Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (18 January 1867 – 6 February 1916), known as Rubén Darío ( , ), was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-language literary movement known as modernismo (modernism) that flourished at the end of the 19th century. Darío had a great and lasting influence on 20th-century Spanish-language literature and journalism.
Life His parents, Manuel García and Rosa Sarmiento were married on 26 April 1866, after obtaining the necessary ecclesiastic permissions since they were second degree cousins. However, Manuel's conduct of allegedly engaging in excessive consumption of alcohol prompted Rosa to abandon her conjugal home and flee to the city of Metapa (modern Ciudad Darío) in Matagalpa where she gave birth to Félix Rubén. The couple made up and Rosa even gave birth to a second child, a daughter named Cándida Rosa, who died a few days after being born. The marriage deteriorated again to the point where Rosa left her husband and moved in with her aunt, Bernarda Sarmiento. After a brief period of time, Rosa Sarmiento established a relationship with another man and moved with him to San Marcos de Colón, in Choluteca, Honduras.
Although, according to his baptism, Rubén's true surname was García, his paternal family had been known by the surname Darío for many years. Rubén Darío explained it as follows in his autobiography: According to what some of the old people in that town of my childhood have referred to me, my great-grandfather had Darío as his nickname or first name. In this small town he was known by everyone as "Don Darío" and his entire family as the Daríos. It was in this way that his and all his family last name began to disappear to the point where my paternal great-grandmother already replaced it when she signed documents as Rita Darío; becoming patronymic and acquiring legal stand and validity since my father, who was a merchant, carried out all his businesses as Manuel Darío...Rubén Darío, Autobiografía. Oro de Mallorca. Introducción de Antonio Piedra. Madrid: Mondadori, 1990 (); p. 3
Darío spent his childhood in the city of León Nicaragua. He was brought up by his mother's aunt and uncle, Félix and Bernarda, whom Darío considered, in his infancy, to be his real parents. (He reportedly, during his first years in school, signed his assignments as Félix Rubén Ramírez.) He rarely spoke with his mother, who lived in Honduras, or with his father, who he referred to as "Uncle Manuel". Although little is known about his first years, it is documented that after the death of Félix Ramírez, in 1871, the family went through rough economic times and they considered sending young Rubén as a tailor's apprentice. According to his biographer Edelberto Torres, he attended several schools in León before going on, during 1879 and 1880, to be educated by the Jesuits.
A precocious reader (according to his own testimony, he learned to read when he was three years oldAmong the books he mentions reading are Don Quijote, the Bible and works by Leandro Fernández de Moratín (ref. Rubén Darío, op. cit., p. 5)), he soon began to write his first verses: a sonnet written by him in 1879 is conserved, and he published for the first time in a newspaper when he was thirteen years old. The elegy, Una lágrima, which was published in the daily El Termómetro (Rivas) on 26 July 1880. A little later he also collaborated in El Ensayo, a literary magazine in León, garnering attention as a "child poet". In these initial verses, according to Teodosio Fernández,Fernández, Teodosio: Rubén Darío. Madrid, Historia 16 Quórum, 1987. Colección "Protagonistas de América" (), p. 10 his predominating influences were Spanish poets contemporary to José Zorrilla, Ramón de Campoamor, Gaspar Núñez de Arce and Ventura de la Vega. His writings of this time display a liberalism hostile to the Roman Catholic Church, as documented in his essay, El jesuita, which was written in 1881. Regarding his political attitude, his most noteworthy influence was the Ecuadorian Juan Montalvo, whom he deliberately imitated in his first journalistic articles.Rubén Darío, op. cit., p. 18
Around December 1881 he moved to the capital, Managua, at the request of some liberal politicians that had conceived the idea that, given his gift for poetry, he should be educated in Europe at the expense of the public treasury. However, the anti-clerical tone of his verses did not convince the president of congress, the conservative Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Alfaro, and it was resolved that he would study in the Nicaraguan city of Granada, but Rubén opted to stay in Managua, where he continued his journalistic endeavor collaborating with the newspapers El Ferrocarril and El Porvenir de Nicaragua. In the capital, he fell in love with an eleven-year-old girl, Rosario Emelina Murillo, whom he wanted to marry. He traveled to El Salvador in August 1882, at the petition of his friends who wanted to delay his marriage plans. It wasn't uncommon for people of Darío's age of 14 to marry.
In El Salvador In El Salvador, Darío was introduced to the president of the republic, Rafael Zaldivar, by Joaquín Mendez, a poet who took him under his wing. There, he met the Salvadoran poet Francisco Gavidia, a connoisseur of French poetry. Under the auspices of Gavidia, Darío attempted, for the first time, to adapt the French Alexandrine metric into Castilian verse.Francisco Gavidia's influence on Darío was decisive since it was him who introduced Darío to French poetry. The Nicaraguan wrote, in Historia de mis libros:Años atrás, en Centroamérica, en la ciudad de San Salvador, y en compañía del poeta Francisco Gavidia, mi espíritu adolescente había explorado la inmensa salva de Víctor Hugo y había contemplado su océano divino en donde todo se contiene... (English: Years ago, in Central America, in the city of San Salvador, and in the company of the poet Francisco Gavidia, my adolescent spirit had explored the immense promise of Victor Hugo and had contemplated his divine ocean where everything is contained...)
Although he enjoyed much fame and an intense social life in El Salvador, participating in celebrations such as the centenary of the birth of Simón Bolívar, things began to get worse. He encountered economic hardships and contracted smallpox. In October 1883, still convalescent, he returned to his native homeland. After his return, he briefly resided in León and then in Granada but he finally moved again to Managua, where he became an employee of the Biblioteca Nacional de Nicaragua (the National Library of Nicaragua) and he resumed his romance with Rosario Murillo. In May 1884 he was condemned for vagrancy and sentenced to eight days of public work, although he managed to evade the fulfillment of the sentence. During that time he continued experimenting with new poetic forms, and he even had a book ready for printing, which was going to be titled Epístolas y poemas. This second book also did not get published, it would have to wait until 1888 when it was finally published as Primeras notas. He tested his luck with theatre, and he released his first play, titled Cada oveja..., which had some success, but no copy remains. He found life in Managua unsatisfactory, and prompted by the advice of some friends, opted to embark for Chile on 5 June 1886.
In Chile After making a name for himself with love-poems and stories, Darío left Nicaragua for Chile in 1886, and disembarked in Valparaíso on 23 June 1886. In Chile he stayed with Eduardo Poirier and a poet by the name of Eduardo de la Barra. Together they co-authored a sentimental novel titled Emelina, which they entered in a literary contest (although they did not win). It was because of his friendship with Poirier that Darío was able to obtain a job with the newspaper La Época, in Santiago in July 1886.
During his stay in Chile, Darío had to endure continuous humiliation from the Chilean aristocracy that scorned him for his lack of refinement and for the color of his skin. Nonetheless, he managed to forge a few friendships, like the one with the son of the then president, the poet Pedro Balmaceda Toro. Soon after, he published his first piece, Abrojos, in March 1887. For several months until September 1887, he lived in Valparaíso, where he participated in several literary contests. In July 1888, his book Azul..., the key literary work of the modernist revolution that had just begun, was published in Valparaíso.
Azul... is a compilation of a series of poems and textual prose that had already been published in the Chilean media between December 1886 and June 1888. The book was not an immediate success, but was well received by the influential Spanish novelist and literary critic Juan Valera, who published in the Madrid newspaper El Imparcial, in October 1888, two letters addressed to Darío, in which, although reproaching him for the excessive French influence in his writings (Valera used the expression "galicismo mental" or 'mental Gallicism'), he recognized in Darío "un prosista y un poeta de talento" ("a prose-writer and poet of talent").
Journey in Central America The newly attained fame allowed Darío to obtain the position of newspaper correspondent for La Nación of Buenos Aires, which was at the time the most heavily circulated periodical in Hispanic America. A little after sending his first article to La Nacion, he set off on a trip back to Nicaragua. During a brief stop in Lima he met the writer Ricardo Palma. He arrived at the port in Corinto on 7 March 1889. In León, he was received as a guest of honor, but his stay in Nicaragua was brief, and he moved to San Salvador, where he was named director of the periodical La Unión which was in favor of creating a unified Central American state. In San Salvador, he was married by law to Rafaela Contreras, daughter of a famous Honduran orator, Álvaro Contreras, on 21 June 1890. One day after the wedding there was a coup d'état against president (and general) Menéndez. The coup was mainly engineered by general Carlos Ezeta, who had been a guest at Darío's wedding.
He decided to leave El Salvador despite job offers from the new president. He moved to Guatemala at the end of June, while his bride remained in El Salvador. Guatemalan president Manuel Lisandro Barillas was making preparations for a war against El Salvador. Darío published, in the Guatemalan newspaper El Imparcial, an article titled Historia Negra in which he denounced Ezeta's betrayal of Menéndez. In December 1890 he was tasked with directing a newly created newspaper, El Correo de São Paulo. That same year the second edition of his successful book Azul..., substantially expanded, and using Valera's letters, which catapulted him to literary fame, as prologue (it is now customary that these letters appear in every edition of this book), was published in Guatemala. In January 1891 his wife reunited with him in Guatemala and they were married by the church on 11 February 1891. Three months later, the periodical which Darío was editing, El Correo de la Tarde, ceased receiving government subsidies, which forced it to close. He moved to Costa Rica and installed himself in the country's capital, San Jose, in August 1891. While in Costa Rica, he was haunted by debt despite being employed and was barely able to support his family. His first son, Rubén Darío Contreras, was born on 12 November 1891.
Travels