Ernesto Cardenal

Ernesto Cardenal in Managua.

moza Garca's regime. The coup d'tat failed and ended

with the deaths of many of his associates. Cardenal subsequently entered the Trappist Monastery of Gethsemani
(Kentucky, United States), under the other poet-priest
Thomas Merton, but in 1959 he left to study theology in
Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Cardenal was ordained a Catholic priest in 1965 in
Granada.[1] He went to the Solentiname Islands where
he founded a Christian, almost monastic, mainly peasant community, which eventually led to the founding of
the artists colony. It was there that the famous book
El Evangelio en Solentiname (The Gospel of Solentiname) was written. Cardenal collaborated closely with
Ernesto Cardenal at La Chascona (Santiago).
the leftist Frente Sandinista de Liberacin Nacional (Sandinista National Liberation Front, or FSLN), in working
Ernesto Cardenal Martnez (born January 20, 1925) is to overthrow Anastasio Somoza Debayle's rgimen.
a Nicaraguan Catholic priest, poet and politician. He is
a liberation theologian and the founder of the primitivist Many members of the community of Solentiname enart community in the Solentiname Islands, where he lived gaged with the process of the Revolution in the guerfor more than ten years (19651977). A member of the rilla warfare that the FSLN had developed to strike at the
Nicaraguan Sandinistas, a party he has since left, he was regime. The year 1977 was crucial to Cardenals community since Somozas National Guard, as a result from
Nicaraguas minister of culture from 1979 to 1987.
an attack to the headquarters stationed in the city of San
Carlos, a few miles from the community, raided Solentiname and burned it to the ground, with Cardenal eeing
1 Life
to Costa Rica.
On 19 July 1979, immediately after the Liberation of
Managua, he was named Minister of Culture by the new
Sandinista regime. He campaigned for a revolution
without vengeance[2] His brother, Fernando Cardenal,
also a Catholic priest (in the Jesuit order), was appointed
Minister of Education. When Pope John Paul II visited
Nicaragua in 1983, he openly scolded Ernesto Cardenal, who knelt before him, on the Managua airport runIn July 1950, he returned to Nicaragua, where he partici- way, for resisting his order to resign from the government
pated in the 1954 April Revolution against Anastasio So- and admonished him: Usted tiene que arreglar sus asunWas born into an upper-class family in Granada,
Nicaragua, Cardenal is a rst cousin of the poet Pablo
Antonio Cuadra. Cardenal studied literature rst in
Managua and from 1942 to 1946 in Mexico. Later, from
1947 to 1949, he continued his studies in New York City
and traveled through Italy, Spain and Switzerland between 1949 and 1950.

2
tos con la Iglesia (You must x your aairs with the
Church). On February 4, 1984[3] Pope John Paul II defrocked Cardenal because of his participation in liberation theology, a decision overturned 30 years later, August 4, 2014 by Pope Francis.[4] Cardenal remained Minister of Culture until 1987, when his ministry was closed
for economic reasons.

3 BIBLIOGRAPHY
During a short visit to India, he came in touch with a
group of writers called the Hungry generation, which had
a profound inuence on them.

Cardenal in his tour of the United States in 2011 to promote his newest work brought mixed reviews with groups
such as American Society for the Defense of Tradition,
Family and Property protesting him making appearances
Cardenal left the FSLN in 1994, protesting the at University campuses such as Xavier University for his
authoritarian direction of the party under Daniel Ortega Marxist ideology.[8]
but insists that he has retained his leftist opinions. "Calling it a robbery of the people and dictatorship not a revolutionary movement when he left the government.[5] He 2 Recognition
is a member of the Movimiento de Renovacin Sandinista (Sandinista Renovation Movement, MRS) that par 1980: Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
ticipated in the 2006 Nicaraguan general election. Days
before the election, Cardenal stated, in a clear reference
November 1990: Peace Abbey Courage of Conto his dispute with Ortega, I think it would be more desirscience Award[9]
able an authentic capitalism, as Montealegres (Eduardo
2005: Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature
Montealegre, the presidential candidate for Nicaraguan
Liberal Alliance) would be, than a false Revolution.[6]
2009: Ibero-American Poetry Prize Pablo Neruda
2009: GLOBArt Award in the monastery church in
Pernegg
2010: Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and
Art, 1st class[10]
2012: Queen Soa Prize for Ibero-American Poetry

3 Bibliography
3.1 Books in English
The Psalms of Struggle and Liberation, Herder and
Herder, 1971.
Homage to the American Indians, Johns Hopkins
University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1973.
Apocalypse and Other Poems, (Editor and author
of introduction, Robert Pring-Mill),New Directions
(New York, NY), 1974.

Ernesto Cardenal at San Diego State University, 2001

He is also a member of the board of advisers of the panLatin American TV station teleSUR.
Cardenal has been for a long time a polemical gure of
Nicaraguas literature and cultural history. He has been
described as the most important poet right now in Latin
America[7] politically and poetically. He has been a very
vocal gure of Nicaragua and a valid key to analyze and
understand the contemporaneous literary and cultural life
of Nicaragua. He participated in the Stock Exchange of
Visions project in 2007.

Zero Hour and Other Documentary Poems, (Editor,

Donald Walsh),New Directions (New York, NY),
1980.
With Walker in Nicaragua and Other Early Poems:
1949-1954, Wesleyan (Middleton, CT), 1984.
Golden UFOs: The Indian Poems: Los ovnis de oro:
Poemas indios, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1992.
The Doubtful Strait/El estrecho dudoso, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1995.
Flights of Victory/Vuelos de victoria, Curbstone
Books (Willmantic, CT), 1995.

3
Cosmic Canticle, Curbstone Books (Willmantic, works are heavily inuenced on his understanding of sciCT), 2002.
ence and evolution.Though its still had heavy dialogue
inuence to its earlier Marxist and Catholic material.[13]
Love: A Glimpse of Eternity, (Translator, Dinah Liv- Cardenal sums up his later material in a PBS news hour
ingston), Paraclete Press (MA), 2006.
interview In the rst place, one matures, and can write
Pluriverse: New and Selected Poems, (Editor, about things one couldn't before. One couldn't get poetry out of this theme or this situation. And later, you
Jonathan Cohen),New Directions, 2009.
can do it because you have more technical ability to do
The Gospel in Solentiname, Orbis Books (Mary- it. Now I can do easily things that were impossible for
knoll, NY), 2010.
me to do when I was younger. That also happens to
painters, I guess, and to all artists and creators. Even
The Origin of Species and Other Poems, (Transla- politicians mature and become, perhaps, more astute or
tor, John Lyons), Texas Tech University Press (Lub- more cunning.[14]
bock, TX), 2011.[11]

3.2

Poetry

4 Notes

Gethsemani Ky

[1] http://www.curbstone.org/authdetail.cfm?AuthID=39

Hora 0 (Zero Hour)

[2] Revolution ohne Rache in: Ernesto Cardenal 80. In:

Berliner Morgenpost, 10. Juni 2008. Abgerufen am 23.
Januar 2013.

Epigramas (Epigrams)
Oracin Por Marilyn Monroe (Prayer for Marilyn
Monroe)

[3] http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/462

El estrecho dudoso (The Doubtful Strait)

[4] http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/nacionales/
326671-caso-descoto-vaticano-teologia-de-liberacion

Los ovnis de oro (Golden UFOs)

Homenaje a los indios americanos (Homage to the
American Indian)
Salmos (Psalms)
Orculo sobre Managua (Oracle on Managua)
Con Walker en Nicaragua (With Walker in
Nicaragua and Other Early Poems)
Cntico Csmico (Cosmic Canticle)

[5] |, Manuel Roig-Franzia (2011-05-26). Ernesto Cardenal,

poet and Catholic priest, still causes controversy at age
86. The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved
2016-11-21.
[6] La Prensa, November 2, 2006. Managuas Daily Newspaper (in Spanish) http://www-ni.laprensa.com.ni/archivo/
2006/noviembre/02/noticias/ultimahora/153819.shtml
[7] La Prensa August 26,
2007,
(in Spanish)
http://www.laprensa.com.ni/archivo/2007/agosto/
26/noticias/enfoque/.

Vuelos de la Victoria (Flights of Victory)

[8] |, Manuel Roig-Franzia (2011-05-26). Ernesto Cardenal,

poet and Catholic priest, still causes controversy at age
86. The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved
2016-11-22.

Pluriverse: New and Selected Poems

[9] The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Recipients List

El telescopio en la noche oscura (Telescope in the

Dark Night)

El Origen de las Especies y otros poemas (The Origin of the Species)

3.3

Signicance Of His Poetry And Its Inuence From His Life

[10] Reply to a parliamentary question (pdf) (in German). p.

1979. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
[11] Ernesto Cardenal. Poetry Foundation. 2016-11-20. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
[12] Ernesto Cardenal. Poetry Foundation. 2016-11-20. Retrieved 2016-11-21.

Earlier works were focused on love life and the idea.

However some of the works like Zero Hour a direct [13] |, Manuel Roig-Franzia (2011-05-26). Ernesto Cardenal,
poet and Catholic priest, still causes controversy at age
correlation to his Marxist political ideas being directly
86. The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved
tied in zero hours case about the assassination of guerrilla
2016-11-21.
[12]
leader Cesar Augusto Sandino. However Cardinals poetry also was heavily inuenced by his unique Catholic [14] Ernesto Cardenal. Poetry Foundation. 2016-11-21. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
ideology mainly liberation theology. Some of his latest

External links
About Ernesto Cardenal - comprehensive bibliography
Works by or about Ernesto Cardenal in libraries
(WorldCat catalog)
Ernesto Cardenal en MarcaAcme.com
Bishop Georey Rowell on Cardenal, The Times.
Stock Exchange Of Visions: Visions of Ernesto
Cardenal (Video Interviews)
Poem set to music

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1

Text

Ernesto Cardenal Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Cardenal?oldid=750964718 Contributors: Radicalsubversiv, Hajor,

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6.2

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6.3

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