Leon Felipe (1963)-Monochrome representation

León Felipe Camino Galicia (11 April 1884 – 17 September 1968) was an anti-fascist

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 ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

Biography

Felipe was born in

Tábara Tábara is a municipality located in the province of Zamora, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 950 inhabitants. Tábara is the capital of the Tierra de Tábara comarca. Tábar ...

, Zamora,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, while his parents were travelling. His father was a public notary and comfortably off. His family settled in Santander. In early adulthood Felipe would study Pharmacology and go into business as a pharmacist, ostensibly to please his father. However, literature exerted a stronger pull on him and he eloped with an itinerant theatre troupe. As a result, he was charged with fraud, due to the bankruptcy caused by dereliction of his business responsibilities, and spent two years in jail. On his release from custody, he started writing for literary reviews and later on his first books were published. He is one of Spain's best twentieth-century poets, and scholars have included him alongside Federico García Lorca, Jorge Guillén, Perdo Salinas, and Vicente Aleixandre among the members of Generation of 1927. He fought in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

for the

Spanish Republican Army The Spanish Republican Army ( es, Ejército de la República Española) was the main branch of the Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic between 1931 and 1939. It became known as People's Army of the Republic (''Ejército Popular de la Rep� ...

against the Nationalist faction. In 1938 he fled Spain and lived in exile in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, where he died. His poetry touched upon the difficult Spanish situation and the feeling that

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

would repeat itself for the worst. His use of reiteration and repetition, the prominence of Biblical motifs, and the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

flavour to (''Antología rota, 1947'') inspired comparisons with the work of

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

. His poetry is also characterized by the tropes of Modernismo and the Vanguardismo (''Drop a star, 1933''). He wrote in free verse. He lived the last decades of his life in Mexico, where he became a central figure among post-civil-war Spanish exiles. There he met actress and singer

Sara Montiel María Antonia Abad Fernández MML (10 March 1928 – 8 April 2013), known professionally as Sara Montiel, also Sarita Montiel, was a Spanish actress and singer, who also held Mexican citizenship since 1951. She began her career in the 1940s an ...

, for whom he felt a great attraction. He died in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

on 17 September 1968. Seven of Leon Felipe's poems were found in a notebook that Che Guevara was carrying when he was captured by the Bolivian Army and the CIA.

Selected poetry

*Versos y oraciones de caminante (I, 1920; II, 1929) *Drop a star (1933) *Goodbye, Panamá (1936) *La insignia (1937) *El payaso de las bofetadas y el pescador de caña (1938) *El hacha (1939) *Español del éxodo y del llanto (1939) *El gran responsable (1940) *Traducción de Canto a mí mismo, de Walt Whitman (1941) *El poeta prometeico (1942) *Ganarás la luz (1943) *Parábola y poesía (1944) *Llamadme Publicano (o Versos y blasfemias de caminante) (1950) *El ciervo (1958) *Cuatro poemas, con epígrafe y colofón (1958) *¿Qué se hizo del rey don Juan? (1962) *Oh, este viejo y roto violin! (1965) *Versos del merolico o del sacamuelas (1967) *Israel (Discurso poemático pronunciado el 31 de Julio de 1967 y publicado posteriormente en 1970 Finisterre, México D. F.) *Rocinante (1969) *Puesto ya el pie en el estribo (1983)

Notes

1884 births 1968 deaths People from the Province of Zamora Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction) Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in Mexico Spanish male poets 20th-century Spanish poets 20th-century Spanish male writers {{Spain-poet-stub