The diplomat poet

One hour later I am in the hustling and bustling of La Rambla

Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío (1867-1916) was baptized as Félix Rubén García Sarmiento. He took his grandfather’s surname so his descendants’d be known as the Darios. He is the greatest representative of Modernist poetry. During his life he combined this passion for literature with his job as a diplomat. Moreover, he also wrote articles as a press collaborator. His book Azul (1888) is considered the starting point of the Modernist movement, which culminated with masterpiece Prosas profanas y otros poemas (1896).

Darío arrived Barcelona at the end of 1898. This was a very important year in Spanis history because of the loss of the old Empire’s colonies: Cuba, Puerto Rico and Philippines. All this was portrayed in Dario’s España contemporánea. Crónicas y retratos literarios (1901). The author was captivated by La Rambla. To the point of writing one of the most beautiful descriptions of the street: "One hour later I am in the hustling and bustling of La Rambla. As you know, this street is wide, with a curious pictoresque that is worth to mention; a deck of social classes; a revealing thermometer of a special citizen existence. At this long walk, the top hat and the worker's cap come and go, rubbing; as well as the smoking and the blouse, the lady and the handmaid. Between this channel of trees where a million sparrows screech and chat, the human river goes in an uncontrolled movement. On the sides are the stalls with varied flowers, grapes, oranges, fresh dates from Africa, birds. "

Darío frequented Barcelona’s cafés. He also describes them: "In each café you walk as if you were in an opal because these people smoke like power plants". Years later, he would remember what he wrote about Barcelona ​​with the perspective of time: "I talked about factories and art; rich bourgeois and intellectuals, leonardism, Santiago Rusiñol and the strength of Ángel Guimerá, certain Montmartre-inspired spots, about happy boulevards and voluptuous women ". The poet was also a regular at mythical modernist brewery Els Quatre Gats.