Ruben Daro

Ruben Daro (1867-1916) was a Nicaraguan poet. Following his parents' separation, he was raised in the city of Len by Felix and Bernarda Ramirez, his maternal aunt and uncle. In 1879, after years of hardship following the death of Felix, Dar was sent to a Jesuit school, where he began writing poetry. He found publication in El Termmetro and El Ensayo, a popular daily and a local literary magazine, and was recognized as a promising young writer. Daro 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 Daro to find work as a correspondent for La Nacin, a popular periodical based in Buenos Aires. He travelled widely throughout his career, working as a journalist and ambassador in Argentina, France, and Spain. Daro 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, Daro returned to his native city of Len, where he was buried after a lengthy funeral at the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary.