page_title: José María Hinojosa Lasarte
section_title: Works
hierarchical_section_title: José María Hinojosa Lasarte / Works
caption_attribution_description: English: cover page of La Rosa de los Vientos by Jose Maria Hinojosa, a book published in Spain in 1927
context_page_description: José María Hinojosa Lasarte was a Spanish writer and political militant. As a man of letters he is considered one of the first if not the very first and the only genuinely surrealist poet in Spain, counted also among members of Generation ‘27. As a politician he acted in ultra-conservative realm, holding Carlist jefatura in Málaga and building Andalusian structures of the Agrarian party. Following more than half a century of oblivion, his memory and especially the circumstances of his death became a counter-reference to these of Lorca and are subject to politically-charged discussions.
context_section_description: Hinojosa penned around 200 poems, mostly short and some very short ones; short prose is down to 14 texts evading typical categorization, while theatrical and novelist attempts did not survive until today. All works were written between 1923 and 1930; during his lifetime they were published in 6 limited-circulation volumes and few periodicals. His literary production is considered a curve, from early juvenile works to surrealist climax and a final descent. Another scholar singles out 4 phases: descriptive, transitory, autobiographical and catastrophic.
  Early poems, from these printed in Ambos to Poema del Campo (1925), are anchored in rural myths and set in capacity perceptive of an unspecified territory, largely bucolic and lyrical. In terms of style due to folk ambience some refer to "neopopulism", others mention also "purismo" and "cubismo". Scholars flag a synthesis of tradition and modernity, the latter represented by innovative if not already extravagant metaphor. Poesía de perfil (1926), published in Paris, offered poems inspecting an interior of the fantastic mixed with a real setting. The largely descriptive tone gave way to dominant lyrical expression and the monothematic perspective was replaced with a variety of themes, often organized around the motive of exploration. "Estética purista" was partially substituted by oneiric and surrealist approach, not clear yet already visible, and the entire volume was distinctively more expressive. La Rosa de los Vientos (1927), published again in Málaga, was a small collection of just 19 poems; they focused upon imaginary journeys to exotic locations and to the inner self. Providing a discourse on space, mystery, and wilderness the volume offered frequent references to ancient as well as popular culture and introduced heterodox erotic motives. Stylistically at times very sophisticated, blending various rhyme orders and syllable types, it is described as a mix of Hispanic Ultra, French surrealism and Chilean creationism.
  Two volumes from 1928 are thought to be the most mature of Hinojosa's works. Orillas de la luz contained mostly poems saturated with eroticism, its main theme. They were, to a large extent, within the surrealist framework, featuring its trademark motives like mutilations and fragmented body parts; the fact that this poetry retained classic metrum is thought to be demonstrative of Hinojosa's synthetic ambitions. La Flor de Californía, considered the first surrealist work in Spain, is his sole prosaic volume; it contains seven dream narratives and seven oneiric texts; the former retain some bizarre linear coherence, while the latter come close to so-called automatic writing. The prose explores typical surrealist imagery: antireligious motives, black humor, objective chance and subterranean dream-worlds, containing also a series of apocalyptic visions. Strictly auto-biographical in terms of perspective, it is viewed as an expression of his own identity in an increasingly desperate pursuit of fulfillment. La Sangre en Libertad (1931) was very much a repetition of La Flor but brought to extremes, with new levels of anti-religious ridicule, sexual references, motives of violence and apocalyptic scenery. Autobiographic features were embroiled in catastrophic premonitions; stylistically the volume shows an evolution towards free verse and far-reaching formal linguistic experiments.
caption: La Rosa de Los Vientos, 1927
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