Perú (1892-1938)

                                                                "son testigos...la soledad, la lluvia, los caminos."

Vallejo began his career as a post-modernist (vanguardist) experimenting with a variety of styles (see Trilce). He, however, is most known for his humanist collection of poems, among them, Poemas Humanos and Los Heraldos Negros. In both, the poet becomes a singular human being who represents the suffering of mankind. Most of his later oeuvre seems to reflect his voluntary exile in post WWI Europe, which, due to its moral poverty, one might say, proved a fertile ground for his existentialist philosophy. He embraced socialism as a political posture, which was reflected in his work; he sung to the suffering of the working man in the face of economic uncertainty, and the crumbling of civilization.