Celebrating 216 Years of Mexican Independence: Six Famous Poets

I love the song of the mockingbird,

the bird of four hundred voices,

I love the color of jade

and the intoxicating perfume of flowers,

but most of all my brother, man.

(English translation: mikistli)

Hello. Welcome back to my Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, following the celebration of the 216th anniversary of Mexico’s independence, I am going to list the most famous Mexican authors I have read—writers who, in my opinion, truly deserve the place they hold today in Mexican literature. I will publish this list in three parts: poetry, novellas, and novels. Let’s start with the most famous and acclaimed Mexican poets I have read so far:

1. Nezahualcóyotl

He is the only pre-Columbian poet known to us by name. Hailing from the Acolhua people—a Chichimec group settled on the eastern shore of Lake Texcoco—Nezahualcoyotl was the son of the Mexica princess Matlacihuatzin, daughter of the Mexica tlatoani Huitzilihuitl and the Lord of Texcoco and Acolhua ruler, Ixlilxóchitl. Best known as the Poet King or the Tlamatini (sage), Nezahualcoyotl ruled Texcoco from 1431 until his death in 1472. He reigned for 40 years and helped consolidate the Triple Alliance alongside Tenochtitlán and Tlacopan. His literary work explores the fleeting nature of life, pain, divinity, and the beauty of nature (México Desconocido).

One of the most famous poems attributed to Nezahualcóyotl is called The Mockingbird, quoted above. However, according to the French Nahuatl scholar Patrick Johansson, this famous poem—featured on 100-peso banknotes—is apocryphal. This is because the “universal idea of ​​love for one’s fellow man and the poem’s grammatical structure do not align with the records of 15th-century Nahuatl poetry” (México Desconocido). Some of the themes in the poem include nature and its beauty, the use of our senses to appreciate that beauty, and human fellowship. Nature, “in all its splendor, serves as a prelude to placing the human being at the pinnacle of affection” (UNAM Global). If you want to read other poems by this author and songs written before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors to Mexico, I recommend the compilation Cantos y Crónicas del México Antiguo by an Anonymous author.

2. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz “is the last great poet of the Spanish Golden Age” (Encyclopedia of Literature in Mexico, ELEM). Today, she is universally recognized as “The Tenth Muse.” Her most famous work defending women’s intellect is “Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz” (Reply to Sor Filotea de la Cruz), a letter addressed to the Bishop of Puebla, Manuel Fernández de la Cruz. He had published a private critique of Sor Juana (titled the “Carta Atenagórica”) in which he “praised Sor Juana for her command of rhetoric but recommended that she dedicate herself to monastic life—more in keeping with her status as a nun and a woman—rather than to theological reflection, an activity reserved for men ”(Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, poet and early feminist). “Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz” is a historical document and, above all, a denunciation and critique of the place assigned to women in the colonial era, as well as a vindication of her own standing. Unfortunately, following the dispute with the bishop, Sor Juana removed all books from her cell and devoted herself solely to religious life. She died of cholera on April 17, 1865. Today, Sor Juana is recognized as one of the giants of Mexican literature.

One of Sor Juana’s most famous poems is the four-line stanza “You Foolish Men”. This philosophical satirical poem critiques “men for unfairly blaming women for faults and behaviors that men themselves cause, provoke, or demand. It also highlights the double standard. Men hold impossible standards over women, condemning them as cruel if they reject their advances, yet calling them ‘easy’ if they give in. The solution? She challenges men to live up to the virtue they demand, fix their own behavior, or stop pursuing women if they’re only going to criticize the outcome” (University of Pennsylvannia). Here is the first two stanzas of the poem:

A cenotaph to the “Tenth Muse” in the Dolores Civil Cemetery in Mexico City is located at the Rotunda of Illustrious Persons. It was created by Miguel Ángel Carroll, Andrea Maldonado, and Enrique Guerra. And if visiting cemeteries is your thing, I recommend checking out Efren Esqueda’s YouTube Channel to watch his videos about the Dolores Civil Cemetery in Mexico City, Part I and Part II.

3. Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora

Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora was a priest, poet, writer, mathematician, historian, philosopher, cartographer, explorer, cosmographer, and a contemporary of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. In fact, they were close friends and had a deep mutual admiration and respect for each other. They famously collaborated on El Arco Triunfal, the welcome monuments for the arrival of the new Viceroy of New Spain, the Marqués de la Laguna. Sor Juana wrote the poetic description for her section (Neptuno Alegórico), while Sigüenza y Góngora described his arch in Glorias de Querétaro. No images of the triumphal arches are known to exist, however both Sor Juana and Carlos Sigüenza y Góngora described them for posperity in their respective poems.

When Sor Juana died in 1695, Sigüenza delivered the eulogy at her funeral. The text of that address is now lost, but in 1680 he had praised her, “There is no pen that can rise to the eminence that hers o’ertops…[the fame of] Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz will only end with the world.” (Wikipedia). He published his first poem in 1662. Above all, however, Sigüenza y Góngora was a scientist. In 1675, he directed the first archaeological excavations of Teotihuacán and produced general maps of the territory of New Spain. This in his capacity as the King of Spain’s cartographer. He also had a strong interest in the indigenous past of Mexico and devoted his last years to the study of Mexican history. His library, built with the help of the son of indigenous nobleman Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl, which included manuscripts and codices of his historian father, was willed to the College of San Pedro and San Pablo after Sigüenza’s death. In 1681, Sigüenza y Góngora also took steps to separate the fields of astrology and astronomy when he wrote a book called Philosophical Manifest Against the Comets Stripped of their Dominion over the Timid. His purpose was to dismiss “the fears of impending superstitious predictions that linked comets to calamitous events.” Father Eusebio Kino, a Jesuit, contested his claims and both of them engaged in the famous 17th-century intellectual duel over the scientific and theological meaning of the Great Comet of 1680 (Oxford Academic). Sigüenza y Góngora died August 22nd, 1700, from a severe kidney ailment and left his body to science.

4. Amado Nervo

Amado Nervo—one of the most important poets of Modernism, a literary movement spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries—was born in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico, on August 27, 1870. A Mexican poet and diplomat, he served as Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Plenipotentiary to the governments of Argentina and Uruguay. His remains were repatriated from Montevideo by sea aboard a Uruguayan ship, escorted by vessels from Argentina, Cuba, Venezuela, and Brazil. He was laid to rest in the Rotunda of Illustrious Persons at the Dolores Civil Cemetery on November 14, 1919.

His poetry is introspective, characterized by simple forms that nonetheless convey a deeply religious sentiment. It also reflects a personal struggle in which the poet seeks self-understanding and inner peace within an uncertain world. Other prominent figures of Modernism include the Spanish poets Antonio Machado and Juan Ramón Jiménez, as well as the novelist Ramón María del Valle-Inclán.

My favorite poem by this author is called At Peace:

And if you want to listen to it, I highly recommend the following video:

5. Octavio Paz

Considered one of the most important Latin American writers of the 20th century, Octavio Paz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1990. He is the only Mexican writer to have ever won it. His death eight years later, at the age of 84, marked the end of an era for Mexico. The Labyrinth of Solitude, one of his most important works, is a collection of essays where the author explores Mexican identity, history, and culture. In this book, Octavio Paz offers an extended meditation on Mexico’s long struggle to clarify its identity and come to terms with its history through analyses of Mexican-American Youth culture, gender and sexual violence, fiestas, the Spanish Conquest, literature, intersections of indigenous religion and Catholicism, revolutionary politics, intellectual culture, the social and economic challenges of developing nations, and myth. Paz examines these subjects from an existential philosophical perspective (SuperSummary). This work is widely considered to be Paz’s masterpiece. Another of this author’s works is Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, or, The Traps of Faith, a study of the life and work of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz within the context of 17th-century aristocratic society in New Spain (colonial Mexico).

6. Alfonso Reyes

The final poet I want to talk about today is Alfonso Reyes. Born on May 17th, 1889, in Monterrey, Nuevo León, México, Reyes was a poet, essayist, short story writer, literary scholar and critic, educator, and diplomat. He is celebrated as one of the most accomplished writers of the 20th Century, with a prolific career spanning over fifty years. His father was Bernardo Reyes, the Secretary of War under Porfirio Díaz and his most likely successor as President of Mexico well as Governor of Nuevo León. Bernardo Reyes also fought against Francisco I. Madero at the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution but was killed on the first day of combat. Hence, the Revolution and its success was not favorable for the Reyes family due to their known association to the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz and they had to flee to Spain.

Some of Alfonso Reyes’s most important literary works include a translation of the Cantar of mio Cid in prose (1919) and several essays about the Spanish Golden Age and classical Spanish literature. These include “El Arcipreste de Hita y su Libro de Buen Amor” (1917; one of my favorite books), “Prólogo a Quevedo” (1917) and his literary analysis of the poems of Luis de Góngora, one of the most important poets of the Spanish Golden Age and Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora’s uncle. Alfonso Reyes is remembered today with at least three streets named after him in Monterrey, Nuevo León, México, and one in Mexico City. My alma mater, Tec of Monterrey, also launched the Alfonso Reyes Lectures (Catédra Alfonso Reyes in Spanish) on February 16, 1999, to “promote the humanities in the community and to bolster awareness of social, economic, political, ethical, and philosophical issues” (Conecta, Tec de Monterrey). I remember going to several of these events during my undergraduate studies, actually, and participating in some of them as a volunteer. I highly recommend them (they have a YouTube Channel now).

That is everything for today. On my next post about this series, I will talk about Mexican authors who publish short stories or novellas. Hope you come back then!

Note: The banner picture for this post (and the following in this series) is a rendition of the painting La Patria by Jorge González Camarena.