LATIN AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE: CONTEXT, CHARACTERISTICS, AUTHORS - LITERATURE - 2025

The Latin American modernism was an artistic and literary movement that developed in the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century in response to the great political and social changes that happened in the continent American product of World (1914-1918) War, the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and World War II (1939-1945).

It is based mainly on the breaking of the traditional schemes and norms that had been accepted in modern art and literature. This implied that new literary currents and new forms of writing poetry were generated that were revolutionary for the time.

Vicente Huidobro is one of the main representatives of the Latin American avant-garde. Source: See page for author

It was a movement with which the artists faced the constant threat they perceived towards their union from capitalism. A new social and economic model that encouraged the commercialization of art.

Historic context

The avant-garde had its beginnings in the late 19th century with the end of the First World War. From then on, the movement experienced an important boom, its exponents were very successful until the middle of the 20th century, when World War II was generated and postmodernism emerged.

Its birth is associated with the fervent opposition of the society of European artists to the bourgeois system prevailing in Europe in the nineteenth century.

Its appearance in Latin America arose as a product of the great political and social changes derived from the First World War and the Spanish Civil War. Its first authors took the postulates and characteristics of those forms of European expression and adapted them to the Latin American reality.

During the Spanish Civil War there were many demonstrations by the artists' union in opposition to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco and the dispute that was taking place in Spanish territory; In this context, writings and texts were generated that supported the Republic.

The avant-garde in the American continent arose as a response to the rise of the classes that opposed the growing capitalist system, which mixed with the protest ideas of the working classes.

characteristics

The avant-garde in Latin America sought to generate a new identity in the way of expressing art, a product of the uncertainty and economic crisis left by the postwar period. It was intended to express the psychological processes and concerns that artists of the time experienced regarding their place within society.

It seeks to break with the aesthetics of the traditional narrative, modifying the linearity and the logical character and making use of resources such as counterpoint, transloque or flashback, multiple narration and black humor.

In poetry, the use of free verses, calligrams and collage stood out, these works being perceived as experimental creations.

Likewise, the Latin American avant-garde adopted and combined the isms proposed by the European avant-garde, within which we mainly find creationism, ultraism, simplism, stridentism and nothingness. Below we will explain the main characteristics of these movements:

Creationism

It was proposed by the Chilean Vicente Huidobro during his stay in Spain in 1918. As its name indicates, it leaves aside the descriptive conception of literature and focuses on the free creation of the artist who innovates and expresses new ideas, concepts and elements.

In creationism the poet is given the ability to even alter the uses of punctuation marks, since he is allowed to ignore them.

Ultraism

It was proposed by the Argentine Jorge Luis Borges in 1919. In ultraism, the artist makes use of the metaphor, usually incoherent, as the main element to express his ideas and concerns. It leaves aside the traditional rhyme and presents a more crude and simplified language through which it omits the unnecessary adornments and qualifiers.

It introduces the use of the words esdrújulas within the narrative, as well as neologisms and technicalities. It is strongly influenced by the characteristics of Cubism, Dadaism and European Futurism, as well as Huidobro's creationism itself.

Simplicity

It had its beginnings in Peru in 1925 by the hand of the poet Alberto Hidalgo. Simplification seeks to represent the ideas of the author in the simplest and clearest ways possible, regardless of anything that represents a barrier to understanding poetry.

Like ultraism, it makes use of the resource of metaphor as an element to give shape and image to the artist's ideas; however, in this case it is used in a clear and consistent sense. It usually covers topics related to self-esteem and patriotism.

Stridentism

It was created by the Mexican Manuel Maples Arce in 1921. Stridentism is shown as a form of rebellious expression and rejection of the customs of the past, with the intention of giving way to the new and modern.

Estridentistas use black humor and irreverence to give negative connotation to the traditional customs and norms of the past. A new society is proposed, called Stridentópolis, created from technological developments and a new political and social conception.

Nothingness

It was born in 1958 by the hand of the Colombian Gonzalo Arango. It is characterized by its marked existentialist component and by its criticism of the Colombian social, political and religious system of the time.

His major criticisms were of an anarchic nature against the institutions, reflecting the dissatisfaction felt by artists with the alienation derived from political and religious practices.

They made use of irrational elements, denial, nonconformity and the continuous questioning of society. The use of prose without following the established norms was also used as a way to detach from the normative.

Frequent Topics

Avant-garde artists adopted themes that generally stemmed from existentialism, which showed their special interest in the forbidden and in fateful situations.

The works sought to express the rejection of the social problems that occurred as a result of the changes in their environment. Among the main topics they developed, the following stand out:

- Economic inequalities.

- Political interventionism.

- Poverty.

- Social exclusion.

Authors and works

Vicente Huidobro (creationism)

He was born on January 10, 1893 in Santiago de Chile and died in 1948 in Cartagena, Chile. His work The Mirror of Water (1916) stands out for being the one in which he began to show some traits of creationism. His style is also evident in works such as Mío Cid Campeador: Hazaña (1929), Altazor (1931) and Temblor de cielo (1931).

Jorge Luis Borges (ultraism)

He was born on August 24, 1919 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and died in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1986. He is considered the father of ultraism in Latin America and was the first to sign an ultraist manifesto.

He is known for his works Fervor de Buenos Aires (1923) and Historia universal de la infamia (1935). In 1979 he won the Miguel de Cervantes award.

Alberto Hidalgo (simplistic)

He was born in Arequipa (Peru) in 1897 and died in Buenos Aires (Argentina) in 1967. He was proclaimed by the guild as a poet ahead of his time, considered the creator and one of the greatest exponents of simplification in Latin America. His main work was Simplismo: invented poems (1925).

Manuel Maples Arce (stridentism)

He was born on May 1, 1900 in Veracruz, Mexico, and died in 1981 in Mexico City. It was the precursor of the Estridentista style.

In 1921 he published the first Estridentista manifesto entitled Estridentista tablet and a year later he brought to light Interior Scaffolding. Radiographic poems.

Gonzalo Arango (nothingness)

He was born on January 18, 1931 in Andes, Colombia, and died in 1976 in Gachancipa, also in Colombia. He wrote the first swimist manifesto in 1958.

His main works in poetry were Fuego en el Altar (1974), Adangelios (1985) and Providencia (1972).

Cesar Vallejo

He was born on March 16, 1892 in Santiago de Chuco, Peru, and died in 1938 in Paris, France. He is considered one of the greatest exponents of Latin American avant-garde since he managed to write innovative works that adapted to different currents.

In 1918 he published his collection of poems Los heraldos negros, a work that, although it presents a modernist structure, begins the search for a different way of expressing his ideas. In 1922 he published the collection of poems Trilce, which coincides with the rise of the avant-garde and denotes his very personal poetic language.

Pablo Neruda

He was born on July 12, 1904 in Parral, Chile, and died in 1973 in Santiago de Chile. He was a notable writer and political activist who shared his passion for literature with the vindication of social rights.

His period of activity is concentrated in the avant-garde period. One of her most important works is the one entitled Twenty love poems and a desperate song, published in 1924.

In 1971, the Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize for Literature "for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force makes the destiny and dreams of a continent come true." In addition, she received an Honoris Causa doctorate in Philosophy and Letters from the University of Oxford.

References

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