Vicente Huidobro

Vicente Huidobro was born on January 10, 1893, in Santiago into a wealthy aristocratic dynasty. Moving to Paris in 1916, Huidobro joined the cubist and dadaist avant-garde circles of Apollinaire, Picasso, Gris, and Reverdy, editing the journal Nord-Sud.

Huidobro formulated Creationism, famously declaring in his manifesto 'Non serviam': 'The poet is a little God; why sing of the rose, oh poets? Make it blossom in the poem!' His 1931 masterpiece Altazor pushed language to cosmic horizons, dissolving conventional grammar into pure sonic music and linguistic falling through space. He served as a war correspondent in World War II, liberating the French front lines, before dying at his estate in Cartagena.