GUILLERMO PRIETO PRADILLO: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE, WORKS, PHRASES - ARTE - 2025

Guillermo Prieto Pradillo (1818-1897) was a Mexican writer, poet and politician, who has been considered one of the most prominent poets of his country. The importance of his work lay in the nationalist and patriotic content of his work; He was called "The quintessential Mexican poet."

Prieto's work was characterized by a simple and precise language, and also by being framed within the history and politics of Mexico. Some of the writer's most renowned titles were Musa callejera, El romancero nacional and El alférez.

Portrait of Guillermo Prieto Pradillo. Source: See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons

As for his political performance, he was part of the Liberal Party, and was also a deputy to Congress on several occasions. Prieto Pradillo was linked to the presidential government of Benito Juárez. Such was his connection with the president that his famous phrase "Stop! The brave do not murder" he said when he interposed to save the life of the ruler.

Biography

Birth and family

Guillermo was born on February 10, 1818 in Mexico City, he came from a traditional family. His parents were José María Prieto Gamboa and Josefa Pradillo Estañol. Although he had a quiet childhood, his adolescence was marked by the death of his father and the madness of his mother.

Studies of Prieto Pradillo

Prieto Pradillo attended primary education in his hometown. Then, after the loss of his father and his mother's inability to support him, he found himself having to work. This is how the politician Andrés Quintana Roo became his protector.

Young Guillermo was able to study at the Colegio de San Juan de Letrán thanks to the help of Quintana Roo, who also recommended him to work in customs. In 1936, when he was eighteen years old, with the help of some friends he created the Literary Association Lateran Academy.

Between letters and politics

Guillermo Prieto from a very young age was attracted to literature, history and politics, so he began to cultivate his passions. It was in 1837 that he made his way into the field of letters in media such as El Mosaico Mexicano and Galván's Calendar, in which he published his first verses.

In politics, he began as an official of the governments of Presidents José María Valentín Gómez Farías and Anastasio Bustamante, and also began to write in the Official Gazette. In 1838 he enlisted in the Military Service: it was the time of the Cake War, a conflict between France and Mexico.

Guillermo as Fidel

In 1840 Guillermo Prieto Pradillo published his first prose work entitled El alférez. The following year he began to write the journalistic column "San Monday of Fidel" in the liberal newspaper El Siglo Diez y Nueve. He signed as Fidel the articles he wrote there, which lasted until 1896.

Literary continuity

The writer continued to consolidate his career during the 1940s. In 1842 he published his second work written in prose called Alonso Ávila, of a biographical nature. In addition, he wrote for various print media, such as El Museo Mexicano and El Semanario Ilustrado.

In 1843 Prieto Pradillo published El susto de Pinganillas. Then, two years later, Don Simplicio was born, a liberal political newspaper with humorous features, which he founded together with the writer and journalist Ignacio Ramírez. In 1946 he participated in the United States-Mexico War.

Photograph by Guillermo Prieto Pradillo. Source: See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons

Political actions

Guillermo Prieto's political actions were aligned with liberal ideas, which he expressed in many of the newspapers where he worked. From 1852 to 1853 he served as Minister of Finance in the presidency of José Mariano Arista; at that time he published Memories of my times.

As a critic of the dictatorial government of Antonio López de Santa Anna, Prieto did not hesitate to join the Ayutla Plan, a pronouncement that took place in Guerrero on March 1, 1854 against the military. Later he was part of the presidential administration of Juan Álvarez Hurtado.

Affinity with Benito Juárez

The writer was close to Benito Juárez, because he was part of his presidency. In 1858 he served as Minister of Finance, but perhaps the event that most closely linked him with the politician was when he saved him in Guadalajara from being assassinated.

According to the anecdote, Prieto Pradillo stood before the bullets, and shouted the famous phrase: "Stop! The brave do not murder." The execution order was given by Filomeno Bravo, a conservative politician. After that event, he traveled with Juárez to various countries in America.

Immersed in politics

Guillermo Prieto witnessed the War of the Reform in 1858, and even participated in the laws that were promulgated to distance the church from the State. Later, from 1861 to 1863, he served as a federal deputy.

He also did politics from the pages of the newspapers La Chinaca and El Monarca, especially with satires against the second intervention of the French on Mexican soil. At that time he was appointed as Postmaster and took charge of the Official Gazette.

Prieto Pradillo and exile

Although Prieto Pradillo supported Benito Juárez's policy, he did not agree with his continuing to remain in power. It was for this reason that in 1866 he joined the politician Jesús González Ortega to carry out actions that put an end to the government of Juárez.

However, the objective was not given because the conflict with the French persisted. So out of fear of reprisals, the writer decided to go into exile in the United States, and on his return he rejoined political life as a deputy. He also made propaganda to prevent Juárez from continuing to govern.

Last years of Guillermo Prieto Pradillo

Literature and politics were always present in Guillermo's life. In 1871 he began to write for the magazines El Búcaro and El Domingo. At that time he sympathized with the government of José María Iglesias, and also for short periods of time he held various ministerial positions.

Prieto Pradillo also served politically during the Porfirio Díaz government. From 1880 to 1896 he was a deputy to the Congress of the Union. He did all of this alongside his work as a writer: the pages of newspapers such as El Republicano and El Universal served to capture his thoughts.

Death

Prieto Pradillo's life began to deteriorate due to a heart disease, and for this reason he moved to Cuernavaca. Then he died in Mexico City in the town of Tacubaya on March 2, 1897. His remains rest in the Rotunda of Illustrious Persons.

Guillermo Prieto's tomb in the Rotunda of Illustrious Persons (Mexico). Source: Thelmadatter, via Wikimedia Commons

Style

The literary style of the Mexican writer was characterized by the use of a simple, clear and precise language, as well as well elaborated and humorous. His work had features of the current of romanticism. He also developed a theme focused on the customs, history, culture and characters of his country.

His eagerness to describe in detail the qualities of each town, of each one of the customs of the inhabitants (emphasizing the details regarding clothing and food), gave it a place of honor among the romantic and regionalist writers of its time..

Plays

-Prose

-Poetry

- Unpublished verses (1879).

- Street muse (1883).

- The national ballads (1885).

- Collection of selected poems (1895-1897).

-Text and history

- Dictionary of history and geography (1848). The work was developed in collaboration with the historian Manuel Orozco y Berra.

- Notes for the history of the war between Mexico and the United States (1848).

- Elementary lessons in political economy (1871).

- Brief introduction to the study of universal history (1884).

- Lessons in national history (1886).

- Brief notions of political economy (1888).

-Short description of some of his works

Street muse

It was one of the best known poetic works of the author. This was due to the connection with the Mexican people. In the verses the author's humor was noted, as well as the enjoyment of simplicity. Prieto put aside irony and sarcasm to focus on dreams and joy.

Guillermo Prieto's birthplace. Source: YoelResidente, via Wikimedia Commons

In the work the writer described typical Mexican environments, as well as certain characteristics of its inhabitants. For example: fairs, landscapes, traditions, popular words and people came to life in a typical and idealistic way.

Fragment

“Long live the decent people!

Long live probity!

and until the last relative

is hero and dignity, out of certain present

It was due to friendship.

Mentecatos!

If eating is not the same

than to jump with the dishes.

I am liberal, -not cakes;

more, canary! - if there is pitanza, let the tinsel come, and, boys, to the dance.

Are these the faithful cigars?

What a Robespier of joke ”.

The national romance

Prieto Pradillo expressed in this poetic work his personal joy and that of the people of Mexico for the acts of independence that led them to be free. He was inspired by poems of this kind written by Spanish authors. The verses were structured in octosyllables.

Fragment

"… And giving a thousand screams

the unhappy Migajita, he pulled out his hair, and howling he writhed.

Suddenly the screaming stops

suddenly it was fixed:

the talkers approached, they find it lifeless and cold, and the silence is destined

turning night into day.

In the Pantheon of Dolores, away in the last row

between some wooden crosses

new or half rotten, there is a raised cross

of polished stonework, and in it the name of Ronco, 'Arizpe José Marías', and the foot, in a pile of earth, half covered with nettles, without anyone suspecting it

the Migajita rests, flower of the neighborhood of La Palma

and envy of the catrinas ”.

Fragment of

“… The silent and deserted streets in which the precipitous footsteps of someone running in search of aid resounded from a distance; the yellow, black and white banners that served as a warning of the disease, doctors, priests and charity houses… At a great distance the lugubrious screeching of cars that passed through full of corpses… all this is reproduced today in my memory with colors very alive and they make me shudder ”.

Fragment of "Dreams"

"Echo no voice leading

the hurricane that moves away, wave that wanders reflects

to the star that shines;

I remember that it seduces me

with delusions of joy;

loving melody

vibrating with tender tears, What do you say to my loss, what do you love me, who sent you?

… There are more shadows in the soul, more wrinkles on the forehead.

… Although this effort enters

in how painful I moan

the hope of an arrimo,

of a compliment in a dream, if of me not being the owner

smile for free you see me, I beg you to remember

I'm in pain…

Come in… leave me asleep…

come in… don't wake me up! ”.

Phrases

- "I love you, yes, I adore you, although my lip a thousand and a thousand times called you perjury, although the horrendous cup of injury gave me the pleasures your beauty, my heart loves you."

- “Passions dragged me; There is no god, my lips said, and my eyes were offended for eternity with the light ”.

- "Sweet is the man in his painful duel, when the persistent torment terrifies him, to say mocking the mean land: 'There is my homeland' and to point to the sky".

- "What does it matter if they threaten me fiercely, or that humans moan, if I snatch the cup of pleasure from their hands, nightingale?"

- "Our noble intelligence never perishes, that the pure souls will forever reflect in the heights the brilliance of omnipotence anguish."

- “Hero, monarch, tear from your lip the cry of pride that horrifies; your ashes are equal to the ashes of the unhappy shepherd ”.

- "I already contemplate the brave warrior who even in his dreams his hard hand, uncertainly, eagerly, seeks the sword to wound the proud invader."

- "Man: How do you surrender to the deep dream, of the beach in your life lying down, if the lightest wind, the rising sea has to wrap your body?".

- "If they try to step on our soil, let us bury their lives in the sea, and in the waves, stained with blood, the reflection of the sun will appear opaque."

- "The charming and delicate flower that swayed on a slender stem, was seen proudly by the light of a single day, then disappeared."

References

1. Tamaro, E. (2004-2019). Guillermo Prieto. (N / a): Biographies and Lives. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com.
2. Guillermo Prieto Pradillo. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.
3. Ayala, A. (2019). Guillermo Prieto, the man who saved Benito Juárez's life. (N / a): Collective Culture. Recovered from: culturacolectiva.com.
4. Prieto, Guillermo (1818-1897). (2019). Mexico: National Coordination of Literature. Recovered from: literature.inba.gob.mx.
5. Guillermo Prieto. (2018). Mexico: Encyclopedia of Literature in Mexico. Recovered from: elem.mx.