The Poetry of José Gorostiza

Book excerpt: I first became aware of José Gorostiza's poetry on New Year's Day, 1984. I was sitting on a bench along the Paseo de Reforma in Mexico City. It was early in the morning. The festive atmosphere of New Year's Eve had given way to a cool and bright dawn. Across the street I could see a plywood barricade that had gone up temporarily around a construction site. The boards were covered with graffiti. On one of them, a tagger had written some verses by José Gorostiza. The writing was signed by: "The Committee for the Defense of the Language." I was struck by the poem, and the next day I went to a bookstore in the Zona Rosa and bought a thin volume of Gorostiza's complete works. I have been translating his writing since then.