Blanca Varela

Blanca Varela is the best poet that has had Peru. Her first poems were published in 1959 in the book Ese puerto existe, which has the prologue of the Mexican poet Octavio Paz. In this first work, she presents surrealistic influence for the language and the oneiric images that she uses. One of the topics about which she speaks is the feminine condition, the woman as mother, friend and lover. She travelled to France with her husband, the painter Fernando de Szyszlo. There she knew the writers Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, whose ideas existencialists influenced her poetry. Lamentably, Blanca Varela has died this year to 82 years old.

Jorge Eduardo Eielson, a versatile artist

Eielson belonged to the Generation of 50 of our literature. He was a poet and painter who experimented with the poetry and the painting. He was born in Lima in 1924. In 1948, he travelled to Europe and established in Milan; he never returned to our country. His poetry presents a simple, but deep language. One of his better books is Habitación en Roma, which treats of the human condition in a modern city. He has got several prizes for his work. He died in Milan in 2006.

Martín Adán, a poeta poet at the edge of the madness

Martín Adán is one of our better poets. He was born in Lima in 1908 and died in 1985. He took a bohemian life due to his interest for the alcohol. He suffered deep crises for what he lived for seasons in the mental hospital, though he was not mad. His first book was La casa de cartón, which treats of the experiences of a teenager called Ramon. This book is considered like the first ultramodern novel of Peru. Also he wrote several books of poetry as Travesía de extramares and Escrito a ciegas. His poetry is characterized by the inscrutability, the barroquism, the metaphysical depth and the use of symbols.

César Moro

One of few surrealistic poets that it has had our country was César Moro. This poet was born in 1903 in Lima. He travelled to Europe and in France he knew the surrealistic poets. Due to this link, the Moro’s poetry has strong surrealistic influence. Moro wrote almost all his books in French, except La tortuga ecuestre that was composed in Spanish. The Moro’s poetry is characterized by the constant use of oneiric images and the lack of logic. Beside being a poet, Moro was also a painter and even he took part in the international exhibitions of the surrealism.

José María Eguren, the symbolist poet

One of the founders of the Peruvian poetry was Jose Maria Eguren. His poetry belongs to the postmodernism and is characterized by its suggestive, educated, musical and chromatic language. In his poems there appear mythological and infantile beings in an environment of haze. Eguren was an introverted and insular poet in our literature since he is the only poet symbolist of Peru. Many critics think that his poetry influenced several later poets. His more important books of poetry are Simbólicas and La canción de las figuras.

Oquendo de Amat

Oquendo de Amat's life was short, but intense. He was born in Puno in 1905. He travelled for several countries and came to Spain in the beginnings of the Civil War. Due to the economic poverty, it falls ill of tuberculosis and dies in 1936. The unique book that he published was 5 metros de poemas, which is a strange book since it is composed by an alone pliable paper like accordion. The poems present features of the surrealism and of the creacionism. The language is simple, suggestive and tender.

Vallejo, the poet of the pain

Cesar Vallejo was born in Trujillo in 1892. His infancy was humble together with his brothers. He was employed as teacher at his youth and was teacher of Ciro Alegría, a future novelist Vallejo travels to Lima where he knows the big authors of the epoch. In 1919, he publishes The Black Heralds. On returning to Trujillo, he was imprisoned in an unjust way in an attempt. He passes three months in the jail, where he writes Trilce's poems and the stories of Escalas melografiadas.
In 1922, Vallejo arrives to Paris, there he works as correspondent of several Peruvian newspapers. He marries the French lady, Georgette Philippart. In Europe he writes the poems that will belong to Human Poems. Vallejo dies of a strange disease in 1938.