José Asunción Silva
| José Asunción Silva | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
27 November 1865 Bogotá, Colombia |
| Died | 23 May 1896 (aged 30) Bogotá, Colombia |
| Occupation | Poet, author, political figure |
José Asunción Silva (27 November 1865 in Bogotá – 23 May 1896 in Bogotá) was a Colombian poet. He is considered one of the founders of Spanish–American Modernism.
Born to a wealthy and educated Bogotá family, Asunción Silva led a comfortable life. When he was just ten years old, he wrote his first poems. In 1882 he traveled through England, Switzerland and France, and in Paris met with other contemporary poets and artists, including Stéphane Mallarmé and Gustave Moreau. His trip to Europe would influence his style, as he incorporated many French themes. However, with the death of his father and the mounting financial difficulties of his family, Asunción Silva found himself obligated to return to Colombia. Incapable of paying his family's enormous debts, Silva accepted a diplomatic post in Caracas. Once there, he was encouraged by his fellow writers to dedicate himself to his poetry. In 1892, his beloved sister Elvira died. In 1895, many of Silva's works, including his principal work of prose, were lost in a shipwreck. He was, however, persuaded to recreate one of the novels from memory, but the losses of his sister and the novel took their toll nonetheless. It is said that Silva committed suicide after a dinner party on the evening of 23 May 1896.
On the morning of 24 May 1896, a housemaid found Asunción Silva dead in his bed with a gun near his body; he had shot himself in the heart the night before. There are many reasons for his suicide, including the death of his sister Elvira, the loss of almost all his work when his ship sank near a quay in the Caribbean sea, and his debts. Prior to his death, he asked his doctor confidentially to mark the exact location of his heart.
He was buried in the Central Cemetery in Bogotá. Perhaps his more important legacy is the house where he lived, which has been converted into a museum, the Silva Poetry House.
There has been a great deal of debate as to whether Silva was a precursor of Modernism or a fully Modernist poet, but Silva scholars like Rafael Maya and Maria Mercedes Carranza conclude that he is indeed a “fully matured” Modernist. In fact, Carranza praises Silva’s influence on Modernist poetry stating that:
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