Abstract

LOPEZ BERMUDEZ, Andrés  and  GARCIA ESTRADA, Rodrigo de Jesús. Jorge Zalamea and León de Greiff in the Bohemian and Literary Gatherings of Bogotá (1920-1976). Historelo.rev.hist.reg.local [online]. 2019, vol.11, n.22, pp.126-164.  Epub July 26, 2019. ISSN 2145-132X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/historelo.v11n22.73144.

This article deals with the bonds of friendship established in cafes and literary gatherings between Jorge Zalamea and León de Greiff, two Colombian writers of the first half of the twentieth century, independents from the artistic and literary avant-garde. The analyzed sources included correspondence from Jorge Zalamea's personal archive, as well as literary magazines and press from that time. The research methodology consisted in identifying the letters exchanged between the two writers, contextualizing them in Colombian history and in the intellectual biographies of both authors, and reconstructing the itinerary of their friendship. The final conclusion of the study was that, in the Colombian literary field, Zalamea and De Greiff were part of a group of critical intellectuals sympathizing with social causes and convinced pacifists. Cafes and intellectual gatherings, Los Nuevos, became focal points where these men of letters confronted politically and intellectually Los Centenaristas, defenders of the status quo. For this reason, Zalamea, De Greiff and their comrades were persecuted by the police and even incarcerated. Their literary work is the expression of those who were and continue to be silenced by censorship, political and social exclusion, and violence.

Keywords : intellectuals; Colombian poetry; intellectual history; cafes and literary gatherings.

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