Rubén Darío

Nicaraguan poet, journalist, and diplomat, Felix Rubén Garcia Sarmiento, universally known as Rubén Darío, deserves the grand honor of having a school named after him. Born in San Pedro de Metapa on 1867, Rubén Darío is one of the most famous poets of the world. Known to have been the key in the development of modern poetry in both Spain and Latin America, Dario was also a journalist and a diplomat. He was a very great man.Much of Darío's work, and Latin American modernism in genre, can be seen as influenced by three European movements, Romanticism, Parnassianism, and the symbolist movement. Rubén's first collection of poetry, "Azul", was published in 1888 while he was living in Chile. Eight years later, he completed his next important collection, "Prosas Profana y Otros Poemas". "Poema del Otono", written in 1910, is often considered Darío's finest piece.Darío returned to Europe in 1898 as a journalist and beginning in 1908 served as Nicaragua's minister to Spain. Rubén also served as Colombian consul in Buenos Aires in the 1890's. In one of the publications called "Songs of Life and Hope", he was concerned with issues such as the defeat of Spain in the Spanish-American War, North American imperialism and the solidarity of Spanish-speaking peoples.By age 12, Rubén Darío was the established poet of his Nicaraguan birthplace, and by age 16, he was the chartered poet of all Central America; with an appearance in Chile of "Azul", he won worldwide Hispanic recognition. In Argentina he wrote for La Nacion and in 1896 published "Los Raros" and "Prosas Profanas", which won over important critics to an appreciation of modernism. His later books of poetry, "Cantos de Vida y Esperanza", "El Canto Errante", "Poema del Otono" and "Canto a la Argentina", strengthened his reputation, and his literary essays further added to his stature. Although neither his poetry nor his diplomatic posts earned him an adequate living, the idea in Spanish America that one's principal identity could be that of a poet is derived mainly from him.

Many Spanish American writers came to be regarded as modernists, but it is Darío's work that encompasses all the characteristics that define the movement. Therefore, this is why Felix Garcia, or Rubén Darío, deserves the grand honor of having a school named after him

By: Ramon Gutierrez
From: Mrs. Garcia's Gifted Class