Biography Cesar Vallejo

Poet Biography

César Vallejo was born in 1892 in the town of Santiago de Chuco, Perú, where he was brought up along with his eleven older brothers and sisters.

Vallejo began writing poetry in 1913 and only five years later in 1918 he had his first collection of poems published, Los heraldos negros.

In 1922 he published Trilce, then a year later in 1923 he left his homeland and headed for Paris. His poems and other written work from this period took a strong grasp on the poorer and suffering side of society, and 1928 saw Vallejo travelling to Mosco in the belief that communism held the answers to social justice.

In 1931 he published his novel Tugsteno , and he became a member of the Congress of Antifascist Writers in Madrid. Vallejo's next and final book Poemas humanos would not be published until a year after his death in Paris on April 15, 1938, the govenment of Peru would not allow Vallejo's body to be returned to his homeland after his death.

Clayton Eshleman and Joséb Rubia Barcia translated the Complete Posthumous Poetry of César Vallejo , which then went on to win the 1979 National Book Award.