Guatemalan Poets, Past and Present
Guatemala has a long, diverse and rich cultural history. It is known throughout the world because of its beautiful rainforests and its ancient Mayan history and sites. Guatemala City is the capital and it has many things to see and visit. The roads still carry that cobblestone nostalgia and many of the colonial buildings that existed during the Spanish conquest have been preserved.
But more importantly, literature has managed to capture much of the turmoil that has taken place within this nation and poetry has and still continues to play a very vital role in society. Poetry coming from this region is an array of different mediums. Some poetry is raw, some is classical, and some is contemporary. But no matter the structure it is a great part of today’s society. Below is a short list of some of the well known poets.
Humberto Ak’ab’al was born in 1952 in Momostenago. Humberto is of the K’iche, a native American hailing from the Maya ethnic regions. His poetry is mainly sensible and serene with a focus on narrative over metre, rhythm or flourish. He is not just a writer of narrative poetry but also of fiction and has won many prizes in literature for his works, one of which, the Guatemalan State Prize for Literature; however, he refused to take it. Humberto Ak’abal lives still to this day continues to write and read his popular readings to the public.
Miguel Angel Asturias was Born October 19th 1899. Miguel Asturias was a Guatemalan poet of some note. He was not only a poet but also a diplomat and novelist. In 1966 he won the Soviet Union’s Lenin Prize. In 1967 he won the Nobel Prize for literature. His poetic works prominently feature the mysticism of the Maya people as well his anger towards social injustice. His collected body of works is seen as a statement of the collective aspirations of his people. Miguel Angel Asturias died June 9, 1974 in Madrid, Spain.
Ismael Cerna: Ismael Cerna lived one of the most stormy lives possible for a poet. He was born in 1856 and graduated with a Bachelors in philosophy, law, and then medicine. Curiously, he decided to join the army shortly thereafter and with the downfall of Vincent Cerna Sandoval, the then president of Guatemala, he was captured and imprisoned.
When he was released he was never truly free and decided to flee. He headed to El Salvador in a self imposed exile. Ironically he returned years later and was imprisoned once again. This seconded imprisonment was both a blessing and a curse as it was one of his most productive periods regarding his literary output. Many of his works, especially those written during his second term of imprisonment within Guatemala have become so highly regarded as to be considered of National and Historic importance. So highly regarded did he become that there was even a park named after him in Chiquimula.
Luis Cardoza y Aragon Cardoza was born June 21, 1901 and in the 1920’s he moved to Paris, France where he became good friends with Andre Breton, the French fiction writer and poet best known for being the founding father of modern day Surrealism. This provided him with a whole new way of writing and perspectives and thus this showed in his work.
