The Ocho poetas mexicanos and the marginalisation of Catholic authors in post-revolutionary Mexico

What is it about?

This article studies the contribution made to Mexican literary culture by a group of eight Mexican poets who were known as the Ocho Poetas Mexicanos. The article is based on analysis of newspaper articles about the group as well as on an interview with Dolores Castro who is the last surviving member of the group. The article includes analysis of Castro's poetry. The best known member of the group was Rosario Castellanos. The members were: Alejandro Avilés (1915-2005), Roberto Cabral del Hoyo (1913-1999), Rosario Castellanos (1925-1974), Dolores Castro (b.1923), Efrén Hernández (1904-1958), Honorato Ignacio Magaloni (1898-1974), Octavio Novaro (1910-1991) and Javier Peñalosa (1921-1977)

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Why is it important?

The article provides evidence for the way in which religion informed processes of canon formation and identifies a lost tradition of 'universalist poetry' which existed alongside the nation-building literature which was favoured by cultural elites.The poetry and cultural endeavours of the members of the Ocho Poetas group was largely overlooked during their lifetime as were the important contributions they made to the cultural life of the period. The article highlights their work in the cultural arena of mid-century Mexico and recovers them for contemporary scholarship to reconsider. Even Rosario Castellanos' involvement in the group has been overlooked even though studying the work she published in the group's anthology may change what we thought we knew about her work.