RAMÓN LÓPEZ VELARDE: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE, WORKS, PHRASES - LITERATURE - 2025

Ramón Modesto López Velarde Berumen (1888-1921) was a Mexican writer and poet. His literary work was framed within modernism. Although his life was short, he has been considered one of the most important and patriotic poets of his country.

López Velarde's work was short, but encompassed prose and poetry. It was characterized by being authentic in terms of structure, and in it, in a very original way, love and religion were present. In some of his writings he tried to show clear and marked features of the daily life of Mexico.

Ramón Modesto López Velarde. Source: AnonymousUnknown author, via Wikimedia Commons

One of Ramón López Velarde's best-known titles was La sangre devota, a lyrical work whose main theme was love. The writer was also the author of La suave patria, a poem that was born to commemorate the hundred years of independence, and with time it became the Mexican national poem.

Biography

Birth and family

Ramón was born on June 15, 1885 in the town of Jerez de García Salinas, Zacatecas. He came from a cultured family, and of good economic level. His parents were José Guadalupe López Velarde, a lawyer, and Trinidad Berumen Llamas. He had eight siblings, among whom he was the oldest.

López Velarde's education

López Velarde's early formative years were spent in his hometown. Then, in 1900, when he was twelve years old, his parents decided that he should study at a seminary in Zacatecas. Two years later, for family reasons, he moved to one in Aguascalientes.

There was a very particular parenthesis in her life in which she studied at a women's college, by choice of her parents. There she learned to treat women. In 1908 she left the seminary aside to study law at the Autonomous University of San Luís Potosí.

A forbidden love

Jerez was the destination of Ramón López Velarde during the seminar holidays. At that time he met his first love, and who inspired many of his verses: Josefa de los Ríos. Although she was a few years older than him, he fell madly in love. However, her father prevented the relationship, because they were related.

Steps as a writer

Ramón López Velarde showed a taste for letters and literature from an early age. In 1905 he had already written his first verses; at the age of eighteen he began to write with the nickname of "Ricardo Wencer Olivares" in Bohemio, a magazine published in Aguascalientes.

While he studied at the university, López Velarde continued to write for various print media, including: El Observador, El Debate, El Regional, and Pluma y Lapiz, among others. It was at this time that his father passed away, so his maternal uncles helped him to continue his studies.

Affinity for modernism

During his university years, López Velarde took the opportunity to research and read about modernism. In addition, he read many authors framed in this literary trend, such as: Amado Nervo and Andrés González Blanco. From then on his literary development was highly influenced by modernism.

Activities during the revolution

Amado Nervo, great influence on López's work. Source: taringa, via Wikimedia Commons

When the Mexican Revolution began in 1910, the writer sided with the politician Francisco Madero. The following year he graduated from university, and began working as a lawyer in the town of Venado in San Luis Potosí. That same year he went to the capital in search of a better job.

López Velarde's intention was for Madero, whom he knew personally, to give him a position within his government, but he had no luck. So he dedicated himself to writing La Nación, a Catholic newspaper, where he presented his ideas about national events.

Back in San Luís Potosí

In 1913, after having lived two years in Mexico City, he made the decision to return to San Luís Potosí, after the arrival of Victoriano Huerta to the presidency. There, in addition to establishing her law office, she also opened her heart to a young woman named María de Nevares.

López Velarde again in the capital

Ramón López Velarde settled permanently in Mexico City in 1914, after having worked for a year in San Luís Potosí. During that time the poet approached the literary works of José Juan Tablada; He also felt an affinity for the work of the Argentine Leopoldo Lugones.

The writer focused on his work, and wanted his writings to have the essence of his personality. So, in 1915, he began writing some verses full of nostalgia; At the same time, schoolboy love was the protagonist through the inspiration that arose in him to write about Fuensanta or Josefa de los Ríos.

First post

The public recognition of Ramón López Velarde came with the publication of his first collection of poems: La sangre devota, in 1916. The critics and the public gave him a good reception. The poet developed themes about love and suffering in his collection of poems, as well as reflecting his Catholic sentiment.

In constant production

López Velarde had a bad time when he learned about the death, in 1917, of the muse of his verses, Josefa de los Ríos. However, he went ahead and began writing Zozobra. In addition, he worked as a columnist for Pegaso. By then his work as a writer began to take hold.

The collection of poems Zozobra was published in 1919. In the book, the author was in charge of delving into what he called “the flowers of sin”, after a love affair he had. Critics applauded the lyrical work, both for its content and for the sarcasm with which it was written.

Last years of the poet

López Velarde's life in the Mexican capital was characterized by stability, work and literary production. In 1920 the political events that occurred after Venustiano Carranza's departure from the government scared him a bit.

Then the fear dissipated, just as the writer, philosopher and politician José Vasconcelos Calderón took over the direction of the education department. That meant work for the poet, since he could write for media directed by Vasconcelos, such as: El Maestro y México Moderno.

Death

Ramón López Velarde had a very short life. Perhaps that prevented his work from being broader, and he did not have the opportunity to leave offspring either. He was only thirty-three years old when he died, on June 19, 1921, as a result of a respiratory infection.

Ramón López Velarde's tomb. Source: Thelmadatter, via Wikimedia Commons

By the date of his death, the writer had produced The Son of the Heart. However, he did not have time to bring it to light, but it was published more than a decade later. Currently his remains rest, since 1963, in the Rotunda of Illustrious Persons, in the capital of Mexico.

Legacy of Ramón López Velarde

The Mexican writer left an indelible legacy in Mexican literature, even when he was just beginning to make a name for himself. The traditional and small-town in his work had an influence on authors such as Xavier Villaurrutia. In addition, he was recognized as a predecessor of modernism in Mexican lyric.

Authors such as the Mexican Octavio Paz or the American Allen Phillips have dedicated works to the literary work of López Velarde. The poet's life has been shaped thanks to the interest of writers such as Guillermo Sheridan, who, in 1989, published An addicted heart, the life of Ramón López Velarde.

Style

López Velarde's literary style was within the lines of modernism, with some friction with the avant-garde movement. In his work there was a contrast between the habits and conditions of life in the city and in the towns, a reflection of his own experience.

The Rotunda of Illustrious Persons, where the remains of Ramón López rest. Source: Thelmadatter, via Wikimedia Commons

The writer used a cultured and elegant language in his work. He had the ability to make sentences occupy a different place, without changing the background or content of the text drastically; adjectives and out of tune were an important part of his work.

Thematic

In the brief work of the Mexican writer it was common to observe love, sadness, suffering, the erotic and the religious. He was also interested in expressing his vision of the ways of life of the common citizen of the Aztec land, in terms of their development in the towns and cities. The landscape gained great importance in his literature.

Complete works

Poetry

- The devout blood (1916).

- Zozobra (1919).

- The soft country (1921).

- The son of the heart (Posthumous edition, 1932).

Brief description of his most representative collections of poems

Devout blood

This collection of poems was the first published by the Mexican author. The title of López Velarde's work is related to the ceremony of the Catholic religion, because it is a constant theme in his work and of interest in his life. The book collected the feelings of the writer about his native land and daily life in the provinces.

The writer was also in charge of reflecting some patriotic elements that marked the lives of Mexicans. Through language he managed to recover, sometimes with a sarcastic humor, certain words or words that had stopped being used in the towns of Mexico.

Capsize

It was López Velarde's second poetic work, which, although it was written in 1917, was published in 1919. The book was composed of forty poems, in which the author referred to his life in Mexico City, and his appreciation for the life of the peoples.

In the work, the poet also said a final goodbye to his youthful love, Josefa de los Ríos. The writer used a language devoid of lyric, at the same time that he repeatedly used metaphors and adjectives. Finally, he highlighted sarcasm and a certain humor in the development of rhymes.

Excerpt from "Today as never"

“Today as never before, you make me fall in love and sadden me;

if there is a tear left in me, I excite it to wash

our two gloom.

Today, as never before, it is urgent that your peace preside over me;

but now your throat is only a suffered

whiteness, suffocating under coughs and coughs, and all of you an epistle of dying features

full of dramatic goodbyes.

Today, as never before, your absence is venerable

and break the glass of your body, and you can only give me the exquisite ailment

of a clock of agonies, whose tick-tock marks us

the icy minute in which the feet we love

they have to step on the ice of the funereal boat.

(…) My rain is already a flood, and I will not look at the lightning

of the sun on my ark, because it must be broken

my heart the fortieth night;

my pupils do not keep a remote nuance

of the solar fire (…)

my life is just an extension of the funeral

under the enemy waterfalls ”.

Fragment of

"An intimate music does not stop

because transited in a golden embrace

charity kisses with love.

Do you hear the tuning fork of the heart?

Hear the din in its multiple note

of those who were and those who are not.

(…) I am the talking foliage in which it rocks

the germinal chest of the druid bard

with the jungle as a goddess and as a beloved.

Oh psyche, oh my soul: it sounds like

modern, to the sound of jungle, to the sound of orgy

they are already a sailor, the son of the heart ”.

Prose

- The minute hand (1923).

- The gift of February and other prose (posthumous edition, 1952).

- Correspondence with Eduardo J. Correa and other juvenile writings (Posthumous edition, 1991).

Phrases

- «Homeland, I give you the key to your happiness: always be the same, faithful to your daily mirror”.

- "The most trivial of your actions is grass for me, as the crumb is the happiness of sparrows."

- “In the forest of love, I am a poacher; I stalk you between asleep and dense foliage ”.

- "An intimate music does not stop, because charity with love kisses itself in a golden embrace."

- "The lark wakes me up with a timid stammering song rehearsal and a hesitation of the sun on the inexperienced wing."

- “The bachelor is the tiger who writes eights on the floor of loneliness. It does not go backwards, nor does it advance ”.

- "The country is impeccable and diamond."

- "For weak and small, oh flower of paradise, you fit in the vertex of the heart in a party that loved you."

- "You are forbidden me… I am a failure of confessor and doctor who feels he is losing the best of his patients and his most effusive penitent."

- "And to think that we could link our hands and hasten the communion of fertile summers with a kiss…".

References

1. Tamaro, E. (2019). Ramon lopez velarde. (N / a): Biographies and Lives. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com.
2. Ramon lopez velarde. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: wikipedia.org.
3. Ramon lopez velarde. Bibliographic note. (S. f.). Spain: Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library. Recovered from: cervantesvirtual.com.
4. Rico, J. (2016). Ramon lopez velarde. Mexico: Encyclopedia of Literature in Mexico. Recovered from: elem.mx.
5. Phrases by Ramón López Velarde. (S. f.). Argentina: Phrases and Thoughts. Recovered from: frasesypensamientos.com.ar.