Otilio Vigil Díaz

Otilio Andrés Marcelino Celestino Vigil Díaz, commonly known as Vigil Díaz (1880–1961) was a Dominican poet and writer, remembered as a modernizer in Dominican poetics and the creator of the vanguard literary tendency, Vedrinismo.[1]

Vigil Diaz
BornApril 6, 1880
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
DiedJanuary 20, 1961(1961-01-20) (aged 80)
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
OccupationPoet

His travels and association with avant-garde writers in France, Cuba, and New York compelled him to reinvigorate the Dominican poetic sensibility by rejecting formal models and rhyme, being the first poet to introduce free verse in Dominican letters with his poem, Arabesco (1917).

Early life

Diaz was born in Santo Domingo on April 6, 1880, the son of Francisco Vigil and Isabel Díaz. He studied in primary and secondary school in Santo Domingo, but did not continue to university.[2] He was seen as capricious, eccentric, perhaps lonely and self-centered, though little is known about his life.[3]

Literary career

Greatly influenced by the French literature of that era, Diaz’s travels to Paris, New York, and Cuba in the early years of the twentieth century marked his literary production. He was 32 years old when he published his first book, Góndolas, of prose poetry.[2] Since the beginning of his literary career, Diaz was tied to the postumismo literary movement, however aesthetic differences led him to outright reject any association with the Dominican literary trend also developing at this time.[4]

Diaz's opinionated poems and essays were published in a multitude of journals, including Cromos, Letras, La Cuna de América, Renacimiento, Cosmopolita, Bahoruco, El día ético and Blanco y Negro. For many years, he wrote the "Fatamorgana" column, which first appeared in the Listín Diario, later in La opinión and finally in La Nación.[4]

As the story goes, after the death of Jules Vedrines, the French aviator who had acquired fame on his Paris-Madrid flight for having created the dangerous aerial pirouettes of 'looping the loop', Vigil Díaz, pursuing more experimental forms, named his new sensibility vedrinismo; however, there are doubts as to, if ever, Diaz used the word vedrinismo to designate any trend or literary avant-garde headed by him.[1] His most famous work, Arabesco, published in November of 1917 in the literary journal La Primada de América, is remembered as the first introduction of free verse poetry in Dominican literary history.[2]

Diaz died in Santo Domingo on January 20, 1961.

Works
  • Góndolas (1912)
  • Miserere patricio (1915)
  • Arabesco (1917)
  • Jonondio (1919)
  • Galeras de pafos (1921)
  • Del sena al ozama (1922)
  • Música del ayer (1925)
  • Orégano (1949)
  • Lilis y Alejandrito (1956)
  • Juan Daniel (1957)
  • Profesión de fe
  • Cándido Espuela
  • Rapsodia

References[3]
  1. Mármol, José (28 November 2019). "Tradición y ruptura en la poesía dominicana de los siglos XX y XXI. Dinámica de sus movimientos". Ciencia y Sociedad. 44 (4): 71–91. doi:10.22206/CYS.2019.V44I4.PP71-91.
  2. Cespedes, Diogenes (2000). Obras de Vigil Diaz y Zacarias Espinal. Santo Domingo: CONSEJO PRESIDENCIAL DE CULTURA.
  3. "Vigil Díaz". El Nuevo Diario (República Dominicana) (in Spanish). 2018-03-01. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
  4. "Nace Vigil Díaz, cuentista, narrador, poeta y prosista dominicano | El Nacional". elnacional.com.do. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
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