The Invisible Presence: Sixteen Poets of Spanish America, 1925-1995

John Walker is a professor of Spanish studies at Queen’s University.

The most important poetic movement in Spanish America is the Modernista
phenomenon, which spanned the years 1888 to 1914. Postmodernista poetry
(not to be confused with Anglo-American postmodernism) has two
tendencies: a neo-romantic return to the field of human emotions, and,
conversely, an extension of Modernismo toward Vanguardist extremes.

This anthology of poems selected by the Chilean émigré poet Ludwig
Zeller (and translated by his daughter Beatriz) presents examples of
Spanish American verse from its Vanguardist beginnings in the 1920s up
to the present. Of the 16 poets included, nine are from Chile, which
nurtured the Vanguardist school. Enrique Gуmez Correa and Braulio
Arena, the principal animators of the surrealist collective
“Mandrбgora” (1939–45), are represented, along with Jorge
Cбceres, Gonzбlez Rojas, and Zeller himself. Examples of Eduardo
Anguita’s hermetic poetry and the automatism of Pablo de Rokha round
out the Chilean surrealists, while Rosamel del Valle and Humberto
Dнaz-Casanueva exhibit a more existentialist approach to poetry.
Included in the Argentinian group are Aldo Pellegrini, Enrique Molina,
and Olga Orozco. Rounding out the volume are poems by José Marнa
Arguedas, César Moro, Carlos Dбvila Andrade, and Alvaro Mutis.

This useful collection of Spanish American poetry outside the
mainstream includes an introduction and biographical notes.