León Felipe Camino Galicia (11 April 1884 – 18 September 1968) was an

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

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 ...

who also worked as a professor of literature in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and the US.

Biography

Felipe was born in Tábara, Zamora, Spain, 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 () 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 ...

for the

Spanish Republican Army The Spanish Republican Army () was the main branch of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces, 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 República'' ...

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

exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

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

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

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

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

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...

. 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 Medal of Merit in Labour, MML (10 March 1928 – 8 April 2013), known professionally as Sara Montiel, also Sarita Montiel, was a Spanish actress and singer. She began her career in the 1940s and became the most int ...

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

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

on 17 September 1968. Seven of Leon Felipe's poems were found in a notebook that

Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14th May 1928 – 9 October 1967) was an Argentines, Argentine Communist revolution, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and Military theory, military theorist. A majo ...

was carrying when he was captured by the Bolivian Army and the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

in 1965.

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Felipe, Leon 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 Exiles of the Spanish Civil War

Biography

Selected poetry

See Also

Notes