The Andean imprint in the poetry of César Vallejo

Abstract

If in The Black Messengers the thematic rebellion manifests itself, especially before a world abandoned by God, and if in Trilce the categorical rebellion predominates against the statute of language and the symbolic universe, Human Poems and Spain, Take This Chalice from Me make up the perfect synthesis of social and human criticism with the boldest formal transgressions. The poetic project of César Vallejo, which begins to take shape from his first verses, contains –in addition to Quechua terminology and imaginary– records of orality and numerous identity elements typical of the Inca worldview in whose ancestry he took pride. The communal conceptions of the Inca Ayllu are found in his syncretic Christianity in The Black Messengers, and then manifest in Trilce, in frank opposition to the modern city’s hostility and contractual or mercantilist relations. This work aims to identify and study this persistent cultural identity from different entrances to his poetic work.