Juana de Ibarborou, Alfonso Reyes y la literatura mexicana en 1929 : Amistad literaria y política del espíritu

Abstract

This article examines the Uruguayan poet Juana de Ibarbourou’s relationship with Alfonso Reyes by reconstructing the exchanges and meetings that took place between them in 1929, in particular the events related to the organization of a tribute to Amado Nervo in Montevideo on the tenth anniversary of his death and the ceremony that elevated Ibarbourou to “Juana de América”. It does so by analyzing contributions from the sociology of literature, affinities, dynamics of literary sponsorship and transfer of prestige among the authors, and their relationships with their nations and the culture projects promoted in Mexico and Uruguay in the late twenties. The initial exchanges between Reyes and Ibarbourou (a reflection on the modernist logics of patriarchal promotion and sponsorship) helped initiate and construct this writer’s continental image in 1929 and secured an important ally to the cultural diplomacy of post-revolutionary Mexico in the La Plata River region.