Vargas Vila, and libertarian pamphleteer
José María de la Concepción Vargas Vila Apolinar Bonilla was born in Bogotá, in a family of radical ideas, 23 July 1860. Died in Barcelona on May 23, 1933. His parents were José María Vargas Vila general and Elvira Bonilla. He studied secondary school in Bogotá. Very early
participated in political struggles as a journalist, agitator and orator. I was sixteen when he enlisted in just the liberal forces General Santos Acosta. At age 24, in 1884, served as general secretary of the radical Daniel Hernandez, during the uprising that he led against President Rafael Núñez, head of the "nationalist" and leader of the "National Regeneration." Colombia was then a Federal Republic made up of "sovereign states" and is often shaken by regional uprisings and civil wars. The uprising of General Daniel Hernandez started in the Sovereign State of Santander (northeast of the country) and soon spread to the whole nation. In 1885 the rebels defeated the government troops at the Battle of the smoke, but its losses were so great that they found it impossible to continue operations. The very leader of the rebellion died in that terrible carnage. His secretary, Vargas Vila, fled to the plains of Casanare, where General Santos Gabriel Vargas offered hospitality and shelter. He wrote his book "Brush Strokes on the latest revolution in Colombia, silhouettes war."
With this book was born Vargas Vila devastating, iconoclastic, pamphleteer. It drew portraits cruel, grotesque, major political leaders of the "Regeneration", emphasizing to caricature the Catholic confessional, disqualifying with Adjectives Lapidary, burning, all the alleged civic virtues of these leaders and presenting them as power hungry monsters and loaded with all sorts of moral evils. The government's response was immediate reward was offered for the capture of Vargas Vila, alive or dead.
The pamphlet fled to Venezuela and settled in Rubio, where he founded the newspaper "The Federation." Colombia's government, through pressures and protests, succeeded in this publication was closed by the authorities of Venezuela. Vargas Vila moved to Maracaibo and there began producing his first novels, he published and sold in pamphlet form, for delivery.
In 1891 he traveled to the United States and settled in New York, where he soon established relationships with many Latin American exiles, intellectuals and conspirators. A warm friendship joined the admirable José Martí and attended events together, literary meetings, forums and meetings of workers, politicians and poets. Martí left us the testimony of a meeting with workers in which he was passionate, "the passionate enthusiasm with which, taken out of their seats by impetus of love, saluted those slaves of America peroration rhythmic, inspired, a most gallant of the Colombian Jose M. Vargas Vila, who has his days and glorious and famous battles of his words and his pen in favor of freedom. "
In New York, Vargas Vila founded and edited the magazine "Latin America" \u200b\u200band the newspaper "El Progreso." There was also published his book "Providenciales" ferocious tirade against warlords and dictators arrogant American.
In 1893 he traveled to Venezuela where President Crespo was appointed his private secretary. But this did not last long, as Crespo Vargas Vila was overthrown and had to return to his exile in New York. They documented their frequent meetings with José Martí and the latter letter, written in late 1894, shows that Vargas Vila was informed by his Cuban friend about plans to return to the island to join the war of independence. A few months later, May 19, 1895, Martí fell mortally wounded on the floor of the home he had loved above all things in life. Vargas Vila
he moved to Paris, where so many brilliant writers had taken refuge in Latin America (Fombona Rufino Blanco, Enrique Gomez Carrillo and many others). With these established relations of personal friendship and intellectual, while continuing to publish articles, essays, novels, stories and political pamphlets. In New York, where he returned in 1902, founded the magazine "Nemesis", which soon became very popular. He wrote and edited in full and its pages may be the finest and most terrible battle of his sentences. Vargas Vila is notable that chose to move to New York to write there, and elsewhere, a violent book "Before the barbarians" relentless indictment of U.S. expansionism, with its brand new gun and his "Big Stick Policy." Again
established in Paris, remained there the publication of "Nemesis." But his personal life had reached a critical point. It was intellectually admired and feared, but also deeply hated by governments, academia and intellectual traditionalists. He was a loner, like a raging bull fighting in the middle of the ring, without intimate emotional life without a deep love without a lasting company. Neurosis began to manifest as aggressive and intolerant attitudes, even toward one's friends who believed and admired. Her doctor told her to move out. He moved to Venice. Although the brackets
Venetian was brief (he returned to Paris in 1904), decadent extravagance contributed there to feed the Black Legend of Vargas Vila had already begun to grow like a hydra. In Paris, Bogota, Caracas, New York, said the pamphlet was immensely rich. Who lived like a prince. Who hated women, priests and nuns. That his misanthropy and hatred of the church were born Being the son of a parish priest and a nun depraved. That was an anarchist and helped with their money to the followers of Malatesta, financing assassinations and bombings against Dukes and Marquises. He was gay. Presiding over meetings of Satanism with his friends and accomplices. I was powerless and that this was the reason for his hatred of all living things. That was a hermaphrodite.
The mere enumeration of perversions and psychopathology that were awarded to Vargas Vila could serve to make the catalog of perversions and their slanderers psychopathologies: the traditionalist piety of his country, the old clerical circles of privilege swollen, full of resentment and hatred, unable to feel Christian love, disabled for reconciliation and kindness. Intellectuals in support of these critters did not mention even the name of Vargas Vila. They spoke of "expatriate", the "satanic", the "bastard", the "linguist contemptible", the "unnatural", the "blasphemous", "The Luciferian mendacious", the "enemy of peace, order and authority "" the pernicious decadent, "the" solvent ", the" degenerate. " Never did a literary criticism of his works, an analysis of their ideas, reasoned questioning of his thought, style or language. They had no value or moral grandeur and intellectual resources to do so. They came across the line, lower and pygmies. All they could oppose Vargas Vila was a string of vile slander.
Of course, the pamphlet was by no means perfect. His views were sharp, categorical, left no room for dissent. Devoid of intellectual modesty, was arrogant and conceited. He was convinced that his genius was unparalleled. It frequently praised himself an irritating manner. His ego was monumental. This gave his enemies plenty of material.
But the root cause of the grudge against Vargas Vila was his uncompromising anti-clericalism, his passionate defense of free thought. In the eulogy for his friend the poet Diogenes Arrieta (1897), in Paris, delivered this statement on Colombia, which has never forgiven
- Sleep in peace, friend, far from the monastic rule that defile us! Vargas Vila
always used all their firepower, his ferocious style and scathing virulent against the excessive privileges of the clergy and the Church, against the dogmatism and intolerance. Used phrases and metaphors that opened wounds incurable and then put salt in those wounds or acid burning of renewed oaths. It was a virtuoso of the blame and rant, at the service of secular thought.
His style was prophetic: he used big words, verbs and adjectives tremendous. Abstract concepts presented as mythological beings, with names in capital letters: Ambition, Hate, Hypocrisy, Greatness. Their sentences were terse. Their findings, proverbial. Paradox used as a bludgeon to crush his opponents. His phrasing was choppy, with arbitrary hiatus evoked disheveled style of Simon Rodriguez, but unlike him, never was folksy and familiar. It is sometimes said that it was too gimmicky, contrived, with a decadent taste ornate decorations, to D'Annunzio, but none of his opponents was unhurt and smiling after a discharge of such anthologies.
would be foolish to claim that all the work of Vargas Vila deserves admiración. En sus escritos hay mucha hojarasca, muchas extravagancias de poco mérito, muchas frases ruidosas y estridentes sin mayor substancia. Pero en aquellas líneas donde su talento fulgura, logra formular ideas propias y conceptos admirables. Es entonces cuando enseña, impresiona y apasiona.
Su estadía en París (1904) fue muy breve. El gobierno de Nicaragua lo llamó a cumplir funciones consulares en España. Allí, con Rubén Darío, integró la Comisión de Límites con Honduras ante el rey de España, quien era entonces mediador en el contencioso. Pero Vargas Vila no era hombre de cargos diplomáticos; pronto regresó a su trabajo creador. Se puso al frente de la edición of his books and after brief stays in Paris and Madrid he settled in Barcelona. It was there where it started, by agreement with the Editorial Sopena, the publication of his complete works.
This was one of the great publishing successes of those years. Vargas Vila came to enjoy very substantial income with this issue. Its popularity as a writer was immense. His name was not mentioned (not even mentioned today) in the anthologies, the stories of literature or articles of literary criticism. But his books circulated in taverns, in the corridors of the universities, the blacksmith, at the offices of trade, tailoring shops, including employees public services, the clientele of the hairdressers and butchers. Vargas Vila has been for that, as few, creator and teacher of popular culture in our America. I have found her books in spirit drinkers (Colombia), among packages of potato, in a cafe in Buenos Aires, in the port area, fueling talk of parishioners to the siesta, in the portfolio Post a Montevideo used to be carried from job to coffee Sorocabana Freedom Square, where a group of friends waiting for the intellectual debate of the evening, in a fish shop in Valparaiso, owned by interrupting the customer care to read me paragraphs of "The Caesars of decadence" with sincere enthusiasm, in a "fazenda" Brazil, where more literate mulatto was in charge of workers gathered to read some text "good for the soul" in a hair salon in Cuzco ( Peru), interspersed with fashion magazines and sports, for customers who paid for the shorn ("sitting, 10 soles, stand, 5 soles) may be illustrated, and of course, in my own school desk in Santiago Chile, when I founded a teen club conspirators and smugglers of forbidden books and blasphemous. Vargas Vila
toured Latin America in 1923. Visited Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico, Havana and other major cities. Lectured very hectic and busy. Controversial book by the newspapers. The journalists were interviewing him outrageous. Caused a stir and clatter. The priests lectured from the pulpit to offer the eternal flames of hell to apostate who read books by this monster. This made explosively increasing sales of their works.
was at the end of this tour, in Havana, where Vargas Vila contracted a strange disease that affected his sight and which would eventually leave him blind. He returned to Barcelona, \u200b\u200bwhere he spent the last years of his life in complete solitude, without giving nor ask for mercy for their spiteful enemies. Died in 1933, when he began to take shape the terrible drama of the English civil war. The circles of anarchist and socialist workers read it avidly and enthusiasm, respected and recognized him as a teacher. And indeed, above all, Vargas Vila was always an apostle of libertarian ideas. This was the best of their ideology, because sometimes lost in the labyrinths of the nihilistic doctrines or search for "superman" of Nietzsche. Excites note that none of its major flaws made him lose his breath humanist.
wrote stories, novels, travel narratives, plays, history and notes aesthetics, lectures, articles of criticism and political essays. Abounds in all the love for freedom and passion for social justice.
CV (Stockholm, 1997).
Bibliography of José María Vargas Vila
's work Vargas Vila comprises one hundred volumes. There are two different editions of his Complete Works: Bouret (Paris-Mexico, abbreviated here as PM) and Ramon Sopena (Barcelona, \u200b\u200babbreviated here as RS). The latter is considered final. The "Complete Works" published in Buenos Aires in 1946 (two volumes), are just a selection of his most sold. It is not easy to determine the exact date of publication of some of his works (there are double issues with different titles for the same work, etc.). The following is a tentative list. A "?" next year, indicates that the date is uncertain.
1887 Aura or violet, Maracaibo, 1892, Bogotá, 1920, Paris, sf, RS.
Pasionarias 1887, album for my dead mother, San Cristobal. Emma
1888, Maracaibo, (in a literary publication.)
1889 Aura or violet; Emma; The irreparable, Maracaibo, 1898, 1918, 1920 and 1930, PM, Library of Novelists, 1934, RS, t6.
The irreparable
1889, Maracaibo (in the newspaper Ecos de Zulia). The 1892
Providenciales, New York.
1895 Flor de fango, Paris, 1918, PM, Library of Novelists, 1918, RS, t 14. Ibis
1900, Rome, 1911, RS, t 2, 1917, Paris.
1900? At dusk, Paris.
Alba 1901 red, Paris, 1919 and 1930, RS, t 4. 1901
roses in the afternoon, PM (Library of Novelists), 1933, final edition, RS, t 13. 1902
Before the barbarians: the Yankee. Behold the enemy, New York. 1902, Paris, 1923 and 1930, RS, t 55. 1902
flakes of foam, Paris, 1918 and 1923, PM, Library of novelists, 1930, RS, t 38.
1904 The divine and human, Paris, 1917, ibid., 1920 and 1930, RS, t 29.
1906 The seed, Paris, sf, definitive edition, rs, t 1. 1906
red Laureles, Paris, 1921, ibid., 1921, RS, t 44.
1906? The song of the sirens in the seas of history, RS.
1907 The decline Caesars, Paris, 1913, 1936, RS, t 34.
1909 The road to success, La Habana, RS, t 10.
1909 The Roman Republic, Paris, sf, RS, t 36.
1910 The conquest of Byzantium, RS, t 11.
1910 The Voice of hours, Barcelona, \u200b\u200b1920, final edition, rs, t 18.
1910? Capitol Men and crimes, RS.
1911 The pace of life is reason to believe, PM; sf, definitive edition, rs, t 33. 1911 Orchard
agnostic books a loner, RS, 1912, PM and RS, t 43. Mystical Rose
1911; months nouvelles, Barcelona.
1911? Ibis, a novel, complete edition, Mexico.
Policies and historical 1912 (selected pages), PM.
1912? The Roman Empire, unpublished work, Barcelona, \u200b\u200b1936, RS, t 54. Archipelago 1913
sound, symphonic poems, PM, 1930, RS, t 19. Ars 1913
verba, PM, 1921, RS, t 42.
1913 In the brambles of Horeb, PM, 1930, RS, t 41.
1914 The soul of the lilies, PM.
1914 The Thinking rose, Paris, 1923, RS, t 40.
1914 The death of the condor, the Poem of the tragedy and history, Barcelona 1914, 1935, final edition, rs, t 37.
1914 The outcasts, Paris, 1926, ibid. (Library of Novelists), sf, RS, t 16.
1914 Word of warning and combat, PM, 1921, final edition, rs, t 39. 1915
preterite, Foreword by R. Viso Palace, PM, 1921 and 1930, RS, t 46.
1915? Red hourglass, Barcelona, \u200b\u200b1916, 3rd. ed., Barcelona, \u200b\u200b1921 and 1930, RS, t 47.
1915? At the summit, Barcelona, \u200b\u200b1916, ibid.
1916 The Job dementia: novel, Madrid, 1930, RS, t 15. Selected Prose
1916, Barcelona, \u200b\u200bRS, t 51.
1916? Maria Magdalena (novel), Mexico. 1917
Before the barbarians (the United States and the War) the Yankee: this is the enemy, RS, 1918, revised and enlarged, RS.
1917 The White Swan (novel psychological), Barcelona. Eleonora
1917 (novel of artistic life), Barcelona.
1917 The disciples of Emmaus (novel intellectual life), Barcelona, \u200b\u200b1923, RS, t 7.
1917 Mary Magdalene lyrical novel, RS, t 5. Rubén Darío
1917, Madrid, 1922, final edition, rs, t 35.
1917? The Garden of Silence, Barcelona.
1917? Hours reflective, Barcelona, \u200b\u200b1923, RS, t 26.
The aesthetes of Teópolis 1918, novel, Madrid, 1922, RS, t 8. 1918 Pages
chosen, literature, PM.
1918? The udder of a she-wolf, Barcelona 1920, final edition, rs, t 28.
1919 The Minotaur, a novel, RS, t 12. 1920
lion cub (hardy souls novel), RS, 1930, revised and corrected by the author, RS, t 30.
1920 From the vineyards of eternity unpublished work, RS, t 25.
1920 From his lilies and his roses, Barcelona, \u200b\u200b1931, RS, t 17.
1920 The end of a dream: unpublished novel, Barcelona, \u200b\u200b1920, 1936, RS, t 27. Free 1920
aesthetics, RS, t 32. 1920
Salome poem novel, definitive edition, rs, t 24). 1921 Bellona
idea orbi, Barcelona, \u200b\u200b1936, RS, t 48.
1921 The Garden of Silence: lyric tragedy, RS, t 43. 1921
Prosas-lauds, Barcelona 1931, RS, t 45. 1922
life gestures, unpublished work, RS, t 53. 1922
My best stories, novellas, Madrid. Saudades tacit
1922, unpublished work, RS, t 49. 1923
Nemesis, Mexico.
1924 before the last sleep (pages on a formulary), PM, Library of novelists.
1924? My trip to Argentina, romantic odyssey, Buenos Aires (Biblioteca Major Works, 21).
1926 The issue of religion in Mexico, Mexico.
1926 The Soviets, with letter-preface to D. Oscar Pérez Solís. Barcelona. 1927 Odyssey
Romantic daily trip to Argentina, Madrid (Unpublished Works).
Dietary
twilight 1928, Madrid, 1928 (Unpublished Works, II).
1928? The ninth symphony, a novel, Madrid (Unpublished Works). 1930 Lirio
black. Germania, definitive edition, rs, t 23. Red Lily
1930. Eleonora, RS, t 22. About 1930
dead vines, definitive edition, rs, t 3. Afternoon calm
1930 (unpublished work), Barcelona, \u200b\u200bStock Idea, American Authors section. White Lily
1932. Delia, definitive edition, rs, t 20.
1935 The teacher, La Habana (Posthumous Works).
1937 The jewel mirobolante (views parade), Guayaquil, Ecuador (Posthumous Works).
1938 José Martí: Apostle-liberator, with a preface of Ramon Palacio Viso, Paris (Posthumous Works).
sf The path of souls novellas, RS, t 31. Sf
Historical and Policy, RS, t 50. Sf
Symphonic Poems, Barcelona. Pollen sf
lyrical, conferences, RS, t 52. Sf
Shadows of Eagles, RS, t 9.
CV (Stockholm, 1997).
Some readings on
Vargas Vila Andrade Coello, Alejandro: Vargas Vila, critical eye of his works: "Aura or purple" to "The pace of life." Quito, 1912.
Besseiro, Victorio Luis: A free man: Vargas Vila, his life and his work. Buenos Aires, 1924.
Botero, Ebel, "A man in black and white: Vargas Vila", in Cultural and Bibliographical Bulletin, Banco de la República, vol. VIII, no. 5, Bogotá, 1965, pp. 671-674.
Castañeda Aragón, Gregorio, "Vargas Vila Things," in Journal of Atlántico (Barranquilla, Department of the Interior. The Atlantic, no. 1, December 1958), pp. 119-121.
Cejador, Julio: History of the English language and literature. Madrid, 1918, vol. 9.
Uribe Escobar, Arturo, "Vargas Vila was resentful?", In Cultural and Bibliographical Bulletin, Banco de la República, vol. VIII, no. 5, Bogotá, 1965, pp. 679-683.
Giordano, Alberto: Vargas Vila: his life and thought. Buenos Aires, 1946, ibid., 1949.
Henríquez Ureña, Max: Brief history of modernism. Mexico - Buenos Aires, 1954, pp. 327-328.
Maya, Rafael: "Chronicle of Vargas Vila", in Cultural and Bibliographical Bulletin, Banco de la República, vol. VIII, no. 5, Bogotá, 1965, pp. 656-662.
Miramón, Alberto: "The First literary production of Joseph Ma Vargas Vila, "in Cultural and Bibliographic Bulletin, Banco de la Republica, vol. VIII, no. 5, Bogota, 1965, pp. 675-678.
Ortega, Joseph J.: History of Colombian literature. Bogota 1934.
Palace Viso, Ramón: Vargas Vila, y su su life work. sl, sf
Panesso Robledo, Antonio: "A stylistic point - Vargas Vila: Shape and ideas," in Cultural and Bibliographic Bulletin, Bank of Republic, vol. VIII, no. 5, Bogota, 1965, pp. 663-665.
Sánchez, Luis Alberto, "Vargas Vila," in Cultural and Bibliographic Bulletin, Bank Republic, vol. VIII, no. 5, Bogota, 1965, pp. 690-700.
Rioseco Torres, Arturo: "Francisco Contreras and Vargas Village" in Hispania, Stanford University, California, vol. XVI, no. 4, Nov.-Dec. , 1933 pp. 399-400.
Ugarte, Manuel: "Prints of Vargas Vila," in Cultural and Bibliographic Bulletin, Banco de la Republica, vol. VIII, no. 5, Bogota, 1965, pp. 684-689.
--- "José María Vargas Vila," Latin American Writers in 1900. Mexico, 1947, pp. 231-242.
--- "Several juicio about him," Vargas Vila, Jose Maria, The insanity of Job; novel. Madrid, 1916, pp. 168-223 (Works, Sopena, t 1).
Vidales, Luis: "Introduction to the critique of Joseph Ma.Vargas Vila", in Cultural and Bibliographical Bulletin, Banco de la República, vol. VIII, no. 5, Bogotá, 1965, pp. 666-670.
Carlos Vidales (Stockholm, 1997).
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