La Introducción
So this is the introduction to my great-granduncle Evaristo’s anthology of poetry. It’s long, about 21 pages, which took me between one and two hours per page to translate, even after I got my system down.
It was worth it, though. The result was absolutely fascinating, with information going all the way back five generations from my own.
I didn’t know that the second book I purchased (El Nino de Arcilla–The Boy of Clay) was an autobiography until I decoded these words. It will be exciting to experience Evaristo’s childhood through his eyes, to become acquainted with the cultured grace of my great-great grandmother, to know the magic of bohemian life in Puerto Rico and the spiritual ecstasy of Galicia’s Santiago de Compostela.
Every step I’ve made in this has opened my heart to a whole new world, making me thirst for the knowledge, passion and beauty that world has to offer.
It’s a very exciting time…
INTRODUCTION
The best of Puerto Rican literature from this century has not been firmly set due to the ignorance of such works that exists outside The Island. There’s been a lack, therefore, of a definitive test to establish the value of a writer in the opinion of his contemporaries, and in confirming or altering the convictions of posterity. There has been, without a doubt, an assessment made within The Island, both critically and publicly; but those opinions and preferences, along with the work of the writers, have been ignored outside of it. We must depart from this situation if we’re to consider the value of Puerto Rican poetry with fresh eyes, not just through Puerto Rico, but through the perspective of the entire Spanish-speaking world and its international communities.
There seems to be an exception to the rule for two poets that the University Press has decided to present through the publication of comprehensive collections of their best works to date. They are: Luis Palés Matos, whose collection Poesía, 1915-1956 appeared in 1957, and Evaristo Ribera Chevremont, the subject of this present volume. Both poets are clearly known off The Island, and have a reputation for established and diverse forms that are distinctly Hispanic. The reputation of Luis Palés Matos is often based on a fraction of his poetry, the three or four dark-themed poems that were spread by readers before 1932 with complete ignorance of the rest of his work, which is equally valuable and creative, spanning many different topics. In the case of Evaristo Ribera Chevremont we see how his reputation abroad early on is limited almost exclusively to Spain, where circumstances had increased the attention of a portion of his work, without acknowledging the entirety, and therefore failing to fully appreciate the character of its author.
Ribera Chevremont’s value was noticed and celebrated by the top Puerto Rican critics towards the beginning of his career when he was practically a child, before any of his books were published. Mariano Abril, a critic of great authority in Puerto Rico at the time, wrote an article entitled "A Young Poet" published in La Democracia, where it says that for the first time some of the judgments offered by the critics should be repeated now, forty-five years later, after the poet had published sixteen books. He said: "I do not know him personally and only know, through sources, that he is very young, just barely the hint of hair on his upper lip, already a regular at the Ateneo Library. I’ve only read half a dozen of his sonnets, but they’re substantial enough to declare a poet. They appear as thought wrapped in vivid images. One sees, also, in these compositions, a modern spirit which yields, in turn, to a glorification of classic meter." He was defined from the start, as the offspring of a group of poets that started "the modern movement that, though a bit late, has come to us": Jesús María Lago, José de Jesús Esteves, Epifanio Fernández Vanga and Luis Lloréns. Defining him further reveals the following: "While some poets move away from Spain, to de-hispanicize their work, Ribera Chevremont draws from the vintage fountain of inspiration in our poetry"; "a romantic soul that craves to drink in color"; "an exquisite poet who knows how to pour the wine of old ideals into the enamel glass of a language both new and resonant"; "idealistic Pantheism"; "a poet goldsmith possessing what one might call the Art of the Arabesque". And finally: "How can he be created in an environment such as ours, with its dearth of teachers and stimulation, a poet who is almost a child, but with such vigorous brilliance? Although Ribera Chevremont is still very young and has produced little, and his personality has yet to be fully defined, he can certainly be included among the modern symbolists. It seems that the poet wavers, has yet to find his way, but is directed, step by step, with the serenity of the chosen. I forsee for this poet-child, who comes so gallantly towards distinction, glorious laurels to honor him and his Puerto Rican writings."
This article provoked José de Jesús Esteves, one of the poets that Abril cited amongst the incendiaries of Puerto Rico’s modernism. He gives thanks to Abril for his "righteous chronicle" and answers his question about how Evaristo’s genesis was possible, and in doing so points out some of the poet’s enduring characteristics. It reads: "I have been greedily sucking with avid fanaticism" books of poetry. "I have seen that continuous and solemn bliss in my modest friend, until he physically manifests proof that his being has been given over to the intense subtleties of modern art". He is a "child bard" who "upon seeing him inspires in similar temperaments a spontaneous sympathy" that "grows on you, and leaves you to discover an insurmountable humbleness."
These early appraisals, that should be overcome in attending a poet’s formation since his inception, show that he already had an original personality in which lay the seeds of his future work. The works that gave these impressions were never published and are not contained in Antología Poética, published in Madrid in 1954, nor in this collection, since they both begin with poems from 1924. He went on to be published in literary journals like El Carnaval in 1913, they would be gathered later in his first book, Desfile Romántico (Romantic Parade), published in San Juan, undated. The critics are in disagreement about the date. For Josefina Rivera Alvarez and Manrique Cabrera it’s 1912, for D. Gamallo Fierros, 1913, for Hernández Aquino, according to testimony of the author, between 1915 and 1917. It must have been 1914, because fromthat time came several commentaries, including one from M. Guerra Mondragón, for whom the poems are "flashes of early light heralding the radiant beams of the sun" and its author "represents art for art’s sake in our Parnassus" and is "a pitch perfect tortured sensitivity that passes through life, alone and romantic, following a star that shines in the sky of his soul. He has stylistic instinct; a sound and a melody like no other; his lexicon demonstrates the purification and refinement of exceptional taste. Desfile Romántico is a beautiful sunrise, immeasurable and silent, all light and soft color." The great poet José de Diego also wrote a complimentary article that I have not managed to see.
What age was he then? Here too the critics disagree; but if, as it seems, the date of his birth is 1896 and Desfile Romántico was written in 1914, then its author was eighteen years old, an extraordinary case of precocious mastery.
In 1918 he was appointed as editor of El Imparcial, then headed by the Spanish writer José Pérez Losada and there began his work as an essayist with a series of articles on "Spain in the American consciousness", which was never published in book form. This was sixteen years after sovereignty had changed hands, and is one of the first and most significant examples of the reaction to the somewhat naive attempt at a the rapid Americanization of The Island, which compelled Puerto Ricans to assert their own culture in various ways, and resume their spiritual ties with Spain. This movement to reconcile with Spain found support in the Spanish colonies, which were numerous at the time and prosperous, and in America, where Thomas E. Benner, as university president, led a joint effort that culminated in 1926 with the foundation of the Department of HIspanic Studies, which had cooperated with the Spanish colonies for several years, providing a means for Spanish professors to visit the university, and for students to study in Spain. But this work had begun several years before. Ribera Chevremont was the first to receive this type of grant, allowing him to leave for Spain in 1920 where he stayed until 1924.
We’ll see what this trip meant for his poetry which, according to this current collection, begins precisely in the year of his return from Spain. Let us point out only what plays to this knowledge, the appreciation from the public and the critics, as we have seen from what happened in Puerto Rico from the moment he started writing. In Spain, there was also an immediate recognition of the young poet’s value once he arrived from Puerto Rico. He was welcomed into the literary circles with affection and cordiality for obvious reasons. Not only for the reputation of his writings both before and during his time in Spain, but in the fact that this young man came from Puerto Rico to declare with his presence, in addition to his work and his word, that this Island, both small and loved, whose ties with Spain seemed irrevocably broken, now turned its eyes towards its mother country for the root of its being and culture. He received high praise from people like Dona Emilia Pardo Bazán, Ramiro de Maeztu, Andrés González Blanco, whom in one way or another had the highest authority in the intellectual and literary life of Spain. He was friends with older writers, like Antonio Machado, Enrique de Leguina, Bernardo G. de Candamo and others, and some that were his age that were starting out then, like the novelist Ramón Ledesma Miranda, the critic Guillermo de Torre, los poetas Maruricio Bacarisse and Pedo Garfias, and everyone else during his stay in Spain grouped under the name of Ultraists.
He was invited to the Ateneo de Madrid, which was the highest intellectual center in Spain, to recite his poetry, and did it twice, one time to publicize his second book, El Templo de Los Alabastros (The Temple of Alabaster), printed in Madrid in 1919, the other to publicize his third, La Copa de Hebe (The Cup of Hebe), printed in Madrid in 1922. Gabriel Alomar and José María Salaverría wrote articles about his first book in the Madrid press, which I have not managed to see. Instead, I saw Andrés González Blanco’s presentation during the second recital, and it’s worthy to note something said by this critic, since he captured the Modernismo movement like no other. He said, in reference La Copa de Hebe, that Ribera Chevremont is "a poet that sings to the old, but in a modern way; a poet of the generation dubbed modernist; a Puerto Rican poet with a very Spanish soul, so Spanish that, for loving us so much, is not well-liked by certain elements dominating that rich and fragrant Island. . . He is still in that Modernismo stage". But in some poetry, he finds "a modern style, versed in new techniques like free meter, unrestrained rhyming. . . , a poetic enumuration very much in the taste of our day. Because Ribera Chevremont, whom I’ve described as a Parnassian, for his love of poetry and educaton, does not reject the new technique. The poet sometimes reaches the borders of a style that cultivates and exceeds the modernist invoice, allowing himself to be influenced by the new techniques." The article where he made these insights was published on January 27, 1923.
Ribera Chevremont also gave a lecture at the Ateneo on the subject of "Spain in the American consciousness", which I assume to be a summary of the articles on the same subject published in El Imparcial, and mentioned by Ramiro de Maeztu in El Sol. I failed to see this article, which I’m uncertain was ever published, or the conference. Another indication of the overall appreciation of Evaristo’s work in Spain is his being elected to second secretary of the Literature Section of the Ateneo, then chaired by Ramiro de Maeztu.
The history of his poetic work from the point of his return from Spain in 1924 until 1930 becomes more complicated. He did not publish any more books until 1928, though according to Concha Meléndez, as well as the author himself, had completed several books in 1924, of which only one, Tú, Mar, y Yo, y Ella (You, the Sea, and Me, and She), wasn’t published until 1946. Among the others, still waiting to be published, were: El Hondero Lanzó la Piedra (The Slinger Launched the Stone) and Yo Sé de Uno que Tiene una Cancíon (I Know of One that has a Song). That is why in this collection, the first section corresponding to 1924 consists of poems from Tú, Mar, y Yo, y Ella, a book which the author considers to be the beginning of all of his work that’s worthy of preservation. The fact that it was unpublished for twenty-two years, and others that were started in Spain remain unpublished, indicates the state of mind of the author at the time of the writing. He had written these books, and twenty years later they’re now considered valuable, though not necessarily published. On the other hand, some that were published are not included in this collection: Los Almendros del Paseo deCovadonga (The Almond Trees of Paseo de Covadonga, 1928), La Hora de Orífice (The Hour of the Goldsmith, 1929) and Tierra y Sombra (Earth and Shadow, 1930). Instead, another book that was published in 1929, Pajarera (Aviary), takes up a majority of the section for that year in this book. The reason for the hesitation in the mind of the author was, as we shall see, a crisis of poetry, as was the crisis of the entire world that had suffered through that decade. This crisis was resolved during a silence of eight years with the publication of the book Color in 1938, initiating an era of security and fulfillment, during which he published in quick and accelerated succession seven books that constitute a portion of his poetic creation that is fully alive today. The seeds of it are, however, in his earlier poetry that, in spite of the acceptance and popularity it had in its time, has become practically unknown and forgotten today, and only a small part is accepted by the author himself in the anthology of his complete works published in Spain and in this present collection. A personal example of this lack of knowledge is the fact that Ribera Chevremont does not appear in the anthology of modern Spanish poetry that I finished in 1932 because, although I was familiar with the poet’s reputation, the books he had written before that date were entirely unknown to me.
The publication of Color provoked numerous commentaries and critical studies on The Island and several off. It would be difficult to summarize them here, but the general consensus was that Ribera Chevremont had always been a great poet in spite of his hesitancy, and was now coming into fruition. The work won the national prize at the Institute of Puerto Rican Literature, and his next book, Tonos y Formos, was published in 1943 at the Library of Puerto Rican Authors. Both gave rise to the first comprehensive study of his life and work, made by Concha Meléndez in her book La Inquietud Sosegada: Poética de Evaristo Ribera Chevremont, published in 1946. This study, a model of good literary criticism, was done at the Seminar of Latin American Literature in the Department of Hispanic Studies at the University, led by Dr. Meléndez, and for which the poet wrote a lecture entitled La Naturaleza en "Color", published in 1943. I need not summarize the work since I’m presenting the key points throughout my study, as will all who write about Evaristo Ribera Chevremont, and for some details it has been my only source of information.