Poetry and Theater in the Galician Diaspora: Seoane, Varela, Pita, Blanco Amor

Poetry in the Diaspora: Luís Seoane (1910-1979)

Painter, muralist, designer, poet, playwright, Luís Seoane began to excel in his academics in Compostela. He joined the *Federación Universitaria Escolar* in 1933 and settled in Madrid as a labor lawyer. He fled to Portugal and from there embarked for Buenos Aires.

Merits:

• a) Articles published in several Argentine newspapers. He directed and collaborated with several magazines of the local Galician community: *Follas Novas*, the magazine of "Centro Gallego" and *Buenos Aires*, the newspaper *El Correo de Galicia* and *Galicia Literaria*.
• b) Edited several artistic works: 13 prints of the cartoons *Galicia Mártir*, *Atila en Galicia*, *Milicianos*, and *Estampas de la traición*, with Franco's rebels and other military personnel against the Republic.
• c) The publication of the poetry books *Fardel do eisiliado* (1952), *Na bretema, San Iago* (1956), and *As cicatrices* (1959), and the plays *A soldadeira* (1957) and *El irlandés astrólogo* (1959).
• d) Foundation of the publishing houses "Nova", "Botella al Mar", and "Citania".
• e) Organized the 1st International Galician Book Expo, exhibiting numerous paintings, and participated in various cultural organizations (AGUEA).

Seoane had a realistic, sometimes journalistic style. The predominant theme was social emigration, told from the perspective of migrants (see Ramón Cernadas in Patagonia). He used long lines, and there is a scarcity of personal poems (except for "About the Old Emigrant" and "Self-Portrait" in 1955).

Lorenzo Varela

In addition to a book in Spanish, *Torres de amor*... in 1944, he published *4 Poemas para catro grabados*, known as *María Pita*. In 1954, he wrote *Lonxe*.

Emilio Pita

Jacobusland, *Cantiga*, *Romance de Nosa Señora da Barca* (1974).

Ernesto Guerra da Cal

Lua de além-mar, *Rio de Sonho e Tempo*.

Eduardo Blanco Amor

Cancioneiro (a heterogeneous book).

Other Notable Authors

Xosé Neira Vilas, Antón Avilés de Taramancos.

Theater in the Diaspora

Castelao

The effort to renew the aesthetics of Galician drama culminated in exile. A taste for symmetry and the concentrated expression of expressionism and symbolism combined with folk humor are the markers of his most famous work, *Os vellos non deben de namorarse*, which premiered in 1941. Speaking of the work, Blanco Amor wrote about his *Farsas para títeres* (*A costureira d'aldea*, *O médico á forza*, *O premio do ben falare*).

Eduardo Blanco Amor

He wrote *Teatro pra a xente* in 1975, which includes four plays and three scenic stories (*Cantigas de escarnio e maldicer*, *Proceso en Jacobusland*, *Romance de Micomicón e Adhelala*). He also wrote *Farsas con títeres* (*Micomicona e Adhelala*), which is expected to cover critical power, and *O Conto da Trasmortaina*, which has an anti-racist theme. Other works include *Crimes de amor e O crime de Xan Pantera*, which strikes against machismo; *Falsa morte e morte de Frei Bugeiro*, about migrants who return enriched from America; and *A verdade vestida*.

Luís Seoane

A soldadeira, a historical play about the Irmandiño social revolution; *Esquema de farsa* (1957), a satirical denunciation of the false view given by the Franco regime; *El irlandés astrólogo*.

Others

Xavier Buxán, Ricardo Flores, Manuel Daniel Varela Buxán.

Narrative

• Ramón Otero Pedrayo
• Antón Alonso Ríos, *Memorias dun fuxido*
• Castelao, *As cruces de pedra na Galiza*. He wrote *Cousas da vida en Galicia*. The book begins with the prologue "Adro". The book is very heterogeneous and written in several places.

Others

Antón Alonso Ríos, Lois Tobío Fernández.