Enrique Gonzalez Martinez

Enrique González Martínez was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, on April 13, 1871. He studied medicine and practiced as a doctor in his hometown and in Culiacán, Sinaloa. He began writing poetry and published his first book, Preludios, in 1903. He moved to Mexico City in 1911 and became involved in the cultural and political life of the country. He was part of the Ateneo de la Juventud, a group of intellectuals that promoted a renewal of Mexican culture. He founded and edited several literary magazines, such as Argos and Pegaso. He also worked as a journalist and editorialist for El Imparcial. He held various public offices, such as subsecretary of education, secretary of government of Puebla, and member of the Academy of Language. He joined the diplomatic service in 1920 and served as ambassador of Mexico in Chile, Argentina, Spain, and Portugal. He returned to Mexico in 1931 and continued writing poetry and essays. He was one of the founders of El Colegio Nacional, an institution that gathers the most distinguished Mexican scholars and artists. He received several honors and awards, such as the Doctorate Honoris Causa by the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1951. He died in Mexico City on February 19, 1952. His poetic work is considered as a bridge between modernism and postmodernism in Latin American literature. He wrote more than 20 books of poetry, among which are Los senderos ocultos (1911), La palabra del viento (1921), Poemas truncos (1935), and Bajo el signo mortal (1942). He is known for his lyrical and elegant style, his use of symbolism and metaphors, and his themes of love, nature, death, and spirituality. He is also remembered for his famous sonnet "Tuércele el cuello al cisne", which challenged the excesses of modernist aesthetics and proposed a new poetic direction.