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| Los Contemporáneos | |
|---|---|
| Name | Los Contemporáneos |
| Caption | Group portrait of intellectuals associated with the Mexico City circle in the 1920s and 1930s |
| Origin | Mexico City, Mexico |
| Years active | 1920s–1940s |
| Notable members | Pascual Baburizza; Salvador Novo; José Gorostiza; José Juan Tablada; Xavier Villaurrutia; Alfonso Reyes |
| Genres | Modernismo; avant-garde; cosmopolitanism |
Los Contemporáneos was a Mexico City-based literary and intellectual circle active primarily in the 1920s and 1930s that promoted cosmopolitan aesthetics, experimental forms, and transnational exchanges among writers, critics, and artists. The group fostered dialogue with European and North American movements, engaged with Mexican cultural institutions, and produced influential poetry, essays, and theatrical work. Its members and affiliates intersected with broader networks that included journalists, publishers, diplomats, and university figures.
The circle coalesced amid post-Revolution cultural reconstruction involving figures linked to Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Revista de Revistas, and theatrical initiatives associated with Teatro Ulises and Teatro de Orientación. Early gatherings were shaped by transatlantic contacts such as Paris salons, exchanges with Madrid intellectuals, and visits to New York City that exposed members to Surrealism, Dada, and Modernisme. Institutional contexts included dialogues with administrators from Secretaría de Educación Pública and cultural patrons aligned with newspapers like El Universal and magazines like Revista de Revistas that mediated literary reception. Debates with contemporaries affiliated with Indigenismo and post-revolutionary cultural policy framed the group’s responses to national identity, while international conferences and book fairs in Buenos Aires and Madrid amplified their profile.
Core figures included poets and critics such as Salvador Novo, Xavier Villaurrutia, and José Gorostiza, alongside essayists and translators like Alfonso Reyes and José Juan Tablada. Other principal participants were journalists and editors associated with reviews linked to Peer Gynt-era theatrical innovation and magazine publishing. The circle’s periphery encompassed intellectuals who collaborated with university faculties, diplomatic cultural attachés, and visual artists who exhibited alongside names appearing in galleries in Mexico City and Paris. Collaborators and interlocutors included prominent Latin American and European writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz, Vicente Huidobro, Ruben Dario, Guillermo de Torre, José Ortega y Gasset, André Breton, Paul Valéry, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Federico García Lorca, Gabriela Mistral, Luis Cernuda, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Emilio Prados, Manuel Altolaguirre, Antonio Machado, Rafael Alberti, Leopoldo Lugones, Horacio Quiroga, Alvaro Mutis, César Vallejo, Juan Rulfo, María Zambrano, Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Miguel de Unamuno, José María Pemán, Pedro Salinas, Vicente Aleixandre, Carlos Pellicer, Rodolfo Usigli, Ignacio Beteta, Luis Cardoza y Aragón, Jaime Torres Bodet, Efraín Huerta.
The group produced poetry, critical essays, theatrical texts, and translations that engaged with Symbolism, Modernism, Surrealism, and international avant-garde practices, publishing works in prominent reviews and imprint series connected to private presses and municipal cultural programs. Poetic innovations by members drew comparisons to international modernists such as T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, while their theatrical experiments exhibited affinities with stagecraft seen in Teatro Libre and experimental troupes in Buenos Aires and Barcelona. Translation projects introduced Mexican audiences to poets and dramatists from France, England, and Argentina, fostering bilingual dialogues with translations of Paul Valéry, André Breton, and selections from Jorge Luis Borges and Ruben Dario. Visual artists and set designers who collaborated with members had ties to galleries and salons that featured works by painters connected to schools influenced by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Diego Rivera.
Recurring themes included urban modernity centered on Mexico City life, cosmopolitan erudition in dialogue with Madrid and Paris, formal refinement emphasizing meter and image, and a cautious skepticism toward populist cultural programs promoted by post-revolutionary administrations and indigenist rhetoric associated with figures in Xalapa and Oaxaca. Intellectual positions engaged with philosophical currents represented by José Ortega y Gasset and poetic currents echoed in Ruben Dario and Juan Ramón Jiménez, negotiating between national traditions exemplified by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and transnational tendencies reflected in Surrealist manifestos. Debates within the circle addressed modern subjectivity, cosmopolitanism versus regionalism, and the role of literary form amid pedagogical reforms led by ministers and cultural policymakers.
Members published across a network of magazines and journals including periodicals based in Mexico City, supplements to newspapers such as El Universal, and international reviews in Buenos Aires, Madrid, and Paris. Notable outlets carrying their work and criticism included influential literary reviews and cultural supplements associated with publishing houses and university presses, as well as avant-garde little magazines that circulated essays, translations, and manifestos alongside poetry. Collaborations extended to anthologies and collected editions issued by municipal cultural bureaus and private presses that disseminated texts to libraries and salons in Mexico City and abroad.
The circle’s influence persisted through mid-20th century Mexican letters, shaping subsequent generations including figures who contributed to literary historiography, academic departments at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and cultural institutions like national theaters and municipal galleries. Their stylistic and editorial practices informed later poets and critics such as Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Julio Cortázar, Alfonso Reyes’s intellectual descendants, and newspapers and journals that continued cosmopolitan editorial lines. Internationally, their translations and networks fostered connections with Latin American avant-garde movements in Buenos Aires and literary modernism in Madrid and Paris, leaving archival traces in university collections, special libraries, and museum holdings that document exchanges among writers, artists, and publishers.
Category:Mexican literary movements