Octavio G. Barreda

Octavio G. Barreda
Born	(1897-11-30)November 30, 1897 Mexico City
Died	January 2, 1964(1964-01-02) (aged 66) Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Language	Spanish
Nationality	Mexican
Genre	hermetic poetry
Years active	1916-1964
Spouse	Carmen Marín

Octavio G. Barreda (30 November 1897 – 2 January 1964) was a Mexican poet, critic, essayist, translator, and a literary promoter. Poet of secret desolation and author of some precious Sonetos a la Virgen (Sonnets to the Virgin) (1937) with hermetic background, sharp prose writer and critic.^[1] He made excellent translations to the Spanish language from works by T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence and Saint-John Perse, and was known for the generous impulse given to Mexican new literary values in the magazines he founded: Letras de México (1937-1947) and El Hijo Pródigo (1943-1946).

Biography

By medical prescription, he moved to Guadalajara in 1959,^[2] where he became a habitué to Café Apolo, located at the corner of Avenida Juárez and Calle Galeana in downtown Guadalajara.^[3]

Influence

The literary critic Emmanuel Carballo, in his memoirs, points out that from 1937 to 1945, Barreda "was the president of the Mexican republic of letters".^[2] The poet Alí Chumacero wrote that Barreda "knew how to bring together writers from different trends and inclinations. He was a cultured and generous man. Nobody helped my literary education more than him."^[4]

References

1. "Octavio G. Barreda" (in Spanish). Retrieved 18 April 2020.
2. Carballo, Emmanuel, Ya nada es igual, memorias, (1929-1953), Secretaría de Cultura de Jalisco/Editorial Diana, Guadalajara/Ciudad de México, 1994, p. 278.
3. "El Café Apolo, Esq. Juárez y Galeana, p. 11, 8th. col". El Informador (in Spanish). 27 October 1948. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
4. Campos, Marco Antonio (15 February 2010). "Entrevista a Alí Chumacero". Letralia. Archived from the original on 2020-10-11. Retrieved 2020-10-11.