Germán List Arzubide (31 May 1898 – 17 October or 19 October 1998) was a Mexican

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 (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

. Born in

Puebla Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...

, he was an active participant in the Revolution, fighting alongside

Emiliano Zapata Emiliano Zapata Salazar (; 8 August 1879 – 10 April 1919) was a Mexican revolutionary. He was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920, the main leader of the people's revolution in the Mexican state of Morelos, and the insp ...

as well as extolling him and other revolutionary leaders in his poetry. He was wounded and jailed three times, the first occasion providing the inspiration for his very first poem, a mocking caricature of his jailer. He wrote biographies of both Zapata (''Exaltacion'', published in 1927) and another assassinated revolutionary leader

Francisco Madero Francisco Ignacio Madero González (; 30 October 1873 – 22 February 1913) was a Mexican businessman, revolutionary, writer and Public figure, statesman, who served as the 37th president of Mexico from 1911 until he was deposed in Ten Tragic ...

(''Madero, el Mexico de 1910'', published in 1973). According to the poet

James Kirkup James Harold Kirkup (23 April 1918 – 10 May 2009) was an English poet, translator and travel writer. He wrote more than 45 books, including autobiographies, novels and plays. He wrote under many pen-names including James Falconer, Aditya Jha, ...

, who wrote an obituary of List upon his death: "The literary work of List and his contemporaries, both poets and novelists (including Martin Luis Guzman and

Mariano Azuela Mariano Azuela González (January 1, 1873 – March 1, 1952) was a Mexican writer and medical doctor, best known for his fictional stories of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. He wrote novels, works for theatre and literary criticism. He is t ...

), create the best picture of those passionate uprisings." List Arzubide was one of the major members of

Stridentism Stridentism (Spanish: Estridentismo) was an artistic and multidisciplinary avant-garde movement, founded in Puebla City by Manuel Maples Arce at the end of 1921 but formally developed in Xalapa where all the founders moved after the University of V ...

and, with

Manuel Maples Arce Manuel Maples Arce (May 1, 1900 - June 26, 1981) was a Mexican poet, writer, art critic, lawyer and diplomat, especially known as the founder of the Stridentism movement. The leader of the first Mexican avant-garde movement After the first Stri ...

, redacted and gave out the second stridentist manifesto in the city of Puebla. He also wrote a comprehensive account of the movement, titled ''El movimiento estridentista'' (1926), remarkable because it is, at the same time, a history, a defence and a literary work. His other work, ''Practica de educación irreligiosa'' (1936), is listed in the

Index Librorum Prohibitorum The (English: ''Index of Forbidden Books'') was a changing list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index (a former dicastery of the Roman Curia); Catholics were forbidden to print or re ...

. In 1933, List Arzubide wrote ''Troka el Poderoso'', a children's educational radio program that aired on the station XFX. The show incorporated Stridentist themes into the narrative, which centered on a robot named Troka replacing old technology and the natural world with modern science. List Arzubide also wrote plays for the state-sponsored, politically didactic puppet show tour, Teatro Guiñol. He was a close friend of the painter Fernando Leal, who portrayed him as one of the characters of his cycle of frescoes dedicated to ''Bolivar's Epic''. In one of his last interviews he said: "I want to die smiling, as I expect to do soon, since I don't want to continue abusing life, especially when the doctors have taken all the fun away by forbidding me alcohol and women." He died in Mexico City at the age of 100, one of the last survivors of the Revolution.

References

External links

New York Times obituary

Independent obituary by James Kirkup

Estridentismo in Mexico City : dialogues between Mexican avant-garde art and literature, 1921-1924. Columbia University PhD thesis by Tatiana Flores published in 2003
1898 births 1998 deaths People from Puebla (city) Mexican male poets Mexican people of Basque descent 20th-century Mexican poets 20th-century Mexican male writers Mexican men centenarians Writers from Puebla {{Mexico-writer-stub