Don Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

Francisco Javier del Granado y Granado (27 February 1913 – 15 May 1996), was a

poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

and favorite son of

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Biography

Born into an aristocratic family with a rich literary pedigree, he spent most of his youth on his family's hacienda near Arani, in the

department of Cochabamba Cochabamba ( ay, Quchapampa Jach'a Suyu, es, Departamento de Cochabamba , qu, Quchapampa Suyu), from Quechua ''qucha'' or ''qhucha'', meaning "lake", ''pampa'' meaning "plain", is one of the nine departments of Bolivia. It is known to be the ...

, Colpa-Ciaco, a colonial-era estate in existence since the 16th century. A quiet life filled with the joys of living in the countryside greatly influenced his works, which combine epic imagery and storytelling with bucolic settings as well as rural and indigenous themes and the use, in addition to Spanish, of indigenous languages, primarily

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

(the language of the

Inca The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...

s). In its turn toward native subjects as well as in its use of a formal battery of traditional forms, such as the

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

and the

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

, his extensive body of poetry has been compared with that of Mexico's preeminent man of letters

Alfonso Reyes Alfonso Reyes Ochoa (17 May 1889 in Monterrey, Nuevo León – 27 December 1959 in Mexico City) was a Mexican writer, philosopher and diplomat. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times and has been acclaimed as one of th ...

.Irwin, Amanda L., ''El poeta de la revolución nacional: La vida y obra de don Javier del Granado y Granado'', La Paz, Bolivia: Los Amigos del Libro, 1991 Bolivia's leading poetic light achieved widespread acclaim and recognition, receiving a multitude of national and international awards over a career that spanned more than half a century. His death was marked by three national days of mourning, and his funeral was a state event.

has dedicated a plaza and two avenues (one of them,

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...

's longest boulevard) in his honour, and put up a monument to his memory.

Poet of the Bolivian Revolution

Along with

Víctor Paz Estenssoro Ángel Víctor Paz Estenssoro (2 October 1907 – 7 June 2001) was a Bolivian politician who served as the 45th president of Bolivia for three nonconsecutive and four total terms from 1952 to 1956, 1960 to 1964 and 1985 to 1989. He ran for pre ...

and others, del Granado formed the

Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement ( es, Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario , MNR) is a centre-right conservative political party in Bolivia and was the leading force behind the Bolivian National Revolution from 1952 to 1964. It influenc ...

. The

MNR MNR may stand for: Transportation *Maine Northern Railway *Metro-North Railroad in New York State *Mid-Norfolk Railway, a heritage railway in Norfolk, England *Manx Northern Railway, a railway on the Isle of Man from 1879 to 1905 *Manor Road rail ...

was at the forefront of the Bolivian Revolution of 1952, which radically changed the country, bringing about land redistribution, universal suffrage, and nationalization of the major tin mines.

Granado family

He comes from a literary family that traces its roots back in colonial America to that outstanding humanitarian figure who was the Count of Cotoca. His father, Félix del Granado, a notable writer in his own right and rector of the

University of San Simón A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

, founded the Bolivian Academies of Language and History. His uncle, the

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cathol ...

Francisco María del Granado, a man of deep compassion and a deeply spiritual and holy bishop, was also a gifted orator and writer; particularly dedicated in his concern and love for the poor and Native Americans, he was instrumental in steering the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

amid a critical era of

anticlerical Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...

persecution during the 19th century. Bolivian human-rights lawyer

Juan del Granado Juan Fernando del Granado Cosío (born 26 March 1953), often referred to as Juan Sin Miedo'','' is a Bolivian human rights lawyer and politician who served as mayor of La Paz from 2000 to 2004 and 2005 to 2010. A member of the Fearless Moveme ...

is also a member of this family.

Notes

Bibliography

The major collections of his poems are: * ''Rosas pálidas'' (1939) * ''Canciones de la tierra'' (1945) * ''Santa Cruz de la Sierra'' (1947) * ''Cochabamba'' (1959) * ''Romance del valle nuestro'' (1964) * ''La parábola del águila'' (1967) * ''Antología poética de la flor natural'' (1970) * ''Terruño'' (1971) * ''Estampas'' (1975) * ''Vuelo de Azores'' (1980) * ''Canto al paisaje de Bolivia'' (1982) * ''Cantares'' (1992)

Sources

Caceres Romero, Adolfo, ''Diccionario de la Literatura Boliviana'', Second Edition, La Paz, 1997

External links

Javier del Granado Literary Foundation
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Granado, Javier del Bolivian male poets 1913 births 1996 deaths People from Cochabamba 20th-century Bolivian poets 20th-century male writers