JOSÉ EUSEBIO CARO: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE, WORKS, PHRASES - ARTE - 2025

José Eusebio Caro (1817-1853) was a writer, poet and politician from New Granada. He served as a soldier and combatant in various political battles of the time and also stood out for the development of his literary work, which was framed within the lines of romanticism and political reflection.

Caro's literature was characterized by the use of a cultured and expressive language, loaded with sound and rhythm. In his verses the love and respect for the country were notorious. The general content of his work was related to life, love, family relationships, national themes and religion.

José Esusebio Caro. Source: biografiasyvidas.com.

Although Eusebio Caro published several articles in prose in newspapers such as La Civilización and El Granadino, it was his poetry that gave him the greatest renown. Some of his most outstanding poems were: Come to the city, After twenty years, Appearance, Farewell to the homeland, A tear of happiness and Being with you.

Biography

Birth and family

José Eusebio Caro Ibáñez was born on March 5, 1817 in Ocaña, Santander, in times of the old Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, now Colombia. He came from a cultured family and a middle socioeconomic level. His parents were Antonio José Caro and Nicolasa Ibáñez y Arias. The writer's childhood was marked by different civil-military conflicts.

Studies

Caro received the first teachings from her father and grandfather Francisco Javier. Eusebio suffered the loss of his grandfather and father during the years of his school training, between 1827 and 1830. After those events, he entered the José M. Triana school and completed his training.

Shield of Colegio San Bartolomé, Caro's place of study. Source: Sebastián Felipe Ramírez, via Wikimedia Commons

Caro began studying law at the Colegio de San Bartolomé after completing secondary education and high school. The young Eusebio failed to graduate because he was distracted by intervening in politics.

Literary beginnings

José Eusebio Caro had a taste for letters and literature from his early years of educational training. So when he was nineteen years old, he founded the weekly La Estrella Nacional, together with his friend José Joaquín Ortiz.

Caro published in the pages of La Estrella Nacional his first verses and several articles with political and social content. The writer reflected the reality of the nation in reflective essays.

Military activities

José Eusebio Caro began military activities in 1840 when he joined the ranks of General Pedro Alcántara Herrán to fight in the different conflicts originated for political reasons.

At the same time, the writer founded the newspaper El Granadino and, from that conservative rostrum, questioned the actions and ideals of liberal politicians.

Personal life

Caro paused her military career to make way for love. For a time he had a dating relationship with a young woman named Blasina Tobar Pinzón. On February 3, 1843, the couple married in Bogotá and two children were born as a result of love: Miguel Antonio Caro Tobar (president of Colombia in 1892) and Margarita Caro Tobar.

Eusebio was elected as a congressman for the Conservative bloc the same year he married Blasina Tobar.

Caro and the Conservative Party

The conservative thinking of José Eusebio Caro led him to devise and create the Colombian Conservative Party together with the lawyer and journalist Mariano Ospina Rodríguez. The organization laid the foundations in the times of the civil war between 1840 and 1843.

Flag of the Conservative Party, founded by Caro. Source: CarlosArturoAcosta, via Wikimedia Commons

Now, the official foundation of the Conservative Party took place on October 4, 1849. Caro and Ospina made it public with the disclosure of the "Conservative Program of 1849" in the pages of the weekly La Civilización. In its beginnings the political institution was guided by the philosophical ideals of Aristotle, Saint Thomas and Saint Augustine.

Thought and ideal of the Conservative Party

The ideal of the Conservative Party was consistent with Caro's personality. It was based on the logical perception of existence, society and God around the functions of political life. Its main precepts were: Christian ethics, legality, freedom against oppressive powers and security.

Between politics and literature

José Eusebio Caro was active in politics in the mid-19th century. At that time he served as treasurer of public assets, was head of the National Credit office and served as Minister of Finance.

Along with his political career, the writer continued the development of his literary and journalistic activities. Caro created the weekly La Civilización in 1849 in the company of Mariano Ospina Rodríguez. There he criticized the governor of Cundinamarca and that earned him an arrest warrant, but upon learning it he left the country through the Llanos region in 1850.

Time of exile

The poet went into exile in New York City in the United States from 1850 to 1852. There he devoted himself to journalism and wrote several poems. Although Caro tried to spread his poetic work from North America to his country and the rest of the continent, he could not due to the communication limitations that existed in the 19th century.

Last years and death

The writer spent the last decade of his life dedicated to politics and literature, and developed a good part of his poetic work during the two years he lived in New York. Eusebio decided to return to his country in 1852 through the city of Santa Marta, and on the way he fell ill with yellow fever.

Statue of José Eusebio Caro. Source: Gustavo Arcila, via Wikimedia Commons

José Eusebio Caro died on January 28, 1853 in the aforementioned Santa Marta at the age of thirty-six.

Literary style

The literary style of José Eusebio Caro was characterized mainly by being within the ranks of romanticism. The above meant that his work was full of feelings and expressiveness. The writer used both his verses and his prose a cultured and emotional language.

Poetry

Caro's poetic work was charged with feelings and vitality. Although the poetry of this writer belonged to romanticism, it also presented traits of the neoclassical current and looked to modernism.

Eusebio's verses were characterized by their beauty, melancholy and strength. The reflection and depth of life were exposed by the intellectual from New Granada.

The meter and sound of his poems were influenced by his reading of the Spanish, English and French classics. Regarding the theme of his poetic work, José Eusebio Caro wrote about life, women, family, the country and the ideal of freedom.

Prose

Caro's prose texts were characterized by the use of well-crafted language. The writer gave his newspaper articles sagacity, strength, depth and critical thinking. The severity with which he dealt with political and social issues made him win several enemies.

José Eusebio Caro developed several works of philosophical content focused on the Christian faith and nature, which he left unfinished. Most of his prose was published in the newspapers El Granadino and La Civilización.

Plays

José Eusebio Caro's literary production was developed in three phases. In the first of them the writer reflected in his verses a lot of imagination, focused on loneliness.

Later his poetry became more thoughtful and intimate when the author went out in search of the mysteries of life and the world. And finally his poems were more sober and rational.

Poetry

Prose

Anthologies. Posthumous editions

Fragment of

"Oh! I'm already tired of pride

I am already tired of reason;

Let me, well, I spoke by your side

which speaks only the heart!

I will not speak to you of great things;

I rather want to see you and shut up, not count the hateful hours, and laugh hearing you speak!

… What is said here

call

but not knowing fear, and with the Eva who loves herself, live of ignorance and love?

Oh! more with everything so happens to us, with the country and the youth

with our home and old house, with innocence and virtue… ”.

Fragment of

"Away, oh! of the sacrum

that rocking my crib saw, I, unhappy outlaw, drag

my misery and pain.

Reclined on the high stern

from the ship that flees swiftly, our mountains go look

lit by the sun.

Goodbye, my country, my country, I still can't hate you; goodbye!

To your mantle, like a child, it seized me in my affliction;

your hand more angry

he tore it from my hands;

and in your fury ignoring

my sob and my cry, beyond the sea your arm

from a giant he threw me.

… of today and more, wandering sad

by antipode region, with my cry to the passenger

I will ask for the bread of pain;

from one door to another the blow

it will sound from my cane… ”.

Fragment of

“My night lamp is out;

I am only silent and in darkness;

no clock, no rumor is heard

for the immense city that surrounds me.

… Everything disappears: deaf, blind,

dead, man among man concentrates;

and in glory and solitude before herself

suddenly the human soul appears…

In vain I widen my eyes more and more, in vain my ears are alert;

I only hear the hum of silence

I just watch the darkness thicken… ”.

Phrases

- "Blood I must cry, cry my eyes, thinking of my father in existence."

- "Social peace, the objective of every society, is achieved by putting the individual in better conditions to resist than to attack."

- "An angel was… God showed him one day."

- “The man is an extinguished lamp; all his light will be given to him by death.

- "Go back to my past life, become ecstatic in nothingness, and cry without knowing why!"

- “I want to be with you once, which God the soul formed you; treat you like an old friend who loved us in our childhood… ”.

- “The perfume of the homeland still inhales on your button! My bone will cover with his shadow; and then I will sleep my last dream of its leaves to the rumor ”.

- "You see me sad wandering among the black graves, with moistened crying eyes, my orphanhood and misery lamenting."

- "Only your trunk listens to my moans, only your foot collects my tears."

- “Far away I am going to die from my father's expensive bed, far away, oh! of those clothes that I loved, that loved me.

References

1. Molina, L. (2017). José Eusebio Caro. Colombia: Banrepcultural. Recovered from: encyclopedia.banrepcultural.org.
2. Biography of José E. Caro. (S. f.). (N / a): Google Sites. Recovered from: sites.google.com.
3. Díaz, C. (2019). José Eusebio Caro. (N / a): History-Biography. Recovered from: historia-biografia.com.
4. José Eusebio Caro. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.
5. Tamaro, E. (S. f.). José Eusebio Caro. (N / a): Biographies and Lives. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com.