Pablo de Rokha
| Pablo de Rokha (Carlos Díaz Loyola) | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Carlos Díaz Loyola October 17, 1895 Licantén, Chile |
| Died | December 10, 1968 (aged 73) Santiago, Chile |
| Occupation | Poet, teacher |
| Nationality | Chilean |
| Notable awards | Premio Nacional de Literatura in 1965 (Chile) |
|
|
|
| Signature |  |
Pablo de Rokha (October 17, 1895 in Licantén, Chile - December 10, 1968 in Santiago, Chile) was a Chilean poet. He won the Chilean Premio Nacional de Literatura (National Literature Prize) in 1965 and is counted among The four greats of Chilean poetry, along with Pablo Neruda, Vicente Huidobro and Gabriela Mistral. He is considered an avant-garde poet and an influential figure in the poetry scene of his country.
Pablo de Rokha was born Carlos Díaz Loyola in the small town of Licantén in the Maule Region, Chile on October 17, 1894. He was the son of Ignacio Díaz Alvarado and Laura Loyola de Toledo and was the oldest of nineteen siblings. His family was middle class farmers from a rural area and de Rokha’s father did various jobs to earn a living, such as a farm manager and a chief customs officer in the Andes border crossings. De Rokha spent his childhood on the farm “Pocoa de Corinto” (Pocoa of Corinth farm) where his father was working as manager, and used to accompany his father to the Andes border crossings.
In 1901, he joined Public School Number 3 in the town of Talca. The following year he joined the San Pelayo de Talca Seminary, from which he was expelled in 1911 for reading 'forbidden' authors like Rabelais and Voltaire and showing them to his classmates. His classmates give him the nickname “El amigo piedra” (The Stone/Rock Friend) which he would later transform into “Pablo de Rokha” (Pablo of Stone), although in this early period his work was signed under the pseudonym of Job Díaz.
Having been expelled from the seminary gave him the chance to move to Santiago, Chile where he finished the last year of secondary school and enrolled to study Law and Engineering at the University of Chile. However, he soon left the university and dedicated his life to poetry and bohemian Santiago. Around that time he made friends with other intellectuals like Pedro Sienna, Ángel Cruchaga Santa María and Vicente Huidobro, the latter of whom would become the father of the creationism movement. De Rokha also discovered the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, the poète maudit and Walt Whitman, with whom he identified strongly. He also worked as journalist for two newspapers “La razón” (Reason) and “La mañana” (The Morning), and published some of his first poems in the magazine “Juventud” (Youth).
...
Wikipedia