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 of the 20th century in any language.

Thomas Merton Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915December 10, 1968), religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, Christian mysticism, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. He was a monk in the Trapp ...

called him "the greatest universal poet since

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

". The late British poet, critic and biographer

Martin Seymour-Smith Martin Roger Seymour-Smith (24 April 1928 – 1 July 1998) was a British poet, literary critic, and biographer. Biography Seymour-Smith was born in London and educated at Highgate School and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he was editor of ''Isis ...

, a leading authority on world literature, called Vallejo "the greatest twentieth-century poet in ''any'' language." He was a member of the intellectual community called

North Group The North Group was an intellectual community comprising various writers, artists, philosophers, politicians, and intellectuals from Northern Peru, especially from the La Libertad Region. It was founded in 1915 in the city of Trujillo, Peru, Tru ...

formed in the Peruvian north coastal city of Trujillo.

Clayton Eshleman Clayton Eshleman (June 1, 1935 – January 29 or 30, 2021) was an American poet, translator and editor, noted in particular for his translations of César Vallejo and his studies of cave painting and the Paleolithic imagination. Eshleman's work ha ...

and José Rubia Barcia's translation of ''The Complete Posthumous Poetry of César Vallejo'' won the National Book Award for translation in 1979. Some of his poems have been set to music by the Indonesian composer and pianist

Ananda Sukarlan Ananda Sukarlan (born in Jakarta, 10 June 1968) is an Indonesian-Spanish classical composer and pianist. Early life and career Ananda is the son of Sukarlan and Poppy Kumudastuti. He started his music lessons at the age of 5 from his older sist ...

, premiered by the Peruvian baritone Rudi-Fernandez Cardenas with the composer himself on the piano, and have since entered the repertoire of vocal music for baritone and piano.

Biography

César Vallejo was born to Francisco de Paula Vallejo Benítez and María de los Santos Mendoza Gurrionero in Santiago de Chuco, a remote village in the Peruvian

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

. He was the youngest of eleven children. His grandfathers were both Spanish priests, and his grandmothers were both

indigenous Peruvians The Indigenous peoples of Peru or Indigenous Peruvians comprise a large number of ethnic groups who inhabit territory in present-day Peru. Indigenous cultures developed here for thousands of years before the arrival of the Spanish in 1532. In 2 ...

. Lack of funds forced him to withdraw from his studies for a time and work at a sugar plantation, the Roma

Hacienda A ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or '' finca''), similar to a Roman '' latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards ...

, where he witnessed the exploitation of agrarian workers firsthand, an experience which would have an important impact on his politics and aesthetics. Vallejo received a BA in Spanish literature in 1915, the same year that he became acquainted with the

bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

of Trujillo, in particular with APRA co-founders Antenor Orrego and Victor Raul Haya de la Torre. In 1911 Vallejo moved to

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

, where he studied at

National University of San Marcos The National University of San Marcos (, UNMSM) is a public university, public research university located in Lima, the capital of Peru. In the Americas, it is the first officially established (Privilege (legal ethics), privilege by Charles V, ...

; read, worked as a schoolteacher, and came into contact with the artistic and political

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

. While in Lima, he also produced his first poetry collection, '' Los heraldos negros.'' Despite its stated publication year of 1918, the book was actually published a year later. It is also heavily influenced by the poetry and other writings of fellow Peruvian

Manuel González Prada Jose Manuel de los Reyes González de Prada y Ulloa (Lima, 5 January 1844 – Lima, 22 July 1918) was a Peruvian politician and anarchist, literary critic and director of the National Library of Peru. The first writer to criticize the oli ...

, who had only recently died. Vallejo then suffered a number of calamities over the next few years: he refused to marry a woman with whom he had an affair; and he had lost his teaching post. His mother died in 1918. In May 1920, homesickness drove him to return to Santiago de Chuco. On the first of August, the house belonging to the Santa María Calderón family, who transported merchandise and alcohol by pack animals from the coast, was looted and set on fire. Vallejo was unjustly accused as both a participant and instigator of the act. He hid but was discovered, arrested, and thrown in a Trujillo jail where he would remain for 112 days (From November 6, 1920 until February 26, 1921). On December 24, 1920 he won second place (first place was declared void) from the city hall of Trujillo for the poem, "Fabla de gesta (Tribute to Marqués de Torre Tagle)". Vallejo competed by hiding his identity with a pseudonym in an attempt to give impartiality to the competition. In the work, "Vallejo en los infiernos", the author, a practicing lawyer, Eduardo González Viaña revealed key pieces of judicial documentation against the poet and showed deliberate fabrications by the judge and his enemies to imprison him. It indicted the victims but excluded prosecution to those criminally involved. They invented testimonies and attributed them to people who subsequently declared that they had never been to Santiago de Chuco, the place of the crime. Finally, the material author was escorted to Trujillo to testify before the Supreme Court. However, on the long journey, the gendarmes, French police officers, that guarded him, shot and killed him under the pretext that he had attempted to escape. Moreover, the author has investigated the other actions of the judge ad hoc. In truth, he was a lawyer for the large reed business "Casagrande" and of the "Quiruvilca" mine where the employees operated without a schedule and were victims of horrific working conditions. All of this highlights the political character of the criminal proceedings. With Vallejo it had tried to mock his generation, university students that attempted to rise up against the injustice and embraced anarchism and socialism, utopias of the century. The judicial process was never closed. The poet left jail on behalf of a temporary release. Years later in Europe, he knew that he could never return to his home country. Jail and the "hells" revealed in this novel awaited him with an open door. In 2007 the Judiciary of Peru vindicated Vallejo's memory in a ceremony calling to the poet ''unfairly accused''. Nonetheless, 1922 he published his second volume of poetry, '' Trilce,'' which is still considered one of the most radically avant-garde poetry collections in the Spanish language. After publishing the short story collections ''Escalas melografiadas'' and ''Fabla salvaje'' in 1923, Vallejo emigrated to Europe under the threat of further incarceration and remained there until his death in Paris in 1938. Vallejo 2

His European years found him living in dire poverty in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, with the exception of three trips to the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and a couple of years in the early 1930s spent in exile in Spain. In those years he shared the poverty with

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

. In 1926 he met his first French lover, Henriette Maisse, with whom he lived until their breakup in October 1928. In 1927 he had formally met Georgette Marie Philippart Travers (see Georgette Vallejo), whom he had seen when she was 17 and lived in his neighborhood. This was also the year of his first trip to Russia. They eventually became lovers, much to the dismay of her mother. Georgette traveled with him to Spain at the end of December 1930 and returned in January 1932. In 1930 the Spanish government awarded him a modest author's grant. Vallejo became increasingly politically active in the early 1930s, joining the Peruvian Communist Party in 1931. When he returned to Paris, he also went on to Russia to participate in the International Congress of Writers' Solidarity towards the Soviet Regime (not to be confused with the

First Congress of Soviet Writers The First Congress of Soviet Writers was an all-Union meeting of writers, held in Moscow from August 17 to September 1, 1934, which led to the founding of the Union of Soviet Writers. It was staged soon after Communist International, Comintern h ...

of 1934, which solidified the parameters for Socialist Realism). Back in Paris, Vallejo married Georgette Philippart in 1934. His wife remained a controversial figure concerning the publication of Vallejo's works for many years after his death. A regular cultural contributor to weeklies in Lima, Vallejo also sent sporadic articles to newspapers and magazines in other parts of Latin America, Spain, Italy, and France. His USSR trips also led to two books of reportage he was able to get published early in the 1930s. Vallejo also prepared several theatrical works never performed during his lifetime, among them his drama ''Colacho Hermanos o Los Presidentes de America'' which shares content with another work he completed during this period, the socialist-realist novel ''El Tungsteno.'' He even wrote a children's book, Paco Yunque. After becoming emotionally and intellectually involved in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, Vallejo had a final burst of poetic activity in the late 1930s, producing two books of poetry (both published posthumously) whose titles and proper organization remain a matter of debate: they were published as ''Poemas humanos'' and ''España, aparta de mí este cáliz.''

Death

At the beginning of 1938, he worked as a language and literature professor in Paris, but in March he suffered from physical exhaustion. On March 24 he was hospitalized for an unknown disease (it was later understood that it was the reactivation of a kind of

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

, which he had suffered as a child), and on April 7 and 8 he became critically ill. He died a week later, on April 15, a holy, rainy Friday in Paris. It was not a Thursday, as he seemed to have predicted in his poem «"Black Stone on a White Stone"». His death was fictionalized in

Roberto Bolaño Roberto is an Italian, Portuguese and Spanish variation of the male given name Robert. Notable people named Roberto include: * Roberto (footballer, born 1912) * Roberto (footballer, born 1977) * Roberto (footballer, born 1978) * Roberto (footb ...

's novel '' Monsieur Pain.'' He was

embalmed Embalming is the art and science of preserving human remains by treating them with embalming chemicals in modern times to forestall decomposition. This is usually done to make the deceased suitable for viewing as part of the funeral ceremony or ...

. His funeral eulogy was written by the French writer

Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (; 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the Surrealism, surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littératur ...

. On April 19, his remains were transferred to the Mansion of Culture, and later to the Montrouge cemetery. On April 3, 1970, his widow, Georgette Vallejo, had his remains moved and reinterred in the

Montparnasse cemetery Montparnasse Cemetery () is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, in the city's 14th arrondissement of Paris, 14th arrondissement. The cemetery is roughly 47 acres and is the second largest cemetery in Paris. The cemetery has over 35,00 ...

Works

Los Heraldos Negros (1919)

''Los Heraldos Negros'' (The Black Messengers) was completed in 1918, but not published until 1919. In the 1993 edited volume ''Neruda and Vallejo: Selected Poems'',

Robert Bly Robert Elwood Bly (December 23, 1926 – November 21, 2021) was an American poet, essayist, activist and leader of the mythopoetic men's movement. His best-known prose book is '' Iron John: A Book About Men'' (1990), which spent 62 weeks on ...

describes this collection as "a staggering book, sensual, prophetic, affectionate, wild," and as "the greatest single collection of poems I have ever read." The title is likely suggestive of the

four horsemen of the apocalypse The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are figures in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Bible, a piece of apocalypse literature attributed to John of Patmos, and generally regarded as dating from about AD 95. Similar allusions a ...

, as the book touches on topics of religiosity, life and death. * Poem: "The Black Heralds" :There are blows in life, so powerful . . . I don't know! :Blows as from God's hatred; as if before them, :the backlash of everything suffered :were to dam up in the soul . . . I don't know! :They are few; but they are . . . They open dark furrows :in the fiercest face and in the strongest side. :Maybe they could be the horses of barbarous Attilas; :or the black heralds Death sends us. :They are the deep abysses of the soul's Christs, :of some revered faith Destiny blasphemes. :Those gory blows are the cracklings of a bread :that burns-up on us at the oven's door. :And man . . . Poor . . . poor! He turns his eyes, :as when a slap on the shoulder calls us; :he turns his crazed eyes, and everything lived :is dammed up, like a pond of guilt, in his gaze. :There are blows in life, so powerful . . . I don't know!

Trilce (1922)

'' Trilce'', published in 1922, anticipated much of the avant-garde movement that would develop in the 1920s and 1930s. Vallejo's book takes language to a radical extreme, inventing words, stretching syntax, using automatic writing and other techniques now known as "surrealist" (though he did this ''before'' the Surrealist movement began). The book put Latin America at the center of the

Avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

. Like

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

's ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It was published in instalments starting in 1924, under the title "fragments from ''Work in Progress''". The final title was only revealed when the book was publishe ...

,'' ''Trilce'' borders on inaccessibility.

España, Aparta de Mí Este Cáliz (1939)

In '' España, aparta de mí este cáliz'' (Spain, Take This Chalice from Me), Vallejo takes the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) as a living representation of a struggle between good and evil forces, where he advocates for the triumph of mankind. This is symbolised in the salvation of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–39) that was being attacked by fascist allied forces led by General

Franco Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" * Franco of Cologne (mid to late 13th cent ...

. In 1994

Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". Af ...

included ''España, Aparta de Mí Este Cáliz'' in his list of influential works of the

Western Canon The Western canon is the embodiment of High culture, high-culture literature, music, philosophy, and works of art that are highly cherished across the Western culture, Western world, such works having achieved the status of classics. Recent ...

Poemas Humanos (1939)

''Poemas Humanos'' ''( Human Poems)'', published by the poet's wife after his death, is a leftist work of political, socially oriented poetry. Although a few of these poems appeared in magazines during Vallejo's lifetime, almost all of them were published posthumously. The poet never specified a title for this grouping, but while reading his body of work, his widow found that he had planned a book of "human poems", which is why his editors decided on this title. Of this last written work, it was saidJulio Caillet Bois, ''Antología del la poesía hispanoamericano,'' Madrid: Aguilar S.A. Ediciones, 1965, p1246"... after a long silence, as if the presentiment of death might have urged him, he wrote in a few months the ''Poemas humanos''."

Plays

Vallejo wrote five plays, none of which was staged or published during his lifetime. ''Mampar'' is the subject of a critical letter from French actor and theatre director

Louis Jouvet Jules Eugène Louis Jouvet (; 24 December 1887 – 16 August 1951) was a French actor, theatre director and filmmaker. Early life Jouvet was born in Crozon. He had a Stuttering, stutter as a young man and originally trained as a pharmac ...

which says, in summary, "Interesting, but terminally flawed". It deals with the conflict between a man and his mother-in-law. The text itself is lost, assumed to have been destroyed by Vallejo. ''Lock-Out'' (1930, written in French; a Spanish translation by Vallejo himself is lost) deals with a labour struggle in a foundry. Vallejo1

''Entre las dos orillas corre el río'' (1930s) was the product of a long and difficult birth. Titles of earlier versions include ''Varona Polianova'', ''Moscú contra Moscú'', ''El juego del amor, del odio y de la muerte'' and several variations on this latter title. ''Colacho hermanos o Presidentes de América'' (1934). Satire displaying Peruvian democracy as a bourgeois farce under pressure from international companies and diplomacy. ''La piedra cansada'' (1937), a poetic drama set in the Inca period and influenced by Greek tragedy.

Essay

Vallejo published a chronicles book entitled ''Russia in 1931. Reflections at the foot of the Kremlin'' (Madrid, 1931) and prepared another similar book for the presses titled ''Russia before the second five-year plan'' (finished in 1932 but was later published in 1965). Also, he organized two prose books about essay and reflection: ''Against Professional Secrecy'' (written, according to Georgette, between 1923 and 1929), and ''Art and Revolution'' (written between 1929 and 1931), which bring together diverse articles, some which were published in magazines and newspapers during the lifetime of the author. No Spanish editorial wanted to publish these books because of their Marxist and revolutionary character. They would later be published in 1973.

Novels

''El tungsteno'' (1931). A social realist novel depicting the oppression of native Peruvian miners and their communities by a foreign-owned tungsten mine. ''Towards the kingdom of the Sciris'' (1928) is a historic short story dealing with the Incan theme. ''Fabla Salvaje'' (1924) Literally 'Wild Language', is a short novel which follows the insanity of a character who lives in the Andes. The children's book, " Paco Yunque", was rejected in Spain in 1930 for being too violent for children. But after it was published in Peru in the 1960s, it became mandatory reading in the elementary schools in Peru.

Non-fiction

''Rusia en 1931, reflexiones al pie del Kremlin'' (''Russia in 1931, reflections at the foot of the Kremlin''), first published in 1931, is a journalistic work describing Vallejo's impressions of the new socialist society that he saw being built in

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

. ''Rusia ante el II Plan Quinquenal'' is a second work of Vallejo's chronicles of his travels

in Soviet Russia "In Soviet Russia", also called the Russian reversal, is a joke template taking the general form "In America you do ''X'' to/with ''Y''; in Soviet Russia ''Y'' does ''X'' to/with you". Typically the American clause describes a harmless ordinary ...

, focusing on

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's second Five Year Plan. The book, originally written in 1931, was not published until 1965.

Selected works available in English

*''The Complete Poetry of César Vallejo'' (Edited and Translated by

. With a Foreword by

Mario Vargas Llosa Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (28 March 1936 – 13 April 2025) was a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and politician. Vargas Llosa was one of the most significant Latin American novelists and essayists a ...

, an Introduction by Efrain Kristal, and a Chronology by Stephen M. Hart.)

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

. (shortlisted for the 2008 International

Griffin Poetry Prize The Griffin Poetry Prize is a Canadian poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. Before 2022, two separate awards went to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language. I ...

) *''The Complete Posthumous Poetry of César Vallejo'' (Translators: Clayton Eshleman and José Rubia Barcia), University of California Press *''Malanga Chasing Vallejo: Selected Poems of César Vallejo with New Translations and Notes'' (Edited, Translated and with an Introduction by

Gerard Malanga Gerard Joseph Malanga (born March 20, 1943) is an American poet, photographer, filmmaker, actor, curator and archivist. Malanga worked with pop artist Andy Warhol from 1963 to 1970. The New York Times referred to him as "Andy Warhol's most import ...

; also includes original and translated correspondence between the translator and Vallejo's widow Georgette de Vallejo) Three Rooms Press. (Trade Paperback) and 978-1-9411101-0-2 (ebook). *''Trilce'' (Translators: Michael Smith, Valentino Gianuzzi). Shearsman Books. *''The Complete Later Poems 1923–1938'' (Translators: Michael Smith, Valentino Gianuzzi). Shearsman Books. *''The Black Heralds'' (Translator: Rebecca Seiferle)

Copper Canyon Press Copper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, founded in 1972 by Sam Hamill, Tree Swenson, Bill O'Daly, and Jim Gautney, specializing exclusively in the publication of poetry. It is located in Port Townsend, Washington. Copper C ...

*''Trilce'' (Translator: Rebecca Seiferle) Sheep Meadow Press. *''The Black Heralds'' (Translator: Barry Fogden) Allardyce, Barnett Publishers. *''The Black Heralds'' (Translators: Richard Schaaf and Kathleen Ross) Latin American Literary Review Press. *''Trilce'' (Translator: Dave Smith) Mishima Books. *''Autopsy on Surrealism'' (Translator: Richard Schaaf) Curbstone Press. *''Cesar Vallejo'' (Translators: Gordon Brotherstone and Edward Dorn) Penguin. *''Neruda and Vallejo: Selected Poems'' (Translators: Robert Bly and James Wright) Beacon Press. *''I'm going to speak of hope'' (Translator: Peter Boyle) Peruvian Consulate Publication. *''Cesar Vallejo: An Anthology of His Poetry'' (Introduction by James Higgins) The Commonwealth and International Library. *''Selected Poems of Cesar Vallejo'' (Translator: H. R. Hays) Sachem Press. *''Poemas Humanos, Human Poems, by César Vallejo, a bilingual edition translated by Clayton Eshleman''. Copyright 1968. Grove Press, 1969, xxv + 326 pp. . *''The Mayakovsky Case'' (Translator: Richard Schaaf) Curbstone Press. *''Tungsten'' (Translator: Robert Mezey) Syracuse University Press. *''Songs of Home'' (Translators: Kathleen Ross and Richard Schaaf) Ziesing Brothers Book Emporium. *''Spain Take This Cup from Me'' (Translator: Mary Sarko ) Azul. *''Spain, Let This Cup Pass from Me'' (Translator: Álvaro Cardona-Hine) Azul. *''Trilce (Selections from the 1922 Edition)'', Vols. 38/39 and 40/41 (Translator: Prospero Saiz) Abraxas Press. *''Trilce'' (

Homophonic Homophony and Homophonic are from the Greek language, Greek ὁμόφωνος (''homóphōnos''), literally 'same sounding,' from ὁμός (''homós''), "same" and φωνή (''phōnē''), "sound". It may refer to: *Homophones − words with the s ...

translator: James Wagner). Calamari Press.

References

External links

*
An excerpt of Vallejo´s workHuman Potential: The Life and Work of César VallejoInformation about Vallejo from the Academy of American PoetsGriffin Poetry Prize biography
including audio and video clips of Guillermo Verdecchia reading Clayton Eshleman's translation of Vallejo's ''Guitar''

the only extant interview with Vallejo, 1931. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vallejo, Cesar 1892 births 1938 deaths People from Santiago de Chuco province National University of San Marcos alumni 20th-century Peruvian poets Peruvian journalists Peruvian educators Peruvian satirists Peruvian essayists Peruvian translators Peruvian dramatists and playwrights Peruvian speculative fiction writers Mestizo writers French–Spanish translators People of the Spanish Civil War Peruvian exiles Prisoners and detainees of Peru Peruvian communists Communist writers Communist poets Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery North Group (Trujillo) Peruvian male poets