Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispnicos

Maples Arce, Marinetti and Khlebnikov: The Mexican Estridentistas in Dialogue with Italian and
Russian Futurisms
Author(s): RUBN GALLO
Source: Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispnicos, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Invierno 2007), pp. 309-324
Published by: Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispnicos
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27764115
Accessed: 20-04-2015 16:56 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispnicos is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Revista
Canadiense de Estudios Hispnicos.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

RUB?N GALLO

Maples Arce, Marinetti and

Khlebnikov: The Mexican
Estridentistas inDialogue with Italian
and Russian Futurisms
En este art?culo se examina la relaci?n de la vanguardia mexicana con losfutu
ristas europeos. Se ha hablado mucho de la relaci?n de lospoetas estridentistas
mexicanos con otrosmovimientos de vanguardia europeos como elfuturismo o el
simultane?smo,pero se han escritopocos an?lisis detallados. Me propongo demos

trar aqu? qu? ideas y qu? conceptos del futurismo italiano tomaron los estriden
tistas.Mi lectura se enfoca en la relaci?n deManuel Maples Arce - el padre del
movimiento - con los textosde F.T. Marinetti, elfundador del movimiento fu
turista en Italia. Demuestro que Marinetti fue la influenciam?s importante en el
manifiesto y en la po?tica deMaples Arce. Basado en estos descubrimientos,pro
pongo una relectura del estridentismo dentro del canon mexicano: no como un
movimiento fallido (Paz, Monsiv?is), sino como una implantaci?n de un modelo
for?neo, aunque con importantesdiferencias: la originalidad de los estridentistas
estuvo

en sus

manifiestos

y no en su obra po?tica.

On of themost original among the groups who sought to propagate the Futurist
revolution around theworld was the short-livedEstridentistamovement which
erupted on to theMexican literary scene in 1921with a bombastic manifesto
plastered overnight on thewalls throughoutMexico City and composed by a

group of poets and painters in their early twentieswho pledged their allegiance
to both Futurist aesthetics and the politics of theMexican Revolution. Although
from the beginning the Estridentistas presented themselves as followers of the
Futurists, there have been almost no critical studies seeking to elucidate the
relationship

between

the

two movements.

In

this

pects of Italian and Russian Futurism thatwere

tistaprogram, although I shall show thatdespite
adapted many of F.T. Marinetti's ideas about
actually quite differentfrom Italian Futurism

article,

I discuss

specific

as

incorporated into the Estriden

the fact that theMexican poets
poetry, theirmovement was

in terms of both politics and

aesthetics.

As we shall see,much insight can be gained by comparing the central ten

ets of Estridentismo to the theories developed a decade earlier by Italian and
Russian Futurists. Such a comparative analysis will help us resolve questions
REVISTA CANADIENSE DE ESTUDIOS HISP?NICOS

31.2 (INVIERNO 2007)

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

310
that have gone unanswered since the early years of themovement. Can Estri
dentismo, as indeed many of themovement's fiercest critics have argued, be
dismissed as simply a derivative movement thatmerely repeated the theories,
technological obsession, and poetic experiments introduced by earlier avant
garde movements? Did theMexican group produce any original contributions
to avant-garde poetics? How familiarwere the Estridentistas with the innova
tions of the Futurists,Ultraists, Creationists, and other internationalgroups?
The Estridentista group was launched byManuel Maples Arce in 1921, and
it included a number of writers in their early twenties: Luis Quint anilla (who
signed his works using theOrientalist pseudonym "Kyn Taniya"), Germ?n List
Arzubide (who eventually published a history of themovement), theGuatema
lan-born Arqueles Vela, and Salvador Gallardo. A number of artists (Germ?n
Cueto, Ram?n Alva de la Canal, JeanChariot, and Leopoldo M?ndez) also col
laborated with the group, producing dozens of woodcuts, drawings and prints
to illustratethepages of themovement's books and journals.
Perhaps because of the brevity of its existence by 1927 the Estridentistas
had dispersed, and most of them had given up writing to take jobs in theMexi
can

government

the movement

has

received

scant

critical

attention.

The

group, moreover, leftbehind a very small body of work consisting of a few

manifestos, a dozen collections of poetry, a novel, and two journals, Irradiador
and Horizonte. After the group disbanded Estridentista writings were mostly
forgotten, and theywere practically impossible to find until the literarycritic
Luis Mario

Schneider collected the group's manifestos and poems in his 1970

El
estridentismoo una literaturade la estrategia.
anthology
The most original an intriguing textwritten by theEstridentistaswas "Ac
tual No. i," the foundingmanifesto of themovement, which was plastered on

walls and lampposts throughoutMexico City in 1921. The manifesto was in

spired byMarinetti's "Founding Manifesto of Futurism" (1909) and among the
myriad movements and writers mentioned in "Actual No. 1" the Italian Futur
ists occupy a privileged position. The Estridentista manifesto opens by an
nouncing a series of "subversive illuminations" inspired, among others, by
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.1 The extent ofMarinetti's influence on theMexi
can movement has not been satisfactorilytraced,
although as we shall see it
was

quite

extensive.

Estridentismo,

the very

name

of

the Mexican

movement,

comes

from

the

word "strident" - a term denoting a harsh or shrillnoise. The same word was
cherished by the Italian Futurists and it appears in a number ofMarinetti's po
ems and manifestos - a crucial fact that has not been noted
by critics dealing
with Estridentismo. "? l'Automobile de course" (1905) one ofMarinetti's early
poems written in French, uses the adjective "strident" to exalt the high-pitched
sounds of a racing car: "Dieu v?h?ment d'une race d'acier / automobile ivre
d'espace /qui pi?tine d'angoisse, lemors aux dents stridents" (Marinetti, Scriti

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

311
346). The word "strident" appears again, although here in Italian, in Zang
Tumb-Tumb (1914), a poem whose very title is cacophonous and strident: "1m.
piu in alto oscillazione striiidented'un trave aperto a forbice sotto il co?olar
della sabbia." For Marinetti, stridency (or "noise-making," as he also called it)
was one of the central tenets of Italian Futurism. In his "Manifesto t?cnico della
letteratura futurista" (1912), he explains the need to introduce into literature
"elemneti che furono finora trascurati ... Ii rumore" (Marinetti, Teor?a 45), and
in a latermanifesto he praised Futurism forhaving invented "the art of noise."2

In addition to the name of themovement, other elements inMaples Arces

firstmanifesto appear to be inspired directly by Marinetti's texts: theMexican
poet's irreverentand passionate tone, his relentless attacks on the literaryestab

lishment, and the refreshing spontaneity of his language. Several passages in

Maples Arce's text correspond almost word forword to the Italian poet's ex
hortations. The fifthparagraph ofMaples Arce's manifesto, for example, urges
readers to reject - in literature,but also in life - all that is antiquated, hack
neyed, retrograde, clich?. "?Chopin a la silla el?ctrica!" (Schneider 269) de

themanifesto, turning Frederic Chopin, the 19th-centurycomposer of

nocturnes
and polonaises, into the embodiment of the pass? sensibility
piano
that the poet despised.3 The phrase became the battle cry of Estridentismo, rep
resenting themovement's hatred again thedead weight of the past.
"?Chopin a la silla el?ctrica!" echoes Marinetti's second manifesto, pub
lished in April 1909, which bore the combative title "Uccidiamo il chiaro di
luna" (Marinetti, Teor?a 13).Moonlight - that staple of Romantic poetry that
had inspired endless dreamy compositions like Beethoven's "Moonlight sonata"
- was to the Futuristswhat
Chopin was to the Estridentistas. For the Futurists,
a
was
stale
moonlight
literary convention that represented the oppressive
the second Futuristmanifesto includes a passage in
of
the
and
thus
past,
weight
which Marinetti exclaims: "Uccidiamo il chiaro di luna"; and in a later text,
mands

Marinetti expounded: "Al chiaro di luna nost?lgico, sentimentale o lussurioso,

noi opponiamo infine l'eroismo ingiusto e crudele che domina la febbre con
quistatrice dei motori" (Marinetti, Teor?a 262). Marinetti used moonlight as a
symbol of a hackneyed, old-fashioned aesthetic;Maples Arce would use Chopin
to

denigrate

the same

values.

The Mexican Estridentistas also followedMarinetti's passionate rejection of

the dominant literary traditions.Maples Arce directs much of his combative
energy against the legacy of Modernismo, the Symbolist-inspired literary
movement that had flourished in the nineteenth century and was still the
prevalent model inMexican letters in the 1920s. Marinetti had rallied against
the virtual monopoly held by Symbolism over Italian literature;Maples Arce
would do the same againstModernismo. Estridentismo, like Italian Futurism,
was a movement of renewal whose first stepwas to condemn the stultified ar
tisticmodels thathad stagnated inon-going tradition.

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

312
Startingwith the firstmanifesto of Futurism,Marinetti fiercelydenounced
his literary predecessors, who were still under the influence of Symbolist
aesthetics. "La nostra generazione," he wrote in 1909, "[?] stanca de adorare il
nauseata

passato,

dal

pedantismo

accademico"

(Marinetti,

Teor?a

24).

The

poet

later called a section of Guerra, sola igienedel mondo [1915] "Noi rinneghiamo i
nostri maestri simbolisti ultimi amanti della luna" (Marinetti, Teor?a 259) and
in ithe explained the differencesbetween Futurists and their symbolist precur
sors. He directed especially scathing attacks against Gabriele D'Annunzio "fratellominore dei grandi simbolisti francesi,nost?lgico come questi" (Teor?a

261) whom he accused of propagating a literature tainted by "i quattro veleni

intelletuali che noi vogliamo assolutamente abolir?" (Teor?a 261). Number two
on this listof poisons was "II sentimentalismo rom?ntico grondante di chiaro di
luna" (Teor?a 261).
Maples Arce's manifestos urged an equally vehement rebellion against the
legacy ofModernistas (and even the Post-modernistas of themovement's early
twentieth-centuryfollowers).Modernismo was a thing of the past, and the past
was the province of the dead: "Hay que rebelarse contra el mandato de los
muertos ... s?lo los esp?ritus acad?micos siguen confeccionando sus ollas podri
das con materiales manidos" (Schneider 278). One such "academic spirit"was
Enrique Gonz?lez Mart?nez, one ofMexico's most established Post-modernistas
in the decade of the 1920s. Gonz?lez Mart?nez was Maples Arce's D'Annunzio,
and in trueMarinettian spirit the founder of Estridentismo blames the old
fashioned poet for the staleness ofMexican letters:

a los que a?n no han

pintores y escultores
j?venes de M?xico,
... a todos los
oro
el
de
los
sinecurismos
que
por
prebendarlo
gobiernistas
no han ido a lamer los
en los festines culinarios de
Mart?nez
Gonz?lez
pa
platos
Enrique
... a todos esos, los
ra hacer arte (!) con el estilicidio de sus menstruaciones
intelectuales
Excito

a todos

los poetas,

sido maleados

excito

en nombre

nuestro

de la vanguardia
actualista de M?xico,
para que vengan a batirse, a
en donde, creo con Lasso de la Vega:
lado en las luc?feras filas de la "d?couverte,"
lejos del esp?ritu de la bestia."

"Estamos

(Schneider

273)

If Futurism declared war on Symbolism, Estridentismo waged a battle against

Modernismo.

Maples

Arce

deploys

a series

of war

images

"battles,"

"ranks"

inhis indictment ofGonz?lez Mart?nez. And the young poet justifieshis literary
battle with reasons that echo Marinetti's complaints against Symbolism: he
chastises

Gonz?lez

Mart?nez,

whom

he

takes

as

representative

of

the

entire

Modernista enterprise,forkilling the soul of poetry and forburying literature in

a pile of antiquated clich?s.Maples Arce closes "Actual No. 1" by
"demanding
the heads" ofModernista poets, whom he dismisses as "ruise?ores escol?sticos
que hicieron de la poes?a un simple cancaneo repsoniano subido a los barrotes
de una silla" (Schneider 274).

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

313
Germ?n List Arzubide, another Estridentista, chose a differentearlier poet
as his D'Annunzio: Rub?n Dar?o, theNicaraguan-born Francophile Symbolist
whose influencedominated Latin American poetry until well into the twentieth
century. In El movimiento estridentista (1926), his personal history of the
movement, List Arzubide was even more explicit than Maples Arce, and he
excoriated "la Am?rica cuadriculada del rubendarismo" (Movimiento 79-80).
Similarly,most other avant-garde movements in Latin America would focus
their

avant-garde

rage

on

a poet

or

poetic

movement

that

represented

nine

teenth-centuryaesthetics. Thus in "Ultra?smo" (1921), JorgeLuis Borges argued

that "La belleza rubeniana es ya una cosa madurada y colmada, semejante a la
belleza de un lienzo antiguo" (quoted in Schwarz 104).
As a final point, another interest that the Estridentistas shared with the
Italian Futurists must be mentioned: the obsession with modern technology.
Marinetti famously proclaimed a speeding racecar to be more beautiful than the
Nike of Samothrace (Marinetti, Teor?a 10). The Estridentistas voiced their en
thusiasm formodern machines in equally bombastic terms. From the start, love
ofmodern technologywas one of themost prominent themes in Estridentista
writings. In "Actual No. 1,"Maples Arce calls on young writers tomurder the
past
"?Muera el cura Hidalgo!" "?Chopin a la silla el?ctrica!" and focus on
the achievements of themodern era. The manifesto argues that "Es necesario
exaltar en todos los tonos estridentes de nuestro diapas?n propagandista, la
belleza actualista de lasm?quinas, de los puentes g?mnicos reciamente extendi
dos sobre las vertientes por m?sculos de acero, el humo de las f?bricas, las emo

ciones cubistas de los grandes transatl?nticos con humeantes chimeneas de rojo

y negro" (Schneider 269). After the publication of their firstmanifesto, the
Estridentistas spentmost of the decade of the 1920s putting into practice the
document's injunctions: they wrote poems teeming with images of modern

urban life; they composed novels dominated by automobiles, telephones, tele

graphs, radios and electric currents; they painted industrial landscapes dotted
with smokestacks and skyscrapers.
Despite these numerous similarities between Marinetti and Maples Arce in
use
ofmanifestos, the use of irreverentand denunciatory language, and the
the
call for poetic renewal, there are also important differences between the poetic
projects of the Italian Futurists and the Estridentistas. The first, and most ap
parent, concerns the relationship between aesthetics and politics. Closely allied
- Italian Fu
with Fascism - Marinetti dedicated two of his books toMussolini
turismwas an ultra-nationalist movement that preached the superiority of the
Latin race and called for the destruction of Italy's enemies, including Austria
and Turkey, throughmilitary force.Marinetti had a long romance with Fas
cism: in 1914, just before the outbreak ofWorld War I, he and other Futurists
called on their government to fight, and they burned Austrian flags in front of
the Piazza

Duomo

in Milan;

in 1924, Marinetti

published

"Futurismo

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

e fas

314
cismo," a work dedicated "al mi? caro e grande amico Benito Mussolini," a
dedication that reappeared in a laterwork ("Marinetti e il Futurismo" [1929]);
and in 1928Marinetti founded a "Futurist Political Party" showing close alle
giance to 77Duce. As Cinzia Sartini Blum has correctly assessed, Marinetti's
project was characterized by "an incongruitybetween innovative aesthetics and
reactionary politics" (2). Italian Futurism is a perfect example of what Jeffrey
Herf has called "reactionarymodernism" - a paradoxical synthesisof extremely
traditionalist political values with a forward-looking revolutionary aesthetics
(Herfi).
If the Italian Futurists veered right,theEstridentistas gravitated towards the
left.The Mexican poets saw their literaryproject as an extension of the Revolu
tion that had shaken the country from 191o to 1920. In "ElMovimiento Estri
dentista en 1922,"Maples Arce lamented the fact that before the emergence of

Estridentismo, Mexican literaturehad remained untouched by the sweeping

political reformsushered in by theMexican Revolution. In other countries that
had lived through revolutionary uprising, like Russia and Germany, poets had
movement inspiredby political events: "Pero
been quick to create a new literary

los intelectuales mexicanos permanecieron impasibles" ("Movimiento" 25)

wrote Maples Arce, before arguing that his movement sought to remedy this
situation by creating a new literature and a new revolution thatwas not only
aesthetic but also political:
Pero
ciones
laci?n

las inquietudes
tumultuosas,
para

nuestras

sublebarnos

pos-revolucionarias,
fueron un estimulo
agitaciones

[sic]. Nosotros

las explosiones
para

nuestros

interiores. Nosotros

tambi?n pod?amos

sindicalistas
deseos

[Estridentistas]

rebelarnos.

y las manifesta

iconoclastas

("Movimiento"

y una

tambi?n

reve

pod?amos

25)

In Maples Arces view, Estridentismo>constituted an aesthetic revolution that

would be to literaturewhat theMexican Revolution was to politics.
The Estridentistas were too young to have taken part in theMexican
Revolution of 1910-1917 (Maples Arce was born in 1900; List Arzubide in 1899)
but theywere extremely close toHeriberto Jara,a Revolutionary generalwho in
the 1920s served as governor ofVeracruz and appointed the young poets to key
posts in his cabinet.4 Inspired by the political and social reforms institutedby
the Revolutionary governments that ruled the country in the 1920s, the Estri
dentistas sought to extend themomentum of theMexican Revolution to the
realm of literatureby orchestratingwhat JuliaKristeva has called, albeit in a
differentcontext, a "revolution of poetic language" (1), channeling the spirit of
rebellion and renewal that dominated post-RevolutionaryMexico into a radical
transformation

of literature.

I quote inwhat follows some examples of theEstridentistas desire to create

a Revolutionary literature.Maples Arce dedicated his Urbe: superpoema bol

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

315
chevique en cinco cantos (1924) "to theMexican workers," a group he praised in
politically charged verse:
Y ahora,

los burgueses

ladrones,

se echar?n

a temblar

por los caudales

que
pero

robaron

al pueblo

alguien ocult?

el pentagrama

bajo

espiritual

sus sue?os
del explosivo.

(Schneider

429)

In this poem the revolutionary spirit resides in its theme and not in its style or
literarytechnique; it is perhaps worth noting that there is nothing revolutionary
inMaples Arce's use of language, and no subversion of syntax or experimenta
tionwith typography.Another example of this desire to create a Revolutionary
literaturemay be found in List Arzubide's Plebe (1925), a poem dedicated to the
Flores Mag?n brothers, who were famous union activists in the wake of the
Revolution. Though at times these poems seem closer to socialist realism than
to Futurism, they nevertheless constituted a major innovation in their break

from an extremely conservativeMexican literarytradition, and theirpassionate

revolutionary energywas admired by contemporary readers. JohnDos Passos,
who visited Mexico in the 1920s, was so taken by the energy ofMaples Arces
Urbe that he translated it into English and published it in New York, as Me
tropolis, in 1929. As Octavio Paz has pointed out in "Antev?spera" (103), the
Estridentistas embrace of revolutionary politics remains the group's most

original accomplishment.
The relationship between nationalism and aesthetics constitutes another
crucial differencebetween the Estridentistas and the Italian Futurists.Marinetti
and his disciples considered ultranationalism - a ferventand bellicose love for
the recently unified Italy - as an integralpart of the Futurist aesthetic project
(see, for example, the texts collected in "Guerra, sola igiene del mondo" [1915]).
The Futurists renounced all thatwas traditional as antiquated in favor of the

modern, and thus they rejected the ancient, feudal-style allegiance to regions
and provinces in favor of a pan-Italian nationalism. In the early years of the
century, themajority of Italian citizens still spoke a regional dialect and felt
more attached to theirvillage or region than to the abstract concept of a unified
Italy. Futurist ultra-nationalism can thus be seen as a novel posture, since it
privileged themodern nation over the old allegiance to the particular region.
Likewise, a literature thatwould sing the praises of the entire Italian nation as
or Neapolitan palaces opposed to glorifyingTuscan villages, Umbrian Hills,
was

radically

new

experiment.

The Estridentistas, on the other hand, forcefullyrejected nationalist content

in literature.Their politics were nationalist - Maples Arce and his disciples
proudly and repeatedly asserted their allegiance to theMexican Revolution

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

316
but their aestheticwas internationalist.They blamed intellectual regionalism for
the pathetic state ofMexican lettersand theybelieved that the only sustainable
literarypractice would be one characterized by a dialogue with the international
In "Actual

avant-garde.

No.

i" Maples

Arce

dismisses

nationalist

writers

as

with

much passion as he attacks theModernistas: invoking caricatures ofMexican

culture, he complains about "las eflorescencias lamentables y mef?ticas de
nuestro medio nacionalista con hedores de pulquer?a y rescoldos de fritanga"
(Schneider 274). In another section of themanifesto, he calls on poets and read
ers to embrace the internationalist spirit of modern times: "Cosmopoli
tic?monos.

Ya

no

es

posible

tenerse

en

cap?tulos

convencionales

de

arte

na

cional ...Las ?nicas fronterasposibles en el arte, son las propias infranqueables

de nuestra emoci?n marginalista" (Schneider 272).
Maples

Arce

sees nationalism

those

"cap?tulos

convencionales

de

arte na

cional" - as antiquated and as empty as Modernismo. Unlike the reactionary

Modernistas, Maples Arce understood very well that technology (the elevators,
skyscrapers, and train engines that he associated with modernity in his mani
festo) was a cosmopolitan invention, incompatible with nationalist sentiment.
The spiritof themodern erawas international,and progress tended to erase the
mark of national traits, inmachines as well as in people ("tienden a borrarse los
perfiles y los caracteres raciales" [Schneider 272]). In his view, avant-garde art
went beyond the limitsof national boundaries.5
In addition to the discrepancies in political affiliation and nationalist sen
timent, there is a third and more crucial difference that sets the Estridentistas
apart from the Italian Futurists: theirvision of language and poetic creation.
Marinetti devoted a great part of his work - as well as a considerable number of
manifestos - to expounding and perfecting a theory of poetic language. Not

satisfiedwith urging his followers to rebel against the past, Marinetti gave de
tailed, technical instructionson how to bring about such a rebellion in Futurist

poems. In contrast,Maples Arce devoted considerably less time and effort to

linguistic and poetic concerns, and he offersonly scattered comments in pass
ing on the act of writing. Despite all their bombastic claims, his manifestos
never offeredconcise instructionson how towrite Estridentista poetry.
Marinetti devoted an entiremanifesto ("Manifesto t?cnico della letterattura

futurista" [1912]) to giving step-by-step instructions on how to construct Fu

turistpoems. In order to break with the past and explore uncharted territory,
Marinetti explained (Teoria 42), Futurist literaturemust follow a few technical
rules, designed to destroy traditional syntax: verbs should only be used in the
infinitive;adjectives, adverbs, and punctuation must be abolished and replaced
by experimental typography and mathematical signs; nouns should be paired in
doubles

to form

new

images

("uomo-torpediniera,

donna-golfo,

folla-risacca,

piazza-imbuto, porta-rubinetto" [Teoria 41] are some examples given by the

poet); the use of the first person was prohibited; and the new literaturegave

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

317
prominence to three elements neglected until then: noise, weight, and odors. By
following these simple strategies,writers might finally break free from the
bonds of dead tradition, and - to use an expression dear toMarinetti - "set

words free"by giving birth toparole in libert?: "lo inizio," the poet wrote, "una
rivoluzione tipogr?fica diretta contro la bestiale e nauseante concezione del
librodi versi passatista e dannunziana" (Teoria 67).
Throughout his life,Marinetti not only worked and reworked his poetic
a
theory,but also diligently applied itsprinciples to his own creations. There is
clear continuity between the theories presented in Futuristmanifestos and po
etic texts.We need only glance at the pages of Zang Tumb Tumb (1914), Mari
netti's firstbook-length poem, to find the strategies outlined in the "Technical

Manifesto" rigorously applied to poetic composition. The poem lacks tradi

tional syntax, relying instead on typographical experiments and mathematical
notation to emphasize certainwords; all verbs are in the infinitive;first-person
pronouns are absent from the text; and the poem is definitely "noisy," since it
opens with the onomatopoeic departure of a train: "treno treno treno treno
tren tron tron tron [ponte di ferro: tatatluuun-tlin] ssssssiii ssiissii ssiisssssi
iii" (Marinetti,Zang n.p.).
Nothing of the sort is to be found inMaples Arce's work. His manifestos
to outline a the
passionately denounce the literaryestablishment, but they fail
to write about
from
his
Aside
call
of
Estridentista
creation
the
for
poems.
ory
machines and new technological developments, Maples Arce has little to say
about the technical aspect ofwriting.When he does discuss poetic creation, his
vague comments lack the focused pragmatism that characterizes Marinettian
an entire section of "Ac
poetic theories.Although theMexican poet dedicates
1" to artistic

tual No.

observations

his

creation,

remain

vague

and

he

never

of

fers concrete examples of how to apply them to poetry. Consider the following
injunction in "Actual":
XI.

las delimitaciones

Fijar

fecundados
mismo,

en su propio

destruir

ra, suprimiendo
pectiva).

todas esas
todo

(Schneider

est?ticas.
ambiente.

Hacer

No

arte, con

teor?as equivocadamente

elemento

extra?o

elementos

reintegrar valores,

modernas,

y desnaturalizado

propios

sino crearlos
falsas

y cong?nitos

totalmente,

...Hacer

(descripci?n,

poes?a

an?cdota,

y as?
pu
pers

272)

This is the only section inMaples Arce's manifesto which tells poets how to
write the new kind of literature,but the precepts outlined are abstract and gen
eral.What are the "aesthetic limits" to be "fixed"?What are the "values" to be
"created"? How should the poet "denaturalize" his writing?Maples Arce's ideas
about poetic creation are difficultto apply to poetic practice.
It ishardly surprising, therefore,thatEstridentista poems do not always live
up to the radical break with the past advocated in themanifestos. Maples Arce's

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

318
poems, for example, are inconsistent,both in their subjectmatter as well as in
the technical aspects of their composition: some, likeUrbe, show a clear affinity
with avant-garde concerns, but many others, like those grouped inPoemas in
terdictos (1927) with titles like "Spring," "Harbor," "Farewell," "Voyage," and
"Saudade,"

have

more

in common

with

the Modernista

legacy

of romantic

im

agery thanwith Futurist aesthetics.

Even themost radical Estridentista creations, like Urbe, never achieve the
revolutionary renovation of poetic language found inMarinetti's texts. The
Estridentistas, for themost part, retained rhyme (one of the poetic conventions
most despised by Marinetti, who championed free verse), used a fairly tradi

tional syntax in their compositions, and they rarely experimentedwith typogra

phy. Indeed, one ofMaples Arce's fellowEstridentistas,Arqueles Vela, accused
the founder of themovement of writing poetry that did not conform to the
movement's theories: "La teor?a de Maples Arce sobre la poes?a es irrefutable;
pero su poes?a no corresponde a sus conceptos" (Vela 323), and even Maples
Arce himself acknowledged that his poetrywas closer to the aesthetics ofMo
dernismo than he had firstadmitted. In his memoirs he wrote: "Ciertamente, no
comenc? rompiendo por completo con el modernismo y el postmodernismo:

conserv? lam?trica de los heptas?labos, endecas?labos y alejandrinos, pero va

riando en m?sica, y, sobre todo, dando a las im?genes sentido vital, potencia
po?tica" (Soberana 125).
The Estridentistas1 lack of a coherent poetic theory explains, in part, the
movement's untimely demise. Without a clear poetic program, the group's re
bellious energy exhausted itselfin a fewmanifestos. Since therewere no ideas to
try out, the poets wrote very little after the publication of their bombastic
opening statements. The group leftbehind less than a dozen collections of po
etry, a tiny legacy, especially when compared to the thousands of pages that

make up Marinetti's collected writings. Octavio Paz ("Siete" 64) was right to
have judged Estridentismo as an energetic but ultimately infertileand "aborted"
experiment and his sumation ofMaples Arce and his movement was succinct:
"el hombre fuepoco afortunado y elmovimiento dur? poco" (Paz, Poes?a 17).
From our examination of both the similarities as well as the differences
between Italian Futurism and Estridentismo we have attained a much clearer
image of how theMexican movement related to avant-garde concerns. This
becomes even clearer by expanding the context of our inquiry and asking how
theMexican group compared to the otherFuturism: Russian Futurism.
Several critics have pointed out - though so far no one has analyzed in
- the similarities
between theMexican and the Russian movement. Oc
depth
tavio Paz has gone as far as to suggest that the Estridentistas, in their ambition
to achieve a synthesisof political and poetic revolution,were
directly influenced
by Soviet experiments: "los estridentistasprofesaron ideas radicales en pol?tica y
unieron, influidos sin duda por el futurismo ruso, la revoluci?n est?tica a la

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

319
revoluci?n social" ("Antev?spera" 103). Paz's perception of a direct influence is
entirely logical, for in terms of politics, the Estridentistas seem to have much
more in common with the Russian Futurists than with the Italian group. Like
the Russians, theMexican poets had lived through a long and bloody civilwar;
like the Russians, the Estridentistas had had their intellectual awakening in a
new, post-revolutionary countrywhose firstyears of existence were marked by
a great optimism and boundless hope for the future; like the Russians, the

Mexicans

celebrated the Italian Futurists' aesthetic achievements while rejecting

their belligerent politics; and like their Soviet counterparts, the Estridentistas
considered theirpoetic creations as an extension of their revolutionarypolitics.
Paz's theory of a direct Russian influence on theMexican group is at first
sight confirmed by Maples Arce's repeated references to Russian avant-garde
and writers.

artists

the

Indeed,

"avant-garde

yellow

pages"

("directorio

de van

guardia") published at the end of "Actual No. 1" includes a long list of Russian
intellectuals: "Steremberg (Com, de B.A. de Moscou). Mme. Lunacharsky [sic].
Erhenbourg. Taline. Konchalowsky. Machkoff. Mme Ekster. Wlle Monate.
Larionow.

Marewna.

Gondiarowa.

Belova.

Sontine"

(Schneider

275).

Besides

listing the Russian names cited above, in 1922Maples Arce in his article "El
movimiento estridentista," pointed to the Russian avant-garde as a model for
what needed to be done inMexico: "En Rusia, los poetas y pintores del supre
matismo afirmaron dolorosamente la inquietud de movimiento bolchevique.
Lo mismo se hizo en el grupo de noviembre en Alemania" (25). These are direct
referencesbut there are many other elements in theworks of the Estridentistas
that recall the Russian Futurist aesthetic: the titles of certain poems (Maples
Arce's Urbe: superpoema bolchevique en cinco cantos), the constructivist-style
cover illustrationwhich
design of books and journals (see, for example, the
Ram?n Alva de la Canal designed forGerm?n List Arzubide's El viajero en el
v?rtice" [1926]), and theMexican

post-revolutionary

poets' direct participation in their country's

politics.

Nevertheless, we must ask now just how well did the Estridentistas know
the Russian Futurists? As we shall see, not as well as might first appear. Ifwe
examine Maples Arce's "avant-garde yellow pages" in detail, we find a number
of surprises. First of all,Maples Arce does not mention Vladimir Mayakovski,
themost important Russian Futurist poet whose poems and theoretical texts
had much in common with the Estridentista project. Secondly, Maples Arce's
listof Russian names is riddled with misspellings and typographical errors.One
example will suffice for comment here: Anatoly Lunatcharsky, the Soviet

Commissioner
sky,"

a woman.

of Culture,
Such

a man,

errors

and

as "Mme.
Lunachar
is mistakenly
identified
was
not
Arce
omissions
that
Maples
suggest

familiarwith the Russian names he was citing. Again, various French words
embedded in the list (like the phrase "Com. De B.A. de Moscou," an abbrevia
tion for "Comit? des Beaux Arts de Moscou") furthersuggest thatMaples Arce

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

320
might even have been copying the list of Russian writers and artists,whose
work he did not know,from a French publication. Maples Arces unfamiliarity
with themost important creations of Russian Futurism thus implies that the
supposedly strikingparallels between theMexican and the Russian avant-garde
were

movements

merely

coincidental,

and

similar

to the aesthetic

convergences

touted between the Russian and the Italian Futurists which were the result of
chance

pure

rather

than direct

influence.6

Despite the rather superficial political and aesthetic affinitiesbetween the

Estridentistas and the Russian Futurists, therewere also crucial differencesbe
tween the two movements, especially in their theories of language. Like their
Italian counterparts, the Russian Futurists devoted much of theirwork to de
vising a new poetic theory thatwould free literaturefrom theweight of the past.
The Russians, however, went much farther thanMarinetti: they believed that
language, weighed down by centuries of everyday usage and clich?d conven
tions,was doomed and essentially unredeemable. IfMarinetti destroyed tradi
tional syntax, the Russian Futurists discarded their entiremother tongue alto
gether in favor of a new set of words that could only be used to write poetry.
Thus, the poet Velimir Khlebnikov invented Zaum, a new language designed
especially forwriting poetry.Markov has described zaum as "what is generally
considered

futurism's

[Russian]

most

radical

creation

... the

so-called

transra

tional language" (19). Zaum consisted entirelyof inventedwords, which had no

meaning beyond the nuances and texture of their sounds, which sometimes
included vague Slavic resonances.We can see theworkings of thismysterious
"language" inKhlebnikov's "Dyr bul schyl," themost famous zaum poem:
Dyr bul schyl
Ubeshshchur
Skum

Vy so bu
R L ?z. (44)
Markov offersthe following "reading" of the text:
some of which
energetic monosyllables,
slightly resemble Russian
a
word
of
The next
by
three-syllable
shaggy appearance.
word looks like a fragment of some word, and the two final lines are
with
occupied
sylla
a
bles and just plain letters, respectively, the poem
sound
ending in queer, non-Russian
The

poem

or Ukranian

begins with
words,

followed

ingsyllable.(44)
In fact the poem does not "mean" anything beyond its strange gutturalmusic,
and this rejection of signification constitutes a frontal attack on traditional liter
ary language. The conventions of poetic composition are trampled, torn to

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

321
shreds, and finally discarded by zaum poets, who feltfree to invent not only an
original stylebut also a brand-new set ofwords.
Ifwe now return toMaples Arce, we see thathis poetic creations, and even
his irreverentmanifestos, pale in comparison to the boldness of Russian Futur
ist poetic experimentation. Even Urbe, Maples Arce's most revolutionary crea
tion, appears as a completely traditional poem when set against the linguistic
fireworks of zaum. Consider the opening verses of theMexican "super Bolshe

vik poem":
He

aqu? mi poema

brutal
ymult?nime
a la nueva
Oh

ciudad.
toda tensa

ciudad

de cables y de esfuerzos
sonora

toda

de motores

y de alas.

(Schneider

429)

With theirquaint internal rhyme and parallelisms, these lines are in fact closer
to the aesthetics of Latin-American Modernismo than they are to any Futurist
work.

Nonetheless, one last coincidence between the Russian movement and the
project of the Estridentistas does deserve our attention, namely, that theMexi
can

and

the Russian

avant-gardes

were

the only

two

literary

movements

to em

brace the nascent field of commercial advertisement. Two Russian Futurists,

Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov, collaborated with visual artists to create posters
and newspaper ads forvarious state-owned companies. Proud to form part of a
new country full of hope and idealism, the Futurists avidly promoted, with po
etic jingles and zaum-]ike slogans, the products and services of the state, in
as
as more mundane
cluding the state-owned airlines and postal services, well
for
oil
and
like
matches,
biscuits,
(see,
example, the many
cooking
products
advertisements designed by Mayakovsky and Rodchenko reproduced by Dab
rowski in the catalogue Aleksandr Rodchenko published in conjunction with the
exhibition of the artist'swork at theMuseum ofModern Art inNew York).
Likewise, in post-Revolutionary Mexico the Estridentista poets and paint
ers collaborated in a number of ad campaigns. If,unlike the Russians, they did
not promote state-owned companies but ratherproducts and services that they
associated with modernity, there is an uncanny coincidence in that themost
famous ad campaign designed by the Estridentistas promoted an industry
which had also been publicized by the Russian Futurists: radio broadcasting, or,
as itwas known inMexico at the time, "TSH," short for "telefon?a sin hilos," or
wireless

telephony.

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

322
In the early 1920s, both Velimir Khlebnikov and Vladimir Mayakovski had
worked for ROSTA, the central soviet broadcasting station.Mayakovski made
over two thousand drawings and several hundred posters with propagandistic
slogans and jingles for the agency (Kern 264). InMexico, the Estridentistas de
signed a similar avant-garde advertisement in 1923: a promotional poster for
"Radio" cigarettesmade by "El Buen Tono," a cigar factorythat also owned one
ofMexico's first radio stations. The cigarette ad, which appeared on the back
cover of every issue of Irradiador, evokes the aesthetic of Russian Constructivist
and Futurist compositions: fragmentsof phrases ("El Buen Tono," "Elegantes,"
"Los mejores cigarros") in circular patterns evoking stylized radio waves. Ironi
cally, itwas an advertisement and not poetry that allowed the Estridentistas to
experiment with a revolution of language: the fragmentation, dispersal, and
simultaneity in this cigarette ad ismuch more radical than anything to be found
in the
group's

creative

texts.7

The Estridentistas shared the spirit of Italian Futurism, especially Mari

netti's irreverentdismissal of the past and his attempt to create a new literature
in tunewith themodern era, but their project lacked the coherence of the Ital
ian or Russian movements. Perhaps themost original contribution of the group
is to be found in itsmanifestos, those bombastic writings filledwith revolution
ary energy.Thus, in texts like "Actual No. 1"we find a radically new style in a
forcefulprose whose intent is to bring about a literaryrenewal.
In the end, however, the Estridentistaswere unable to translate their rebel
lious energy into a coherent literaryprogram. Unlike Marinetti, who wrote

painstakingly technical instructions on how to create Futurists texts, neither

Maples Arce nor his fellowpoets ever explained how towrite Estridentista texts.
Instead, the poetry actually written by Maples Arce and his fellow poets was
much closer to the nineteenth-century poetic models they rejected in their
manifestos than to the avant-garde experiments they claimed to advocate, and
even the most radical texts, likeMaples Arce's Urbe, appear
extremely tradi
tional when we compare them to the wild language of Zang Tumb Tumb or
Zaum. Although the Estridentistas were the first avant-garde group to disturb
Mexican letters in the twentieth century, theywere bold when
writing mani
festos but extremely shywhen experimentingwith poetry. Perhaps this iswhy
theirwork has been all but forgottenand why critics still consider theirpoetry a
failed project.
Princeton

Un

iversity

NOTAS
i

The opening

paragraph

Estridentista

de Manuel

of "Actual No.
Maples

Arce

i" reads: "Hoja de vanguardia

/Comprimido
/ Iluminaciones
subversivas de Ren?e Dunan,

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

323
F.T. Marinetti,
2

Guillermo

cristalizaciones

algunas

See the manifesto

de Torre,

Lasso

marginales"

inti?ed

"Distruzione

as the ultimate

macchine,

ilRumore.

nacque

fili /

"Ecco

phrase

Teor?a

(Marinetti,

saw

who

delle

"colTinvenzione

trionfa e domina

alcuni

"Arte dei

60).

Futurist poet, Luigi Russolo,

ilRumore

Oggi

senza

/ Imaginazione
the ominous

life and wrote:

symbol of modern

etc?tera y

267).

closes with

degli elementi della... nostra arte dei rumori"

rumor i"was the title of a 1913 text
by another
noise

Salvat Papasseit,

sintassi

d?lia

in liberta" (1913). The manifesto

Parole

de laVega,

(Schneider

sovrano

sulla

sensibilit?degliuomini...GODIAMO MOLTO PI? NEL COMBINARE

IDEALMENTE DEI RUMORI DE TRAM DIMOTORIA
SCOPPIO, DI
CAROZZE E DI FOLLE VOCIANTI, CHE NEL RUDIRE, PER ESEMPIO,
O LA

L"EROICA'
3

"Perpetuemos
in "Actual No.
This

curious

historia

1" (Schneider
fact has

con apoyo militar"

5

We

de la gasolina,"

de los 'Nocturnos,'
wrote Maples

Arce

270).
to affirm that "el estridentismo

led Jorge Schwartz

de vanguardia

en Am?rica

Latina

pas?
que

a la

cont?

(161).

add thatMarinetti

should

was much

in rejecting

Arce

than Maples

123-27).

manifesto

trasnochado

la aristocracia

el ?nico movimiento

siendo

(Marinetti,

en el melancolismo

crimen

sincr?nicamente

y proclamemos

'PASTORALE'"

nuestro

more

it.Although

consistent

Maples

in

embracing

Arce's manifestos

nationalism

attack nation

the work ofMariano

Azuela
championed
(they
a writer obsessed with na
the first edition of Los de abajo inMexico),

alist literature, the Estridentistas

published

tionalist themes, while

several Estridentista

clich?s as in, for example,

works were

the second manifesto

which

and Germ?n
lying cry ("Viva elmole de Guajolote,"
beit with a certain irony, "a Huitzilopoxtli,
manager
to El movimien
Vladimir

List Arzubide's

dedication,

del movimiento

Estridentista"

al

in 1926).

that "in its origins the Russian

[futurist] group was quite
of the Italians. In 1909 not one of the snodk people had even heard of

Markov

independent
[Italian]

to estridentista

sprinkled with nationalist

ends with aMexicanist
ral

remarks

futurism: no one could dream

"
futurists
(382).

that three years

later they would

call

themselves

For a discussion

WORKS

Modern

"Radio"

(Gallo).

magdalena,

et ah eds. Aleksandr

Rodchenko.

New

York: Museum

of

Art, 1998.

merlin,

Frankfurt:
gallo,

see the
chapter

CITED

DABROWSKi,

foster,

of radio and Estridentismo,

rub?n.
Revolution.

ed. Las vanguardias

Iberoamericana;
Mexican

literarias enM?xico

Vervuert,

y Am?rica

Central

Madrid;

2001.

The Avant-Garde
Modernity:
MIT
P,
2005.
Cambridge:

and

the Technological

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

324
.
Reactionary Modernism:

h er f, ]e?? rey

Technology,

inWeimar

and Politics

Culture,

and theThirdReich.Cambridge:CambridgeUP, 1984.

kern,

ed. Snake Train: Poetry and Prose. Ann Arbor: Ar dis, 1976.
La R?volution du langage po?tique. Paris: Seuil, 1966.

gary,

KRisTEVA,
list

manuel.

arce,
294

El movimiento

Germ?n.

ARZUBiDE,

maples

-.

Julia.

(28 Dec.

estridentista.

"El movimiento

estridentista

1926.
Jalapa: Horizonte,
en 1922." El Universal Ilustrado

1922): 25.

Plenitud, 1967.
juventud. Madrid:
Vladimir.
Russian Futurism: A History.

Soberana
markov,

f.t. Guerra

marinetti,
-.

I manifesti

sola igiene del mondo.

del futurismo.

-.

Scritti francesi. Milano:

-.

Teor?a

-.

Cavanna,
paz,

ed. Poes?a
Blum,

Power.
Schneider,

DF:

M?xico

Unruh,

DF:

M?xico

enMovimiento:
ciNZiA.

Milano:

Mondadori,

1968.
Cesare

in liberta. Milano:

Obras

completas. Vol.
Econ?mica,

Fondo

Obras

de Cultura

M?xico

jorge,
vicky.

de Bellas Artes,

ed. Las vanguardias

Latin American

arqueles.

Teor?a

4. Generaciones

Econ?mica,

1915-1966. M?xico

1994.119-42.

completas. Vol.

4. Generaciones

1994.17-178.
DF:

Siglo XXI,

1966.

Futurist Fiction

F. T. Marinettis

The Other Modernism:

Berekeley: U of California
vela,

1915.

1914.

de Cultura

Taller."
Fondo

Berkeley: U of California P, 1996.

o una
luis mario.
ElestHdentismo

Instituto Nacional
schwarz,

de Maria.

ottobre 1912. Parole

"Siete vistas de la poes?a mexicana."

s Artini

Lacerba,

P, 1968.

1983.

Ed. Luciano

Tumb. Adrianopoli

"Antev?spera:

semblanzas.
-,

Poesia,

1914.

octavio.
semblanzas.

-.

serie. Firenze:

Mondadori,

e invenzione
futurista.
Tumb

Zang

Prima

Berkeley: U of California

Milano:

of

literatura de la estrategia. M?xico

1970.
lationamericanas.

Vanguards:

Madrid:

theArt of Contentious

C?tedra,

1991.

Encounters.

P, 1994.

literaria del modernism.

M?xico

DF:

Botas,

1949.

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:56:16 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

DF: