Javier del Granado

Francisco Javier del Granado y Granado
Francisco Javier del Granado y Granado
Born	27 February 1913; Cochabamba, Cercado Province (Cochabamba), Bolivia
Died	15 May 1996 (aged 83); Cochabamba, Cercado Province (Cochabamba), Bolivia
Occupation	poet laureate, Favorite Son of Bolivia

Don Francisco Javier del Granado y Granado (27 February 1913 – 15 May 1996), was a poet laureate and favorite son of Bolivia.

Biography

Born into an aristocratic family with a rich literary pedigree, he spent most of his youth on his family's hacienda near

Incas). In its turn toward native subjects as well as in its use of a formal battery of traditional forms, such as the ballad and the sonnet, his extensive body of poetry has been compared with that of Mexico's preeminent man of letters Alfonso Reyes.^[1]

Bolivia's leading poetic light achieved widespread acclaim and recognition, receiving a multitude of national and international awards over a career that spanned more than half a century. His death was marked by three national days of mourning, and his funeral was a state event. Bolivia has dedicated a plaza and two avenues (one of them, La Paz's longest boulevard) in his honour, and put up a monument to his memory.

Poet of the Bolivian Revolution

Along with

Bolivian Revolution

of 1952, which radically changed the country, bringing about land redistribution, universal suffrage, and nationalization of the major tin mines.

Granado family

He comes from a literary family that traces its roots back in colonial America to that outstanding humanitarian figure who was the

Venerable Francisco María del Granado, a man of deep compassion and a deeply spiritual and holy bishop, was also a gifted orator and writer; particularly dedicated in his concern and love for the poor and Native Americans, he was instrumental in steering the Catholic Church amid a critical era of anticlerical persecution during the 19th century. Bolivian human-rights lawyer Juan del Granado

is also a member of this family.

Notes

^ Irwin, Amanda L., El poeta de la revolución nacional: La vida y obra de don Javier del Granado y Granado, La Paz, Bolivia: Los Amigos del Libro, 1991

Bibliography

The major collections of his poems are:

Rosas pálidas (1939)
Canciones de la tierra (1945)
Santa Cruz de la Sierra (1947)
Cochabamba (1959)
Romance del valle nuestro (1964)
La parábola del águila (1967)
Antología poética de la flor natural (1970)
Terruño (1971)
Estampas (1975)
Vuelo de Azores (1980)
Canto al paisaje de Bolivia (1982)
Cantares (1992)

Sources

Caceres Romero, Adolfo, Diccionario de la Literatura Boliviana, Second Edition, La Paz, 1997

External links

Javier del Granado Literary Foundation
La Leyenda del Dorado del poeta boliviano Javier del Granado on
YouTube
(in Spanish)

[1] Irwin, Amanda L., El poeta de la revolución nacional: La vida y obra de don Javier del Granado y Granado, La Paz, Bolivia: Los Amigos del Libro, 1991

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