Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T03:35:29.289Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Francisco Monterde (1894-–)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Louis G. Zelson
Louis G. Zelson*
Affiliation:
Harris Teachers College, St. Louis, Missouri
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Though born into a distinguished family in the Mexican capital, in 1894, Francisco Monterde Garcia Icazbalceta did not find his road to success easy, smooth or direct. At fourteen he had to face the struggles of life alone, having lost his father when he was eight, and his mother only six years later. So precarious was his lot that for a time it seemed as if his education would have to be interrupted. With the encouragement of friends, however, he was able to complete his secondary education at the Escuela Nacional “Fray Francisco Aparicio” (1907), and a regular academic course at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (1909). With limited resources, and lacking parental support and guidance, young Monterde could not decide at once upon his life’s work. His aims and ambitions at that time were not quite clear even to himself, and his prospects and possibilities were also uncertain. His course was destined to be circuitous: he had to pursue his studies as best he could and as opportunities presented themselves. He took up the study of commerce and finance at the Escuela Nacional de Comercio “Doctor Mora,” graduating in 1912, and then embarked upon the study of dentistry, which he completed at the University of Mexico in 1916.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , October 1953 , pp. 159 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1953

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Martínez, José Luis, in Revista Iberoamericana, V (1942), 384 Google Scholar. On Cuenca (Mexico, 1942)Google ScholarPubMed, Leavitt, S. E., in Handbook of Latin American Studies, No. 8: 1942 (Cambridge, 1943)Google Scholar, item 4013, comments, “one of the best critical studies published in Mexico in 1942.”

2 Lara, Juana Manrique de and Monroy, Guadalupe, in Seudónimos, anagramas, iniciales, etc. de autores mexicanos y extranjeros (Mexico, 1943), p. 59 Google Scholar, lists fourteen pseudonyms; these and several more are listed at the head of the bibliography.

3 México moderno, I (November, 1920), 247.Google Scholar

4 Quoted in Biblos, III (January 1, 1921), 1.Google Scholar

5 In a posthumous “Prólogo,” in Monterde’s El temor de Hernán Cortés (Mexico, 1943), p. x.Google Scholar

6 Martínez, José Luis, “Las letras patrias,” in México y la cultura (Mexico, 1946), p. 437 Google Scholar; the same writer expresses his appreciation of Monterde at greater length in Revista Iberoamericana, X (1946), 364–367.

7 See note 1.

8 Usigli, Rodolfo, himself an outstanding playwright and drama critic, says of Monterde (México en el teatro [Mexico, 1932], p. 126)Google Scholar “… es el más agudo y moderno critico teatral del momento y uno de los innovadores en este arte.”

9 Engelkirk, J. E., “The ‘discovery’ of Los de abajo.” Hispania, XVIII (1935), 53–62.Google Scholar

10 Genaro Fernández MacGrégor, in reviewing Monterde’s El temor de Hernán Cortés, in El Universal, March 6, 1944, writes: “Francisco Monterde … escritor pulcro y consciente…. Se hizo la mano, por supuesto, en otros diferentes géneros literarios, mas la mayoría de su obra nos demuestra que tiene predilección por el cuento.”

11 Two stories from Monterde’s Cuentos mexicanos (Santiago de Chile, 1936)Google Scholar have been made available in American school texts: “Un salteador,” in Jones, W. K. and Hansen, M. M., Hispanoamericanos (New York, 1941)Google Scholar, and “Una moneda de oro,” in Stanton, R. and Lodge, L., Una moneda de oro y otros cuentos mexicanos modernos (New York, 1946)Google Scholar.

12 On this point J. M. Gonzalez de Mendoza (“Gonzalo Deza Mendes”) aptly expresses appreciation that is shared by many. He writes in Excelsior, January 12, 1944, p. 4: “El estilo de Monterde es tan preciso como sencillo, y de tan buen gusto como limpio y claro. Es sobrio. No se priva de galas, pero no tiene recargo de ellas. Dice lo esencial tan sólo, mas sin caer en la sequedad. Las transiciones están salvadas con notable parquedad de medios. Todo es preciso, claro, a la par que está elegantemente dicho. Monterde sabe ver y sabe decir, con exactitud y galanura, lo que ha visto, o lo que ha imaginado, que tanto monta. Y todo ello es difícil: no es sencillo y claro quien quiere ser lo; se necesita un consumado arte, casi siempre, para lograrlo.” A similar view is expressed more recently by Salvador Azuela, in his comments on Monterde’s Moctezuma II, in El Universal, July 28, 1951, pp. 3 and 10, where he writes, “Monterde es dueño de un estilo preciso y buido. Sabe decir lo que quiere con elegancia, concisión y fluidez. Intensidad vital en los asuntos de que se ocupa y trazo sobrio, en formas diáfanas envidiables, libres de tiesura o amaneramiento, que son fruto de un fino temperamento artístico, del fervor por las letras y la severa disciplina humanística, caracterizan sus obras de teatro, sus ensayos, sus cuentos, sus novelas breves, sus apólogos y sus estudios críticos, en los que la información erudita de primera mano no deja el surco fatigoso de la pesadez.…”

13 Selections were reprinted in Abside, XV (1951), 425–427.Google Scholar

14 The late José Juan Tablado (1871–1945), who cultivated the Oriental verse forms and was an authority on the subject, hailed the author in an introductory “Elogio,” with the lines beginning, “Francisco Monterde Garcia Icazbalceta, / Es haijin sincero y cabal poeta.…”

15 Chocano’s letter appears in Monterde’s Moctezuma (Mexico, 1945), p. 107 Google ScholarPubMed. The passage referred to reads, “… les acompaño una página de prosa poemática que es de las más bellas producidas en Nuestra América sobre asunto vernáculo…. No conozco otra composición del autor que me complazco presentarles y comendarles; pero la que acompaño me basta para tenerlo por un gran poeta de México.…”

16 Recent documentary investigations by Eulalia Guzmán seem to confirm Monterde’s viewpoint. See Knight, Mabel F., “Cuauhtémoc Documents,” reported in Pemex Travel Club Bulletin, IX (September 1, 1949), 10 Google Scholar; also Daily Bulletin, August 25, 1949, p. 9. See also column Novo’s, Salvador, “Ventana,” in Novedades, January 21 and 27, 1949.Google Scholar

17 Pp. 43–44, 458–459 and 558–559.

18 Monterde’s, Galería de espejos (Mexico, 1937)Google Scholar, too, is a revision and combination of earlier works, namely, Dantón; the novelettes Alma de niño and La hermana pobreza, under the new title “El pasado revivido”; and Kid.

19 IV (June, 1931), 238–262.

20 Proteo has been made available in an American school edition of Cuentos y comedias de America (Boston, 1950), edited by Turk, L. H. and Brady, A. M. Google Scholar.

21 An American school edition of these two comedies was edited by the present writer, and published under the title Dos comedias mexicanas (Lafayette, Indiana, 1953)Google Scholar.

22 An English version entitled She Who Returned to Life, by Zelson, Louis G., appeared in Poet Lore, LV (1950), 291–335.Google Scholar

23 Garcidueñas, José Rojas, in Studium, 5–6 (September-December, 1950), 1 Google Scholar, makes the observation that Monterde has not produced any theatrical works for a long time. The fact is that he discontinued writing plays in 1931, when he assumed the task of critic of art and the theater in El Universal.

24 Castillo, Guillermo (“Júbilo”), El Universal Ilustrado, VI (July 26, 1923), 36 Google Scholar; Elizondo, José F., Excelsior, July 24, 1923, sec. I, p. 8Google Scholar; Lozano, Rafael, El Demócrata, July 24, 1923, p. 3 Google Scholar; Horta, Manuel (“El Caballero Puck”), El Heraldo, July 24, 1923, p. 4 Google Scholar; Campos, Armando Demaria y, El Universal, July 24, 1923, sec. II, p. 8 Google Scholar; Aub, Max (“El Avisador”), Excelsior (Ultimas Noticias), August 4, 1948, p. 3 Google Scholar; Moreno, José Pérez, El Universal, December 31, 1932, sec. I, p. 5 Google Scholar; Ramos, Leopoldo (“Plegadera”), Revista Iberoamericana, XIV (October, 1948), 301–302 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and an unsigned article in El Universal, December 29, 1932, sec. I, p. 5.Google Scholar