Cesar Vallejo (1892–1938)

Primarily a poet and one of Latin America's finest of the twentieth century, Vallejo also wrote several novels and plays with a strong social content. His situation as a mestizo of part Indian blood, his humble social background, and the political and social discrimination to which he was subjected because of these factors, created the profound psychological tensions and alienation from society that mark his work. His work is permeated with a sense of the dignity of the oppressed Indian and a spirit of rebellion. In his first volume, The Black Heralds (1918), he used the techniques of symbolism to express bitterness at his suffering and condition of isolation. Trilce (1922) is one of the most original works of modern poetry, with an innovative syntax and structure that transcend normal logical rules to express the poet's feeling of solitude and the helplessness of oppressed peoples. After the publication of Trilce, Vallejo moved to Paris, where he lived in poverty and was harshly treated because of his political opinions. In poetry of a simpler structure and form, his posthumously published Human Poems (1939) and Spain, Let This Cup Pass from Me (1939) reveal his anguish over the Spanish civil war and his sense of solidarity with combatants for peace and freedom. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from The Complete Poetry… (més)