1916-02-05

Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (b: 1867) died.  Born in Metapa, Matagalpa, Nicaragua in 1867. he achieved renown as RUBÉN DARÍO. Dario was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement known as modernism (modernism) that flourished at the end of the 19th century. Darío has had a great and lasting influence on 20th century Spanish literature and journalism. He has been praised as the “Prince of Castilian Letters” and undisputed father of the modernismo literary movement

In November, 2012, the University of Arizona acquired a privately-held collection of manuscripts and letters created by Dario. This distinctive collection of archival material contained documents pertaining to Darío’s life and work as a poet, journalist and diplomat. Several of the manuscripts are signed transcripts, written in Darío’s hand, of some of his most important works including “Coloquio de los Centauros,” two versions of “Los motivos del lobo” and “Canto épico a las glorias de Chile,” a manuscript of 76 pages, which was one of Darío’s first long poems. 

The documents have already begun to alter the scholarship on Darío. The peer-reviewed “Bulletin of Spanish Studies,” a prestigious academic journal from the United Kingdom, has published an article by Professor Acereda in its August 2012 issue based on letters found in ASU’s collection. The article, “‘Nuestro más profundo y sublime secreto’: Los amores transgresores entre Rubén Darío y Amado Nervo,” (“Our Most Profound and Sublime Secret: the Transgressive Love of Ruben Dario and Amado Nervo”) reveals for the first time a secret romantic relationship between Darío and famed Mexican poet AMADO NERVO (1870-1919) the Mexican Ambassador to Argentina and Uruguay, journalist, poet, and educator. Acereda said,“The exact nature of this relationship is evidenced in a series of intimate letters exchanged between the two poets and they help us to better understand the respective works of these modernist authors, as well as to establish a re-reading of certain texts.”