Gavidia, Francisco Antonio (1864–1955)

Francisco Antonio Gavidia (b. 29 December 1864; d. 23 September 1955), Salvadoran romantic poet and writer, one of the originators of modernism in Spanish America. Gavidia was born in San Miguel. His Versos (1884) brought him great notice for their innovations in meter and imagery, and he is believed to have been an important influence on his friend Rubén Darío. A long career as leading literary figure in San Salvador followed, with perhaps his most significant poetic work being the epic and dramatic Sóteer o tierra de preseas (1920). Gavidia's classic ode A Centroamérica (1945) reflected his strong democratic conviction and belief in Central American union. His literary versatility was also reflected in dramatic works, critical essays, and historical works, among which his two-volume Historia moderna de El Salvador (1917–1918), focusing on the Salvadoran independence movements of 1811 and 1814, was the most important. Gavidia died in San Salvador.

See alsoDarío, Rúben; Literature: Spanish America; San Salvador.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boletín de la Academi salvadoreña 1, honoring Gavidia (August 1940).

Roberto Armijo and José Napoleon Rodríguez Ruiz, Francisco Gavidia: La odisea de su genio, 2 vols. (1965).

José Salvador Guadique, Gavidia, el amigo de Darío, 2 vols. (1965).

Mario Hernández-Aguirre, Gavidia: Poesía, literatura, humanismo (1968).

Cristóbal Humberto Ibarra, Francisco Gavidia y Rubén Darío, semilla y floración del modernismo, 2d ed. (1976).

Luis Gallegos Valdés, Panorama de la literatura salvadoreña del período precolombino a 1980, 3d ed. (1989).

John Beverley and Marc Zimmerman, Literature and Politics in the Central American Revolutions (1990), pp. 118-119.

Additional Bibliography

Chavarrià, Marià Gabriela. "El suenõ político de los primeros modernistas en Centroamerica a través de la imagen de sus ciudades: Ruben Darío, Juan Ramon Molina, Francisco Gavidia, y Enrique Gomez Carrillo." Ph.D. diss., University of Kansas, 2003.

Lara Martínez, Rafael. Historia sagrada e historia profana: El sentido de la historia salvadoreña en la obra de Francisco Gavidia. San Salvador: Dirección de Publicaciones e Impresos, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y el Arte, Ministerio de Educación, 1992.

Rodríguez Díaz, Rafael Arturo. Temas salvadoreños: Y unos pocos foráneos. San Salvador: UCA Editores, 1992.

                                Ralph Lee Woodward Jr.