GERMÁN LIST ARZUBIDE: BIOGRAPHY, WORKS - BIOGRAPHIES - 2025

Germán List Arzubide (1898-1998) was a Mexican writer and poet whose work was framed within the Estridentista current. In addition, he stood out for his rebellious personality and his revolutionary thinking. In his youth, he joined Venustiano Carranza's Constitutionalist Army.

List Arzubide's literary work was characterized by being spontaneous, expressive and creative, where he used a simple and precise language. Some of his most outstanding titles were: Esquina, estridentista poetry, The traveler in the vertex, It is the revolution and Madero, the Mexico of 1910.

Germán List Arzubide. Source: Tina Modotti, via Wikimedia Commons

The work of the writer was recognized with some awards, among them the National Prize of Sciences and Arts. Germán List Arzubide collaborated in various print media in his country and held public office. Despite his talent, very little has been studied and written about his life and work.

Biography

Birth and studies

Germán List Arzubide was born on May 31, 1898 in the city of Puebla de Zaragoza, Puebla. The data on his parents and relatives are scarce, although it is known that his training was carried out in the Normal School and in the old State College.

Revolutionary attitude

Literature and revolutionary ideals were part of List Arzubide from his youth years. He was part of the Mexican Revolution and enlisted in the army of the military man Venustiano Carranza Garza. At the beginning of the 1920s, he was threatened by Álvaro Obregón's troops and had to flee.

Literary steps

His taste for literature surfaced in 1921 when he participated in the creation of the Vincit publication. A year later he joined Estridentismo along with young intellectuals of the stature of Arqueles Vela Salvatierra and Manuel Maples Arce.

List and Arce were in charge of writing and exposing the second decree of the estridentista movement in 1923. At that time he remained linked to the political events of Mexico and had time to publish Plebe y Esquina (1924).

Between literature and the revolutionary call

The writer stood firm before his two passions: writing and the political and social cause. In 1926 he had the initiative to create the magazine Horizonte in Xalapay, where he published The Stridentist Movement and the Gachupines Death. It was a time when he was also in contact with the Nicaraguan revolutionary Augusto Sandino.

Engraving of Xalapa, the city where Germán List Arzubide founded the magazine Horizonte. Source: Brantz Mayer, via Wikimedia Commons

Between 1927 and 1929 he published the works Emiliano Zapata, The traveler at the vertex and Lenin, a technician of the social revolution. In the mid-thirties he joined the theatrical life with the creation of the Guiñol Theater and a year later he served as an official in the Treasury Department.

List Arzubide worked for more than a decade in the publication Tiempo, from 1941 to 1953. In 1957 he was part of the group of intellectuals that created the Mexican Academy of Education. In those years he published outstanding works such as Giuseppe Garibaldi. A hero between two worlds (1960) and The battle of May 5, 1862 (1962).

Death

Although the literary quality of this Mexican writer has not been questioned, his writings went unnoticed for a long time and it was not until the 1990s that his work began to be recognized. He passed away on October 17, 1998 in Mexico City at one hundred years of age.

Awards and honours

- Lenin Medal of the Soviet Union in 1960.

- National Prize for Cultural Journalism, 1983.

- Sandino Gold Medal in 1985, Nicaragua.

- Puebla Prize, 1986.

- Rosete Aranda Award in 1994.

- National Prize of Sciences and Arts in Linguistics and Literature, 1997.

- Fine Arts Medal in 1997.

- Doctorate Honoris Causa by the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (after death).

Plays

- Plebe, anarchist poetry (1925).

- Esquina, estridentista poetry (1925).

- Die the gachupines (1926).

- The estridentista movement (1926).

- Emiliano Zapata, exaltation (1927).

- The traveler in the vertex (1927).

- Lenin, a technician of the social revolution (1929).

- Irreligious education practice (1933).

- Troka, the mighty (1939).

- It's the revolution (1955).

- Giuseppe Garibaldi. Hero of two worlds (1960).

- The battle of May 5, 1862 (1962).

- Ramón López Velarde and the Mexican Revolution (1963).

- Madero, the Mexico of 1910 (1973).

- Stridentist poems (1986).

- Rainbow of Mexican tales (1991).

- Guiñol Theater, complete comedies (1997).

Fragments of some of his works

The traveler at the vertex

"Your goodbyes

only rule

in the eclipse of the panoramas

we will sink into the banks

from perspective

and no one

will browse tomorrow

our name, is on the road

our only destiny

and behind it drowns in violence

the loose itinerary

of love, the counterfeit city

by the dawn of his handkerchief

spilled into the mechanical night

tunnel

I unfolded the diary of my indifference

and I read the catastrophe

of his name ”.

"Corner"

"A Wagner Speech

It is under the baton of the

HIGH-AND-FORWARD

The street has come all after us

and that smile flew from my hands.

The sun has undressed you.

Science is perfumed with bad intentions

and apart from fashion

the traffic has become music.

… Heaven is sold out on the latest albums

the shop windows speak of free love

his name is a postcard lightning bolt.

If I wasn't sad…

Sold and sung for 5 cents

Villa was invented

those who hated the gringo.

They have stolen the eyes that I wore in my vest

Do you know where the mail goes?

"Thus, the"

"Cities that inaugurate my step

while her eyes

they hijack the landscape…

the telegraph wires

the night is creeping…

The balcony

of your goodbye

delivered whole in a conversion

in the corners

unpublished girls

they have turned on the voltaics

and the landscape put in the electrics

he says the delayed names.

A waltz in exile

patched up college grades

and

arms folded

the hotel

sealed with the cry of all countries

and a poor old time.

This city is mine

and tomorrow

I'll throw it in handfuls

to the iron road ”.

"Article it"

“… While the engines snort their

impatience

spiders weave

his fabrics with threads of music

to catch the electric butterfly… ”.

References

1. Germán List Arzubide. (S. f.). (N / a): Recovered from: isliada.org.
2. Germán List Arzubide. (S. f.). Cuba: Ecu Red. Recovered from: ecured.cu.
3. Francesc, J. (2018). Germán List Arzubide. Mexico: Vicente Lombardo Toledano Center for Philosophical, Political and Social Studies. Recovered from: centrolombardo.edu.mx.
4. Germán List Arzubide. (2018). Mexico: Encyclopedia of Literature in Mexico. Recovered from: elem.mx.
5. Germán List Arzubide. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.