Dominican Republic / All works
Poetry
Compadre Mon
Not translated into English
Manuel del Cabral · 1943
Synopsis
A sequence of poems around Mon, a popular hero of the Cibao countryside, inspired by a real figure, Concho Primo: a man of courage, cunning and women, attached to his land. The pieces, by turns epic, lyrical or dialogued, pass through the tambora, the sun of the cockfight, the judge, water, the horse and the revolver, and make the character the witness of a poor country, gnawed by injustice, corruption and American interference.
Context
Acento Plenamar places its publication around 1943; another Acento article dates the first edition to 1948, published by Espiral in Colombia. The book was reissued several times, notably by Losada, in Buenos Aires, in 1957. Octavio Paz saw in it the author's most important contribution to Black poetry, and Dominican critics regard it as a foundational text of the country's modern poetry.
Who it is for
In Spanish; a book of rhythmic, narrative poems, steeped in the language and the objects of the Dominican countryside.
Prizes and reception
Often regarded as the great Dominican epic, and studied in the country's schools.
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