Efraín Huerta Romo (1914-1982) was a Mexican writer, poet and journalist, being one of the best known intellectuals of the 20th century in his country. When he was born he was introduced by his parents with the name Efrén, but Huerta changed it to “Efraín” when he reached his youth..
Huerta's work was characterized by being expressive, without falling into romantic rhetoric and the excessive use of symbols. His main influences were the writers Pablo Neruda, Juan Ramón Jiménez and the work carried out by the renowned Generación del 27 and the group Los Contemporáneos..
The writer was the creator of the poemínimos, short verses loaded with humor and sarcasm that quickly became popular among Mexican society. Among the most outstanding works of Efraín Huerta were Dawn line, The primitive rose Y Forbidden and love poems.
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Efraín was born on June 18, 1914 in Silao, a city in Guanajuato. The writer came from a cultured, middle-class family. His father was the lawyer José Merced Huerta and his mother was named Sara Romo. He was the penultimate of the eight children the marriage had.
Efraín's first years of education took place in the city of León in Guanajuato, where he moved with his mother and siblings after his parents ended the relationship. When he was eleven years old, he went to live in Querétaro and studied high school at the State Civil College..
Around that time he demonstrated his talent for poetry and painting. In 1931 he began to study at the National Preparatory School, where he made friends with Octavio Paz. In 1933 he began law studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, but did not complete them.
In 1929 the intellectual joined the Great Socialist Party of Querétaro Central. Six years later he joined the Communist Youth Federation and the Revolutionary Students Federation. In 1936 Huerta joined the Mexican Communist Party, the date on which he expressed his support for the Russian leader Stalin.
Huerta retired from law school in 1935 with the firm determination to dedicate himself entirely to literature. In that same year he had the opportunity to bring to light his first collection of poems entitled: Absolute love, which was well received by critics and the public.
The writer worked as a journalist, wrote and collaborated for some forty print media in his native Mexico. Through this office he made political and social criticisms, some of them in favor of socialism and others against capitalist governments..
His most prominent participation was in The National and in The Figaro. In both he wrote about cinema, theater, literature and sports. In 1938 he was part of Workshop, a magazine in which he shared credits with Octavio Paz and Rafael Solana. Many of his articles were signed as "Juan Ruiz", "Damocles" and "El periquillo".
Regarding his personal life, Efraín Huerta married twice. In 1941 he married the activist and feminist Mireya Bravo Munguía, they had the writer Octavio Paz as godfather. Product of the relationship, Andrea, Eugenia and David were born.
Efraín Huerta always showed his support for communist governments, just as he did with Stalin. So in the early 1950s he traveled to the Soviet Union on behalf of the National Peace Supporters Council. In the sixties he sympathized with the Cuban Revolution of Fidel Castro.
In relation to the events that occurred in Mexico in 1968 against the student movement, the writer did not express any opinion. The event produced a lot of pain and despair in him; However, he harshly criticized the policies implemented by then-President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz..
The writer separated from Mireya Bravo after being married for more than a decade and remarried in 1958. This time he married the writer and poet Thelma Nava. Fruit of love, two daughters were born, Thelma and Raquel, in 1959 and 1963, respectively..
Huerta spent his last years of life dedicated to writing, cultural activities, and politics. From the seventies his work had greater recognition, he was awarded with awards such as the Xavier Villaurrutia and the National Journalism.
It was also in the seventies when he suffered from laryngeal cancer, after being operated he managed to recover. Being stable, he returned to writing. Among his latest titles, the following stood out: Stampede of poem Y Poetic transaction. Efraín Huerta died on February 3, 1982 as a result of a kidney disease.
- Academic Palms Award in 1949, France.
- Stalin Peace Prize in 1956.
- Xavier Villaurrutia Award in 1975.
- National Poetry Award in 1976.
- Quetzalcóatl Silver Award in 1977.
- National Journalism Award in 1978.
Huerta was a writer who left readers with a literature of precise and simple words, but full of humanity and social meaning. Those qualities contributed to making his writings more real, especially his poetic ones. All this made his work popular and not directed only to some social strata.
Some scholars of his work (such as Christopher Domínguez) agree that his texts lead the reader to melancholy, both because of the way he expresses himself and because of the description he made of Mexico. He was an author who aroused sensitivity on human issues, there he found his popularity.
Efraín Huerta's literary style was characterized by the use of clear and precise language, loaded with expressiveness. Although the poet showed sensitivity, no traces of romanticism were evident in his work. The use of comparisons was frequent, as well as popular oral elements.
The predominant theme in this author's work was dawn, which he used as an analogy in relation to some tasks that were carried out at that time of day. He wrote about Mexican society, love, politics and war conflicts.
In the 1970s Huerta introduced the poem to the field of literature. They were short verses in simple language referring to various topics, including moral, social and political. The irony and the sense of humor were the most outstanding features of these writings.
- Absolute love (1935).
- Dawn line (1936).
- Poems of war and hope (1943).
- The men of dawn (1944).
- The primitive rose (1950).
- Poetry (1951).
- Travel poems (1953).
- Star up high and new poems (1956).
- To enjoy your peace (1957).
- My country, oh my country! (1959).
- Mounted Police Elegy (1959).
- Tragic farce of the president who wanted an island (1961).
- The bitter root (1962).
- The tagine (1963).
- Forbidden and love poems (1973).
- The erotic and other poems (1974).
- Stampede of poem (1980).
- Poetic transaction (1980).
- Total dispersion (1985).
- Wild flowers (1948). Foreword. Author: María Antonieta Muñiz.
- Mayakovsky, poet of the future (1956).The agrarian cause (1959).
- "Explanations" part of Forbidden and love poems (1973).
- Thirteen times (1980). Foreword. Author: Roberto López Moreno.
- Do not forget in your dream to think that you are happy. Foreword. Author: Juan Manuel de la Mora.
- Hospital memories (1983). Foreword. Author: Margarita Paz de Paredes.
It was one of Huerta's most important works, with it he achieved greater recognition and consolidated his career as a writer. The writer developed the Mexican capital and its social context as the main theme, through the use of simple but attractive language..
"... They are the ones who have instead of heart
a crazed dog
or a simple luminous apple
or a bottle with saliva and alcohol
or the murmur of one in the morning
or a heart like any other.
They are the men of the dawn.
The bandits with the grown beards
and blessed hardened cynicism,
the wary killers
with the ferocity on the shoulders,
the fags with fever in their ears
and in the soft kidneys ...
But the men of the dawn repeat themselves
clamorously,
and laugh and die like guitars
trampled,
with a clean head
and the armored heart ".
"Like a clean morning of brown kisses
when the feathers of dawn began
to mark initials in the sky.
As dawn straight drop and perfect.
Immense beloved
like a pure cobalt violet
and the clear word of desire.
I look at you like this
how the violets would look one morning
drowned in a spray of memories.
It's the first time that an absolute golden love
makes course in my veins.
I think so, I love you
and a silver pride runs through my body ".
"Forever
i loved
with the
fury
silent
of a
alligator
torpid".
"Everything
It has been
fucking
less
love".
"Our
lives
are the
rivers
that they go
to give
to the
to love
What is it
living".
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