CARLOS AUGUSTO SALAVERRY: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

Carlos Augusto Salaverry (1830 - 1891) was a prominent Peruvian military, politician, poet and playwright considered one of the greatest exponents of that country's literature during the Romantic period.

Together with the Peruvian romantic writer Ricardo Palma, he has been a leading figure in Peruvian romanticism whose works have survived over time. In fact, several Peruvian critics consider Salaverry the greatest exponent of 19th century Peruvian poetry.

Magazine "Illustrated Peru"

Among his most remembered works is the poem entitled Remember me, which reflects the intimate, love and pain; characteristics of most of his lyrical poems of the romantic style.

In addition, he wrote and reproduced a large number of theatrical pieces, managing to achieve resounding success in some, such as the piece entitled El bello ideal, Abel o el pescador americano, El amor y el oro and La estrella del Perú.

Parallel to his development in poetry and theater, he served as a soldier and politician like his father, former Peruvian president Felipe Santiago Salaverry. In fact, Salaverry participated in several conflicts and relevant decisions in favor of the political welfare of the South American country.

Biography

Early years

Carlos Augusto Salaverry was born on December 4, 1830 in the District of Lancones, Piura, Peru. He was the son of former Peruvian president Felipe Santiago Salaverry del Solar, who became president of the country between 1835 and 1836, being the youngest president to die.

His mother, Vicenta Ramírez Duarte, was the daughter of Francisco Ramírez y Baldés, owner of the renowned “La Solana” farm in Peru.

Felipe Santiago Salaverry met Vicenta during a militarization of the Peruvian troops when the War with Greater Colombia broke out; however, they separated when Carlos Augusto Salaverry was only a few years old.

According to some historians, the former president separated Carlos Augusto from his mother forcing him to live with his stepmother, Juana Pérez Infanta, and his stepbrother (with the same name as his father).

At just 6 years old, he was orphaned, as his father had been assassinated during the Bolivian invasion at the hands of the soldier Andrés de Santa Cruz. Hence, the future of Carlos Augusto Salaverry became one of economic and emotional deficiencies.

Carlos Augusto Salaverry stayed with his stepmother; the Salaverry family had to get away from their enemies, so they had to flee to Chile. After those events, he lived a life full of hardships, sadness and with little basic education.

Youth

After the fall of Andrés de Santa Cruz in 1839, Salaverry traveled from Chile to Peru to join the army as a cadet to prepare for the Battle of Yungay.

At the age of 15 he was transferred to different garrisons, as his superiors considered that the young Salaverry could stand out as his father in the army. However, his personality did not match military discipline. Instead, Salaverry preferred solitude and study for letters.

In fact, in his younger years he devoted himself to the intense reading of the renowned French romantic poet Victor Hugo and the German essayist Heinrich Heine.

When he turned 20 he married Mercedes Felices; a hasty relationship that ended quickly. Later, he was involved in a passionate relationship with Ismena Torres. However, the young woman's parents transferred her to Europe to get her away from Salaverry, considering him a bad prospect for their daughter.

In fact, the story between Salaverry and Ismena Torres was later captured in their best romantic poems.

Beginnings in poetry and political career

In 1853 he was promoted to lieutenant and two years later to captain. His poetic abilities were inevitably exposed as he grew in parallel in his career as a military and politician.

Carlos Salaverry had a friend, Trinidad Fernández, who like him served as a military man and a poet. After learning of his interest in poetry, he intervened so that one of his verses appeared published in the media El Heraldo de Lima in 1855 when he was 25 years old.

After a few years, he made other publications that managed to achieve the success he wanted: Arturo, Atahualpa or the conquest of Peru, El bello ideal, among others.

When he began in the field of Peruvian politics, Salaverry had already reached the position of sergeant major. He then began as secretary of the Peruvian colonel Mariano Ignacio Prado accompanying him in the campaigns against the president of that time, Juan Antonio Pezet.

Salaverry accompanied Prado during the Combat of Callao in the Peruvian port against the Spanish Armada as part of the Spanish-South American War in 1866. However, he later joined the revolution led by the Peruvian José Balta against the dictatorship of Mariano Ignacio Prado in 1867.

Diplomatic position

When José Balta became president of Peru in 1869, Carlos Augusto Salaverry entered as secretary of delegation, being part of the diplomatic service of the president of the time. This work allowed him to make extensive trips to the United States and Europe.

Although he had made several literary publications - including editions of his first collection of poems (Diamonds and pearls) in 1869 - he managed to publish the collection of poems in Europe under the name of Albores y Destellos in 1871.

When Manuel Pardo assumed the presidency of Peru, Salaverry was in France fulfilling his post as a diplomat. Despite this, with the entry of the new civilista president, his position was removed without the corresponding payment.

He lasted approximately six years in France, in a decadent and anguished life; in fact, it is said that he came to the brink of suicide, seeing it as the only way out of his problems.

Last years

When he returned to Peru in 1878, the position of president was in the hands of Mariano Ignacio Prado in his second government. The following year, in his poor physical and psychological condition, he agreed to participate in the war against Chile, for which he had to join the temporary government of Francisco García Calderón.

After carrying out political actions and his pacifist negotiations with Francisco García Calderón, his political career finally ended when García Calderón was arrested and deported to Chile.

After publishing the poem Mysteries of the grave in 1883, he again traveled to Europe. There she met her new love, whom she married for the second time in Paris, France. From there, she toured a large number of European countries until she began to feel the first symptoms of paralysis in 1885.

On April 9, 1891, Carlos Augusto Salaverry died in Paris, France, as his illness gradually affected him until the day of his death. His remains are currently in his native land, in the San José de Sullana cemetery.

Poetry and theater

Carlos Augusto Salaverry has been considered one of the greatest exponents of literary Romanticism. It was characterized by having tones of the classic norms of sonnets and impeccable structure.

On the other hand, in Salaverry's poetry, the influence of the Spanish poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer could be recognized with the naked eye for using the assonance rhyme of a combination of multiform verses.

Salaverry is considered the most original Peruvian poet of Romanticism, which is inspired by expressive notes, exaltation of love and unrequited love, melancholy and nostalgia. His best compositions were the correct sonnets evoking intense sentimentality.

In his poetic production the lyrical style stands out; that is, it exposes introspection and the description of the author's deepest and most sincere feelings. In addition, it lacks poetic stereotypes, abounding in musicality and sensitivity.

Regarding his theatrical reproductions, Salaverry made approximately twenty theatrical pieces throughout his life, some being premiered in the states of Lima and Callao, Peru.

Although many of these works achieved the success he desired, as the years passed his works were devalued even to this day. Long monologues especially predominated in his theater.

Plays

Atahualpa or the conquest of Peru

Atahualpa or the conquest of Peru is one of the first dramatic theatrical pieces by Carlos Augusto Salaverry written in 1854.

Apart from this work, he composed other pieces of drama from Arturo to the People and the Tyrant.

Although Salaverry placed more emphasis on his lyrical and poetic romanticism, his theatrical pieces were recognized, some being produced in Peru. Certain pieces by Salaverry were undervalued in his time and even after his death.

However, in the case of the work Atahualpa or the conquest of Peru, it was later taken to make of it a musical production based on the capture of the Inca Atahualpa and exposing the characteristic drama of the work.

The beautiful ideal

El bello ideal is a play written in 1857 by Carlos Augusto Salaverry in Lima, Peru. The work constitutes a piece of four acts in verse. The piece consists of approximately forty pages with a perfectly written prologue in verse.

Abel or the American fisherman

Like the piece El bello ideal, the work entitled Abel or the American fisherman is a dramatic theatrical piece written by Carlos Augusto Salaverry in 1857. It consists of four acts and a prologue written in verses.

The story focuses on the Inca Indians with approximately eight main characters on stage and four extra characters.

This work is not the only piece in which Salaverry evokes the indigenous theme. Salaverry throughout his life as a literary man was interested in the liberation of the Indians, the suppression of the slavery of the blacks and the reconstruction of the country, associated with his patriotic spirit like his father.

Diamonds and pearls

Diamonds and Pearls is a work written between the years 1869 and 1871 when Salaverry was serving in the military in France.

Diamonds and Pearls represents one of his first poems that later were a reference for poems of the romantic style.

It is a poem that is composed mostly of sonnets or fourteen verses of major art in its classical form, with love being the predominant theme throughout the poem.

Letters to an angel

Letters to an Angel was a collection of poems written by Carlos Augusto Salaverry and published in Lima in 1871. It is known for being one of the most popular poems in which love and eroticism written by the Peruvian poet stand out.

Letters to an Angel is inspired by one of his loves, Ismena Torres. Torres was Carlos Augusto Salaverry's second love after Mercedes Felices. Torres' parents objected to their relationship, making the poet separate from her.

Ismena Torres was one of Salaverry's great obsessions, being one of his sources of inspiration in the verses he wrote full of love, passion and melancholy, in which the frustration of their separation could be reflected. Salaverry's inspiration and success is attributed to the break with Ismena Torres.

Although Letters to an Angel is a book of love, it is at the same time a poem of pain, absences with an intense sentimentality typical of romantic literature that, in fact, few Peruvian poets achieved.

Remember me

Remember me is part of the collection of poems from the work Letters to an Angel by Carlos Augusto Salaverry. Although there are no clear records of the date of its publication, it may have been published some time after his work Letters to an Angel.

According to many literary critics, the work Acuérdate de mé shows a marked influence of the poetry of the Spanish Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer due to his deep and personal romantic style, which significantly helped to perfect his poetic style.

The Peruvian poet again evokes the idea of ​​loneliness that he expresses in Letters to an Angel. Somehow Salaverry recalls his pain after the absence of his beloved.

It is a poem in which metaphors abound, as well as the use of infinities of literary figures. In fact, Carlos Augusto Salaverry compares his feeling of heartbreak and abandonment with the idea of ​​helplessness produced by the ruins of what was once a beautiful and magnificent building.

In this sense, the symbolism of the ruins reflects a metaphor for what their love was, as well as being a characteristic of the environment described by poets of the romantic style.

References

1. Peruvian Romanticism and Carlos Augusto Salaverry, Ibero-American Magazine, (nd). Taken from revista-iberoamericana.pitt.edu
2. Atahualpa: Universal launches the first opera with a Peruvian motif, Official Portal of El Comercio Peru, (2015). Taken from elcomercio.pe
3. Carlos Augusto Salaverry, Website Folder Pedagógica, (nd). Taken from folderpedagogica.com
4. Carlos Augusto Salaverry, Spanish Wikipedia, (nd). Taken from Wikipedia.org
5. Poems by Carlos Augusto Salaverry, Poemas del Alma, (nd). Taken from poemas-del-alma.com
6. Abel or the American fisherman, Carlos Augusto Salaverry, (1857). Taken from babel.hathitrust.org