published both ''Canciones en la noche'' and ''La gruta del silencio'' (''The Grotto of Silence''). The next year, he gave a lecture, ''
Non serviam'', in which he reflected on his
aesthetic vision. The same year, in "Pasando y Pasando" (“Passing and Passing”), Vicente explained his religious doubts, earning himself the reproach of both his family and the
Jesuits
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
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, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders = ...
.
The same year, he published "Las pagodas ocultas" (1916), and signed it for the first time as Vicente Huidobro.
Move abroad
In 1916, he traveled to Buenos Aires with
Teresa Wilms Montt, a young poet whom he had rescued from a convent. While in Buenos Aires, Huidobro outlined his
creationism literary theory, later a literary movement, and published "El espejo de agua" (The Mirror of Water).
Also in 1916, he moved to Europe with his wife and children. While passing through
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
, he met
Rafael Cansino Assens, with whom he had exchanged letters since 1914.
He settled in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
and published ''Adán'' (1916), a work that began his next phase of artistic development. Huidobro met and mixed with most of the Parisian
avant garde of this period:
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
,
Juan Gris
José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...
,
Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a Cubist sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, dominated by a synthetic style of ...
,
Francis Picabia
Francis Picabia (: born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia; 22January 1879 – 30November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist. After experimenting with Impressionism and Pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism ...
,
Joan Miró,
Max Ernst
Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealis ...
,
Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement.
In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...
,
Amedeo Modigliani and
Blaise Cendrars
Frédéric-Louis Sauser (1 September 1887 – 21 January 1961), better known as Blaise Cendrars, was a Swiss-born novelist and poet who became a naturalized French citizen in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the European mo ...
.
In 1917, he contributed to the magazine Nord-Sud edited by
Pierre Reverdy
Pierre Reverdy (; 13 September 1889 – 17 June 1960) was a French poet whose works were inspired by and subsequently proceeded to influence the provocative art movements of the day, Surrealism, Dadaism and Cubism. The loneliness and spiritual a ...
, along with
Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent.
Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of t ...
,
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara (; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, comp ...
,
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...
,
André Breton,
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He ...
and
Max Jacob
Max Jacob (; 12 July 1876 – 5 March 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic.
Life and career
After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic ca ...
, until a disagreement with Reverdy forced him to leave the magazine. That same year he published ''Horizon carré'', including poems previously shown in "El espejo de agua" translated to French with the help of
Juan Gris
José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...
.
In October 1918, Huidobro traveled to Madrid, making the first in a series of annual trips to that city. There he shared both ''
Creacionismo'' and his knowledge of the Parisian vanguard with the artistic elite. In Madrid, Vicente met with
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
and
Sonia Delaunay
Sonia Delaunay (13 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was born in Odessa (then part of Russian Empire), and formally trained in Russian Empire and Germany before moving to Fr ...
, refugees in Spain, and resumed his friendship with
Rafael Cansinos-Assens. He started the literary movement ''
Ultraísmo
The Ultraist movement () was a literary movement born in Spain in 1918, with the declared intention of opposing Modernismo, which had dominated Spanish poetry since the end of the 19th century.
The movement was launched in the tertulias of Madr ...
'', corresponded with
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara (; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, comp ...
and collaborated with him on his
Dadaist
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...
magazine.
In 1919, he brought to Madrid a rough draft of the series of poems that would eventually become his masterpiece, ''
Altazor''. That same year, he took some science classes and became interested in esoteric subjects like
astrology
Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...
,
alchemy
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...
, ancient
Kabbalah
Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "receiver"). The defin ...
among other forms of
occultism.
While in Paris, he worked with
Amédée Ozenfant
Amédée Ozenfant (15 April 1886 – 4 May 1966) was a French cubist Painting, painter and writer. Together with Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (later known as Le Corbusier) he founded the Purism (arts), Purist movement.
Education
Ozenfant wa ...
and
Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris) at L' Esprit Nóuveau, a magazine directed by
Paul Dermée
Paul Dermée (1886–1951) was a Belgian writer, poet, literary critique. Born Camille Janssen in Liège, Belgium in 1886, he died in Paris in 1951.
He knew the painters Picasso, Juan Gris, Sonia and Robert Delaunay and the poets Valéry Larbaud ...
. There he also worked for the Spanish magazines "Grecia", "Cervantes", "Tableros" and "Ultra".
In the
El Liberal
''El Liberal'' was a Spanish liberal newspaper published in Madrid between 1879 and 1936. It was one of the leading papers of Spain under the Restoration.
Between 1890 and 1906, ''El Liberal'' was edited by Miguel Moya (1856–1920), a leading S ...
, a Spanish newspaper, journalist and literary critic
Enrique Gómez Carrillo
Enrique Gómez Carrillo (February 27, 1873 in Guatemala City – November 29, 1927 in Paris) was a Guatemalan literary critic, writer, journalist and diplomat, and the second husband of the Salvadoran-French writer and artist Consuelo Suncin d ...
published an interview with
Pierre Reverdy
Pierre Reverdy (; 13 September 1889 – 17 June 1960) was a French poet whose works were inspired by and subsequently proceeded to influence the provocative art movements of the day, Surrealism, Dadaism and Cubism. The loneliness and spiritual a ...
where he accuses Huidobro of antedating the edition of "El espejo de agua" and claims that he himself created "creacionismo". Grecia magazine took Huidobro's side, and between August and September Huidobro traveled to Madrid to refute Gómez Carrillo's claims.
Altazor and creacionismo
In 1921, Huidobro founded and edited an international art magazine, ''Creación'' (Creation), in Madrid. The magazine featured a
Lipchitz sculpture and paintings by
Georges Braque,
Picasso,
Juan Gris
José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...
and
Albert Gleizes
Albert Gleizes (; 8 December 1881 – 23 June 1953) was a French artist, theoretician, philosopher, a self-proclaimed founder of Cubism and an influence on the School of Paris. Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger wrote the first major treatise on ...
. In November he printed a second issue in Paris, titled ''Création Revue d'Art''. In December he presented his famous lecture, ''La Poesía'' (''Poetry''), which served as prologue to his works ''Temblor de Cielo'' (''Tremor of Heaven''), and "Saisons Choisies" (Chosen Seasons).
The next year, Huidobro presented his theory of "Pure Creation" at "Branche Studio" in Paris, and then in Berlin and Stockholm.He wrote for the Polish magazine "Nowa Sztuka". In Paris, his "Painted poems" exhibition at the Théâtre Edouard VII was shut down for being too "disruptive".
In 1923, he published "Finis Britannia", a critique of the British empire, which provoked antipathy from the British and resulted in him receiving a postcard in support from
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
. In 1924 he was -arguably- kidnapped for this reason, disappearing for three days. Later in an interview, he briefly commented that the perpetrators of the kidnap were two "Irish scouts" but refused to give more details.
Huidobro continued with his diverse artistic activities in Europe, producing the third edition of "Création", where he published his "Manifeste peut-être" (Maybe Manifesto). Collaborator in this edition included
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara (; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, comp ...
,
René Crevel
René Crevel (; 10 August 1900 – 18 June 1935) was a French writer involved with the surrealist movement.
Life
Crevel was born in Paris to a family of Parisian bourgeoisie. He had a traumatic religious upbringing. At the age of fourteen, h ...
,
Juan Larrea and
Erik Satie. He joined the French
Masonic Lodge
A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...
and met Spanish philosopher and writer
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (29 September 1864 – 31 December 1936) was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, philosopher, professor of Greek and Classics, and later rector at the University of Salamanca.
His major philosophical essa ...
, who was exiled in Paris at the time.
In 1925 he returned to
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
, where he edited and published "Acción. Diario de Purificación Nacional" (Action: Journal of National Purification) a
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
newspaper where he criticised the state and reported fraudulent activities. He was consequently assaulted and beaten outside his home and, on 21 November, the newspaper was shut down. He started another newspaper, "La reforma" (Reform), in a symbolic gesture, young supporters of the progressive party declared him as their candidate for president. A bomb was then set off outside his house, though Huidobro escaped unharmed.
While in Chile, he wrote for the publications "Andamios", "Panorama" and "Ariel" and published "Automne Régulier" (Regular Autumn) and "Tout à coup" (Suddenly).
In 1926, he published a fragment of what would become the fourth canto of "
Altazor" in "Panorama".
In 1927, he traveled to New York, where he met
Charlie Chaplin,
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films including '' The Thi ...
and
Gloria Swanson
Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...
, wrote a script for a film of his novel "Cagliostro", and wrote the "Canto a Lindbergh" (Song for Lindbergh) dedicated to aviator
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...
.
He returned to Europe by the late 1920s, where he began to write the novel, ''Mío Cid Campeador''; he also continued his work on ''Altazor'' and began ''Temblor de Cielo'' (Tremor of Heaven). It was at this time that he discovered that he was heir to the
Marquisate of Casa Real. He also participated in the
Mandrágora, a Chilean surrealist movement founded in 1938. There was a scandal when he married Ximena Amunátegui in a Muslim ceremony.
In 1930, while in the Italian
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...
, he wrote "La Proxima" (The Next), and published his poem "Chanson de l'oeuf et de l'infini" (Song of the Egg and Infinity) in the magazine "Revue Européenne" and a fragment of "Altazor", in French, in the June edition of "Transition".
In 1931, he went back to Madrid to publish "Altazor", where he attended
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...
's poetry recital "Poet in New York" and started his friendship with Uruguayan painter
Joaquín Torres García
Joaquín or Joaquin is a male given name, the Spanish version of Joachim.
Given name
* Joaquín (footballer, born 1956), Spanish football midfielder
* Joaquín (footballer, born 1981), Spanish football winger
* Joaquín (footballer, born 19 ...
. The same year he published "Portrait of a Paladin" and the English versions of his "Mío Cid Campeador", "Temblor de Cielo" and "
Altazor".
Back to Chile
Huidobro went back to Chile in 1932, under the pressure of the
Great Depression. In Chile, he published "Gilles de Raíz".
In 1933, he got involved with the
Communist Party of Chile
The Communist Party of Chile ( es, Partido Comunista de Chile, ) is a communist party in Chile. It was founded in 1912 as the Socialist Workers' Party () and adopted its current name in 1922. The party established a youth wing, the Communist Youth ...
and published his article "Manifiesto a la juventud de Hispanoamérica" (Manifesto to the Youth of Hispano America) in Barcelona's "Europa" magazine, where he proposed the creation of a united republic formed of Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.
In 1934 he wrote film reviews for
Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...
magazines and newspapers, and published "La Próxima" (The Next) (Santiago, Walton); "Papá o el diario de Alicia Mir" (Father, or the diary of Alicia Mir) (Santiago, Walton), a novel written as a diary; and the play "En la Luna" (In the Moon) (Santiago, Ercilla). He founded the magazine Vital/Ombligo with Omar Cáceres and
Eduardo Anguita
Eduardo Anguita Cuéllar (Yerbas Buenas, Linares November 1914 - Santiago de Chile August 12, 1992) was a Chilean poet, who was awarded the Chilean National Prize for Literature in 1988.
Life
Eduardo Anguita was raised in San Bernardo, bef ...
.
In 1935 a young
Volodia Teitelboim Volodia Teitelboim.
Volodia Teitelboim Volosky (originally ''Valentín Teitelboim Volosky''; March 17, 1916 – January 31, 2008) was a Chilean communist politician, lawyer, and author.
Personal life
Born in Chillán to Jewish immigrants (Ukrainia ...
read a
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
poem, similar to Poem 16 of
Neruda's ''
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
''Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair'' ( es, Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada) is a collection of romantic poems by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, first published in 1924 by Editorial Nascimento of Santiago, when Neruda was ...
'', Teitelboim mentioned this to Huidobro, and Huidobro accused Neruda of plagiarism. This would initiate a conflict between Neruda and Huidobro that later would involve
Pablo de Rokha
Pablo de Rokha (born Carlos Ignacio Díaz Loyola; 17 October 1894 – 10 September 1968) was a Chilean poet. He won the Chilean Premio Nacional de Literatura (National Literature Prize) in 1965 and is counted among the four greats of Chilean ...
.
In 1936, along with
Picasso, Arp,
Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
, and Robert and
Sonia Delaunay
Sonia Delaunay (13 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was born in Odessa (then part of Russian Empire), and formally trained in Russian Empire and Germany before moving to Fr ...
among others, he signed the "
Dimensionist Manifesto"
In 1937, while in Spain supporting the republican cause, the conflict with Neruda resurfaced while Neruda was also supporting the republicans. The Parisian "Association Internationale des Ecrivains pour la Défense de la Culture", sending them a letter which called on them to change their attitude, signed by
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara (; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, comp ...
,
Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (, ; December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French an ...
,
César Vallejo
César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza (March 16, 1892 – April 15, 1938) was a Peruvian poet, writer, playwright, and journalist. Although he published only two books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators ...
and
Juan Larrea, among others.
Once back in Chile, he published the
prose poem
Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects.
Characteristics
Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associ ...
"Fuera de aquí" (Out of Here), arguing against Italian
fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
and the Italian military (who were visiting Chile at that time), as well as the poem "Gloria y Sangre" (Glory and Blood) in "Madre España: Homenaje de los poetas chilenos" (Mother Spain: Tribute of the Chilean poets). In 1938 his mother died, and he became part of the creation of the Chilean
surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
group
La Mandrágora. The first meetings of the group took place in his home.
Last years
In 1942, Huidobro published the second editions of "Temblor de cielo", "Cagliostro" and "Mio Cid Campeador" in
Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...
.
In 1944, he edited and published the first and last edition of "Actual", the final magazine he would create. In November of that year he traveled back to Europe and made a stop in
Montevideo,
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
to give a lecture on "Introducción a la poesía" (Introduction to Poetry). In 1945 he went to Paris as a correspondent for “La Voz de América". In Paris, he received a letter from his wife Ximena informing him of her wish for a divorce. He entered
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
(as a war correspondent) with the
Allies. He was discharged and went back to Santiago with his third wife, Raquel Señoret.
In 1946 he settled in
Cartagena, a seaside town in central Chile, and published a new edition of "Trois Nouvelles Exemplaires", with text written in collaboration with
Jean Arp.
The following year he suffered a stroke attributed to his war wounds, and died on 2 January 1948, in his Cartagena house. According to his wishes, he was buried on a hill facing the sea. His eldest daughter Manuela and
Eduardo Anguita
Eduardo Anguita Cuéllar (Yerbas Buenas, Linares November 1914 - Santiago de Chile August 12, 1992) was a Chilean poet, who was awarded the Chilean National Prize for Literature in 1988.
Life
Eduardo Anguita was raised in San Bernardo, bef ...
wrote the epitaph: "Aquí yace el poeta Vicente Huidobro / Abrid la tumba / Al fondo de esta tumba se ve el mar". (Here lies the poet Vicente Huidobro / Open the tomb / At the bottom you can see the sea). That same year, Manuela published unedited texts and poems previously seen only in magazines.
Huidobro wrote over thirty works, including books of poetry and poetic narrative, of which more than a dozen were published posthumously.
Vicente Huidobro Museum and Foundation
The Vicente Huidobro Foundation was created in 1990, in order to preserve the poet's works. The foundation runs a research center and archive, which is open to researchers, students and general public. On 6 April 2013 Huidobro's house in Cartagena was converted into a museum, with help of funds from
FONDART. The museum, which has six rooms and a floor space of 320 square metres, will be run by the Vicente Huidobro Foundation, and will showcase manuscripts, correspondence, first editions of Huidobro's works, photographs and his collection of African art, among other items.
Tribute
On January 10, 2020,
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
celebrated his 127th birthday with a
Google Doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
.
The
Spanglish novel Yo-Yo Boing!
''Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998) is a postmodern novel in English, Spanish, and Spanglish by Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi. The cross-genre work is a structural hybrid of poetry, political philosophy, musical, manifesto, treatise, memoir, an ...
(1998) by Puerto Rican poet
Giannina Braschi
Giannina Braschi (born February 5, 1953) is a Puerto Rican poet, novelist, dramatist, and scholar. Her notable works include ''Empire of Dreams'' (1988), ''Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998) ''and United States of Banana'' (2011).
Braschi writes cross-genr ...
features a debate about creators and masters of
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and
Latin American poetry, including Huidobro,
Luis Cernuda
Luis Cernuda Bidón (September 21, 1902 – November 5, 1963) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. During the Spanish Civil War, in early 1938, he went to the UK to deliver some lectures and this became the start of an exile t ...
,
Alberti,
Vicente Aleixandre
Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo (; 26 April 1898 – 14 December 1984) was a Spanish poet who was born in Seville. Aleixandre received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977 "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates ma ...
,
Pedro Salinas
Pedro Salinas y Serrano (27 November 1891 – 4 December 1951) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27, as well as a university teacher, scholar and literary critic. In 1937, he delivered the Turnbull lectures at Johns Hopkins ...
, and
Jorge Guillén
Jorge Guillén Álvarez (; 18 January 18936 February 1984) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27, a university teacher, a scholar and a literary critic.
In 1957-1958, he delivered the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard Un ...
.
Chile printed several postage stamps of portraits of Huidobro, including in 1986 and 1993.
Bibliography
; Poetry books
"Vicente Huidobro Biographie"
Green Integer. 2006. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
* Ecos del alma (Santiago: Imprenta Chide, 1911)
* Canciones en la noche (Santiago: Imprenta Chile, 1913)
* La gruta de silencio (Santiago: Imprenta Chile, 1913)
* Las pagodas ocultas (Santiago: Imprenta Universitaría, 1914)
* Adán (Santiago: Imprenta Universitaría, 1916)
* El espejo de agua (Buenos Aires: Editorial Orión, 1916)
* Horizon Carré (Paris: Editions Paul Birault, 1917)
* Tour Eiffel (Madrid: Imprenta Pueyo, 1918)
* Hallali (Madrid: Ediciones Jesús López, 1918)
* Ecuatorial (Madrid: Imprenta Pueyo, 1918)
* Poemas articos (Madrid: Imprenta Pueyo, 1918)
* Saisons choisies (Paris: Editions Le Cible, 1921)
* Automne régulier (Paris: Editions Librairie de France, 1925)
* Tout a Coup (Paris: Editions Au Sans Pareil, 1925)
* Altazor: el viaje en paracaídas (Madrid: Campañía Iberoamericana de Publications, 1931)
* Temblor de Cielo (Madrid: Editorial Plutarco, 1931)
* Ver y palpar (Santiago: Ediciones Ercilla, 1941)
* El ciudadano del Olvido (Santiago: Ediciones Ercilla, 1941)
* Antología de Vicente Huidobro (Santiago: Editorial Zig-Zag, 1945)
* Ultimos Poemas (Santiago: Talleres Gráficos Ahués Hnos, 1948)
* Poesías, edited with a prologue by Enrique Lihn (Havana: Casa de las Américas, 1968)
* Obras Completas de Vicente Huidobro (Santiago: Editorial Zig-Zag, 1964)
* Obras Completas de Vicente Huidobro (Santiago: Editorial Andres Bello, 1976)
; English language translations
* The Relativity of Spring: 13 poems translated from the French, translated by Michael Palmer and Geoffrey Young (Berkeley, California: Sand Dollar, 1976)
* The Selected Poetry of Vicente Huidobro, edited by David Guss (New York: New Directions, 1981)
* Altazor, translated by Eliot Weinberger (Saint Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf Press, 1988)
* The Poet Is a Little God: Creationist Verse, translated by Jorge García-Gómez (Riverside, California: Xenos Books, 1990)
References
Sources
* Perdigó, Luisa Marina (1994). ''The Origins of Vicente Huidobro's 'Creacionismo' (1911–1916) and its Evolution (1917–1947)''. New York: Mellen Press.
External links
* Finding aid for the Vicente Huidobro papers at the Getty Research Institute, contains a listing of materials and biographical information.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huidobro, Vicente
1893 births
1948 deaths
University of Chile alumni
Chilean male poets
Dada
Candidates for President of Chile
Writers from Santiago
20th-century Chilean poets
20th-century Chilean male writers