translated from Spanish: Today commemorate one hundred years of the death of the Mexican poet Amado Nervo

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Mexico.-The modernist poet Amado Nervo, born in Tepic, Nayarit, arrived as “ambassador” of Mexican culture to Montevideo, a city that a century ago was a poetic epicenter. But it was only a few days before death reached him, on May 24th, 1919, the date of which 100 years were fulfilled.
The South American country had traveled as a diplomat, sent by the government of Venustiano Carranza “to mitigate this idea that had generated the Mexican Revolution” and “say: ‘ In Mexico, yes, there was a revolutionary problem, but there is also art and culture,” explains  Guillermo Espinosa, member of the Global Network MX, Institute of Mexicans Abroad.
Espinosa, a journalist and organizer of a program of activities in Montevideo on the occasion of the centenary of the death of Nervo, sees a parallel with the current situation in Mexico, “a country that has had recurrent cycles of episodes where violence emerges and Social claims, “although in 2019 these violent episodes derive” basically from organized crime. ”
“100 years later this message becomes relevant again. Mexico has problems, yes, but it also has an art and a culture to share with its Latin American brothers, he adds.
The death of Amado Nervo, which occurred at his 48 years due to kidney problems, was the last of a series of sad episodes that had marked his life: the death of his father when he was only nine years old, the suicide of his brother Luis and the demise , also premature, of the love of his life: Ana Cecilia Luisa Daillez.
With it he only spent 11 years of his life, from 1901 to 1912, but he marked his existence and his creation to the point that the work that he dedicated, the still beloved, was not published until the death of Nervo, since he considered it part of his most intimate roles.
The creator of the Exodus and the flowers of the way, black pearls and mystics, who had also worked as a columnist and correspondent in Mexico, was destined to Spain as part of the diplomatic career that began in 1905 and was interrupted by the Mexican Revolution .
Once completed, and with the Government of Carranza in active, was ordered to leave the country, in this case as a diplomatic envoy to Argentina and Uruguay, a voyage that would only return in a coffin.
“What happened, and is in the press of the time, gives account of a massive mobilization of the people on Avenida 18 de Julio, in the Central Cemetery of Montevideo. The people accompanied his coffin, went to his burial, there were speeches… “, explains Espinosa to the thread of the death of Nervo.
The death of Nervo took place in the Parque Hotel in the Uruguayan capital, where the headquarters of the Mercosur is currently located.
At that time he was accompanied by one of the most prominent Uruguayan poets of the time, Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, who had also been present on May 16, 1919 in his last poetic recital at the Ateneo Montevideo.
About the worth of his letters, the journalist points out that the experts often say that Nervo “was not an exalted poet” like the Nicaraguan Rubén Darío, whom he met in Paris and of which he was a great friend, “who had a very fine handling of the word and the rhyme and the rhythmic” , or Uruguayan Juana de Ibarbourou, “which was also of exquisite language.”
“Literary critics say: ‘ Nervo had become stagnant in the art of literature but from the point of view of feeling there was no one like him. He printed this element as almost any other poet had done before and that’s why it was so popular, ‘ ‘ says Espinosa.
“I loved, I was loved, the sun stroked my face/life, you owe me nothing! Life, we are at peace! “The last verses of his poem” In Peace “, written in 1915 and published a year later in his book elevation, continue to resonate as they did in the Uruguayan Senate one hundred years ago.
 
Source: Millenium

Original source in Spanish