The Doubtful Strait [antikvár]

Ernesto Cardenal's prominence as one of Latin America's most important living poets, his reputation as a leading proponent of Liberation Theology, his notoriety as Minister of Culture for the Sandinista government, and his consistent and vocal opposition to U.S. intervention in Latin America represent, in an exemplary way, the fusion of public life and literature that has become characteristic of writers in Latin America. Born in Granada, Nicaragua, on January 20, 1925, Cardenal was educated at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (1943-1947) and at Columbia University (1947-1949). In Mexico, he was surrounded by a supportive community of poets and writers, including his compatriots Ernesto Mejía Sánchez and Carlos Martinez Rivas, and Mexico's future Nobel laureate, Octavio Paz. The years in Mexico were productive ones. Cardenal completed a master's thesis on contemporary Nicaraguan poetry, later revised to become the introduction to an anthology of works by then-recent poets from Nicaragua, Nueva poesta nicaragüense (1949). He published three long poems ("La ciudad deshabitada," "Proclama del conquistador," and "Este poema lleva su nombre"), which were widely acclaimed and established his reputation as a promising young poet. Cardenal's involvement with the intellectual community in Mexico also heightened his consciousness of the political situation in Nicaragua: he began participating in protests against the brutal regime of Anastasio Somoza (dictator of Nicaragua from 1937 to 1947 and from 1951 to 1956). Cardenal's opposition peaked in 1954, when, back in Nicaragua, he participated in the "April Conspiracy," an attempt to overthrow Somoza. The insurrection failed miserably, and the leaders— Adolfo Baez Bone and Pablo Leal—were arrested, tortured, and killed. Cardenal went into hiding. His two major early works, "La hóra O" (1956)1 and Epigramas (1961), were composed during this period (1952-1957) and reflect his opposition to the Somoza regime and the United States' intervention in Central America. Mostly autobiographical, his epigrams cover a range of themes. Some attack the hypocrisy and cruelty of absolute tyranny, others equate the love for a woman with a fervor for revolution. "La Hora O" is a INTRODUCTION / vii