El triunfo de Calibán by Rubn Daro

El triunfo de Calibán by Rubn Daro

El 20 de mayo de 1898, en El tiempo de Buenos Aires, se public El triunfo de Calib n, de Rub n Dar o. Tambi n apareci en El Cojo Ilustrado, de Caracas, el 1 de octubre del mismo a o, bajo el encabezado Rub n Dar o Combatiente. Por entonces, Espa a estaba en plena crisis debido a la guerra con Estados Unidos, donde perdi la hegemon a de Cuba y Puerto Rico.

En esta obra el personaje de Calib n se convierte en una met fora, pol tica y cultural de la realidad y el malestar finisecular hispanoamericano.

Para Dar o, los personajes antag nicos shakesperianos, Calib n-Ariel representan al colonizador y al colonizado. Rub n Dar o toma partido a favor del ind gena esclavizado (Ariel) y reconoce en Calib n a la barbarie expansionista estadounidense.

As asocia a los Estados Unidos con el monstruo Calib n, moralmente inferior. Un ser que reemplaza la raz n con la fuerza, en cambio a Ariel lo representa como un esp ritu noble.

Inspirados en El triunfo de Calib n, hemos confeccionado esta antolog a. En ella recogemos algunas de las contradictorias visiones de los Estados Unidos de Am rica que tuvo Rub n Dar o durante su vida. A continuaci n enumeramos los ensayos, poemas y relatos que componen este libro:

El triunfo de Calib n

A Roosevelt

Los cisnes

Salutaci n al guila

A Col n

Huitzilopoxtli. Leyenda mexicana

y un fragmento de la Autobiograf a de Rub n Dar o

Rubén Darío (1867-1916) was a Nicaraguan poet. Following his parents' separation, he was raised in the city of León by Félix and Bernarda Ramirez, his maternal aunt and uncle. In 1879, after years of hardship following the death of Félix, Darío was sent to a Jesuit school, where he began writing poetry. He found publication in El Termómetro and El Ensayo, a popular daily and a local literary magazine, and was recognized as a promising young writer. Darío soon gained a reputation for his liberal politics and was denied an opportunity to study in Europe due to his opposition of the Catholic Church. In 1882, he travelled to El Salvador, where he studied French poetry with Francisco Gavidia and sharpened his sense of traditional poetic forms. Back in Nicaragua, he suffered from financial hardship and poor health while attempting to broaden his style through experimentation with new poetic forms. In 1886, he traveled to Chile, where he published his masterpiece Azul... (1888), a groundbreaking blend of poetry and prose that helped define and distinguish Hispanic Modernism. The success of Azul... enabled Darío to find work as a correspondent for La Nación, a popular periodical based in Buenos Aires. He travelled widely throughout his career, working as a journalist and ambassador in Argentina, France, and Spain. Darío continued to write and publish poetry, courting controversy with a series of poems written on Theodore Roosevelt and the United States which displayed his inconsistent political position on the impact of American imperialism on Latin America. Towards the end of his life, suffering from advanced alcoholism, Darío returned to his native city of León, where he was buried after a lengthy funeral at the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary.