Blas de Otero: Life and Poetic Evolution
Childhood in Bilbao and Madrid (1916-1933)
Blas de Otero was born on March 15, 1916, in Bilbao. At the age of seven, he enrolled at the Colegio de María de Maeztu, a preparatory high school. His home was a refuge, a peaceful and mythologized microcosm inhabited by himself, his parents, his brother, and his governess, Mademoiselle Isabel. In contrast, school represented a repressive environment for the young Otero.
Three years later, the family faced financial ruin and relocated to Madrid. In the capital, Otero experienced a newfound freedom and discovered his own identity. It was in this environment that he began to write.
At the age of 13, Otero’s brother, who was three years his senior, passed away, followed by their father three years later. Blas de Otero’s cheerful nature turned somber; he became introverted and pessimistic. At this age, his obsession with death began. In 1931, he started studying law but had to return to Bilbao with his family shortly after due to worsening financial circumstances.
Youth and Early Poetic Exploration (1933-1944)
Back in Bilbao, Blas de Otero found himself responsible for supporting his family. His free time was dedicated to his law studies. The weight of this responsibility proved too much for his fragile emotional state, leading to a breakdown. He found solace in religion, friendship, and art.
His religious life during this period was intense. He was a member of the Federación de Estudiantes Católicos Vizcaínos and a congregant of Los Luises de San Estanislao de Kostka. He even signed his early poems as “Blas de Otero, C.M.” (Congregantes Marianos). His initial poetic works were influenced by his religious beliefs and Spanish mystical and Christian literature. He published poems like Balada humilde in the Jesuit magazine Los Luises.
He also became involved in Bilbao’s artistic circles, forming poetic groups with friends. These groups included “Los Luises,” “Alea,” and “Nuestralia.” Although a founding member of “Alea,” Otero was not a frequent participant, perhaps due to his solitary nature. “Alea” initially served as a gathering place for intellectuals but later focused on publishing its members’ work. Otero’s first significant work, Cántico Espiritual, appeared in the journal of “Alea.”
“Nuestralia” was a more intimate group formed by Blas de Otero and four friends. Though short-lived, it played a crucial role in Otero’s poetic development. Through “Nuestralia,” he began experimenting with new expressive resources, influenced by mysticism, Juan Ramón Jiménez, the Generation of ’27, and poets like Rabindranath Tagore, Miguel Hernández, and César Vallejo. They frequently recited verses during their meetings, and it’s likely that Otero adopted intertextuality as a significant element in his poetry during this time.
Torn between his poetic vocation and the need to support his family, Otero completed his law degree in Zaragoza in 1935. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War shortly after went largely unnoticed by him. In 1941, he began working as a legal advisor while his reputation as a writer grew. In 1943, unable to reconcile his vocation with his work, he returned to Madrid to study Philosophy and Letters, hoping to emulate other poets who had achieved academic success. Disappointed with the university environment, he returned to Bilbao when his older sister, who supported the family, fell ill.
Overwhelmed by guilt for leaving his mother and sisters, Otero burned all his poems as an act of atonement. He then focused on teaching law and preparing for public examinations.
Affirmation of the Poetic Vocation (1944-1955)
In 1945, Otero suffered a severe depressive crisis that led to his admission to the Usúrbil sanatorium. This crisis shattered his idyllic view of friendship, his strong religious beliefs, and his naive assessment of poetry. However, he found solace in artistic creation. During this period, he wrote most of the three works that comprise his existential cycle: Ángel fieramente humano, Redoble de conciencia, and Ancia.
He compiled previously unpublished poems along with others published in various magazines to create Ángel fieramente humano, which he submitted for the Adonais Prize. The prize was denied, allegedly due to religious heterodoxy. However, in 1950, he won the Boscán Prize with Redoble de conciencia.
In 1950, he met the Basque actress and poet Tachia Quintanar in Paris, with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship.
By 1955, Otero was considered one of the great poets of the postwar era. His poetry shifted from affirmation to questioning, even questioning God. Only two figures remained: “I,” the poet, and “you,” God. The solitary and suffering “I” seeks dialogue with a silent “you.” The failure of this quest, both poetic and existential, led to the need for a new faith.
From Existentialism to Coexistentialism (1955-1964)
Blas de Otero’s loneliness grew with his stature. His search for “you” in the existential dialogue had failed. However, he found a way to alleviate his solitude: the encounter with others, becoming a man among men. Thus, the “we” entered his poetry. This shift marked a new dimension in his work and the discovery of human solidarity, which resolved his crisis and restored his peace of mind. His poetry of uprooting transformed into a poetry of encounter.
This change was facilitated by his new friendships with poets and artists, including prominent figures from the Bilbao group of the Instituto Cisneros, who led the “vast majority.” By this time, his reputation had grown significantly, attracting the attention of scholars like Dámaso Alonso and Alarcos Llorach. He was featured in anthologies, monographs, articles, and essays, and won numerous literary prizes.
His complex relationship with Spain, a mixture of love and loathing, led to a self-imposed exile in Paris. He associated with communist circles and even joined the Communist Party in 1952, driven by ideological affinity rather than strict political alignment. His humanistic ideals crystallized, and he embraced Marxism as a comprehensive explanation of humanity’s place in history. The discovery of a philosophical framework and an alternative to the dominant ideology in Spain brought him satisfaction. In Paris, he wrote Pido la paz y la palabra, reflecting his newfound faith in humanity. Poetry became a tool for social change.
While hate had driven him away from Spain, love drew him back. A deep longing for his homeland led him into new emotional and depressive crises. He returned to Spain with a firm conviction to understand his country and connect with ordinary people. He lived and worked with miners, traveled through the villages of Castile and León, living frugally and relying on the kindness of strangers. His commitment to the common people inspired him to complete Pido la paz y la palabra and write En castellano.
Between 1956 and 1959, he lived in Barcelona, where he frequented artistic circles. En castellano was censored, but he published Ancia, a compilation of poems from Ángel fieramente humano, Redoble de conciencia, and new works. Although chronologically placed within his social poetry period, its themes aligned with his earlier existential phase, serving as an epilogue and final touch. Ancia won the Critics’ Award in 1958 and the Fastenrath Prize in 1961.
In 1960, he traveled to the USSR and China at the invitation of the International Society of Writers. Around this time, he published Esto no es un libro (Puerto Rico, 1963) and Que trata de España (Paris, 1964), both outside Spain due to censorship.
In 1964, he moved to Cuba, where he received the Casa de las Américas Prize. He married Yolanda Pina, a Cuban divorcée. After three years in Havana, they divorced in 1967, and Otero returned to Madrid, where he rekindled his relationship with Sabina de la Cruz. Their relationship lasted until his death, providing him with stability and a period of peace, tranquility, and creative passion.
Later Years and Legacy (1964-1979)
During this period, Otero published numerous self-compiled anthologies and books with new verses. He also focused on revising his earlier work, resulting in numerous variants of his poems.
His confrontation with the Franco regime was a constant throughout his life. He longed for and celebrated democracy for 40 years, fighting for it and participating in rallies, conferences, and recitals during the first democratic elections. However, he never witnessed the full realization of his dream. On June 29, 1979, he died in Majadahonda (Madrid) from a pulmonary embolism, having fulfilled his vital and poetic quests.
Poetry
Religious Stage
Blas de Otero’s religious poetry belongs to his early years, around 1935, when he was still a devout Catholic. The poetic output of this period is limited, and the poet himself later disowned it, considering Ángel fieramente humano as the true beginning of his poetic creation. This raises the question of whether this stage should be considered significant or merely a precursor to his later work. However, it’s crucial to acknowledge that Otero’s existential poetry arises from his loss of faith, the failure of the tenets of his religious stage, and his opposition to them. Therefore, this stage, though less substantial than others, is essential for understanding the subsequent development of his poetry.
Apart from numerous uncollected poems, many of which were published in various publications, the only significant work from this stage is Cántico Espiritual. It’s a love poem addressed to the divine, following the conventions of Castilian religious poetry, particularly mysticism. It has a quadripartite structure: a “Dedication” in the form of an initial sonnet, an “Introduction” of 189 free hendecasyllables, a “Lira” with 10 liras, and a “Final” consisting of two villancicos and two sonnets.
Throughout the “Introduction,” the conventional love poem structure is employed as an open dialogue between the “I” of the poet and a divine “you.” The “I” is an eager lover whose anticipation of the beloved’s presence triggers a paradoxical reaction of immense joy and intense pain. Paradox, a common figure of speech in mystical poetry, becomes crucial in expressing the ineffable.
Divine love is a life-giving force that also causes pain and suffering. The lover surrenders unconditionally and fearlessly; their heart is a “white target,” and love is an “arrow” that is also a “furrow” receiving God’s seed to give life, symbolized by the vine and wheat, representing the sacrament of Communion and Christ himself. In the union between humanity and God, the poet participates in divine eternity.
However, this love of union and these hopes remain unfulfilled; they are aspirations, fervent desires that cause pain until they are met. They are not realized because the human being is both body and soul, and in this duality, only knowledge can be used to approach God. But this approach will always be imperfect and superficial. If it relies on the senses, they can only grasp appearances; if it relies on reason, knowledge is partial and mediated. Thus, God remains unattainable, unknowable: the Absolute, though manifested in concrete things, is beyond human comprehension because our modes of knowledge are inherently insufficient. The only remaining path is faith: surrender to pure feeling.
The “I” expresses helplessness in the struggle between ascent and descent, grace and sin, and only God can offer the necessary lifeline. The deity gives meaning to life and helps overcome limitations and shortcomings. This is achieved through purification in Otero’s poetry, as God cannot accept an imperfect being or become imperfect without contradicting the essence of absolute perfection. It is humanity that must seek God. Isolated and alone, humanity calls out to God, fueled by the desire for completeness, and enters the illuminative way, characterized by God’s presence and a dialogue of unity.
However, the appeal fails. Cántico Espiritual depicts a process of mystical development through the purgative and illuminative ways, but it remains incomplete without the unitive way. The mystical union is not achieved, but an alternative emerges. Union with all creation is crystallized in poetry: since reaching God seems impossible, there is some salvation in poetry itself. The religious experience transforms into an aesthetic experience.
The “Lira” showcases the birth and realization of this aesthetic act in response to the eternal struggle between humanity’s inner reality and dreams, light and darkness, eternity and the trivialities within the human heart. Poetry, like faith, elevates humanity from its imperfections and leads to something better.
Through poetry, the threshold of fulfillment becomes accessible. The experience of perfection is achieved through an aesthetic experience born from a religious experience. It is a preaching of human salvation through poetry itself; religion is the beginning of the process, not its culmination.
The “Final” introduces a twist by replacing human salvation in God. However, the unitive way remains elusive; the only way to achieve union with God is through death. In this life, one can only hope to experience grace and feel the divine presence.
Existential Stage
Blas de Otero’s existentialist period includes the works Ángel fieramente humano (1950), Redoble de conciencia (1951), and Ancia (1958).
Before delving into Otero’s existentialist poetry, it’s necessary to explain Existentialism, the philosophical movement that underpins it and provides the thematic structure for his work.
Existentialism traces its roots back to Pascal in the late 17th century, but it emerged as a distinct movement with the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and developed primarily between the World Wars. It posits a fundamental difference between “being” and “existing.” “Being” is a passive state; objects “are” because they do not initiate action; they cannot choose their destiny. They are what they are inherently, without the possibility of change. However, humans “need not coincide with what they are”; they can alter their being through their decisions. It’s a contrast between the dynamic (humanity) and the static (inanimate objects). Humanity is characterized by spatial and temporal finitude, possessing a mortal body (a departure from the concept of “being” as eternity).
Thus, humanity not only “exists” but also “acts.” Existentialism champions subjective experience over pure objectivity, responding to Hegelian philosophy, which believed in the possibility of rational, objective, and pure knowledge of all things. It advocates for moral individualism: each individual is responsible for their actions and must define their ethical code. There is no objective basis for moral decisions; the highest good for an individual is to find their unique calling. It critiques the “beyond” of metaphysics, focusing on the “here and now,” offering an alternative to philosophies that prioritize objective knowledge and systematic conceptions of the world, instead centering on humanity in life and death.
An important current within Existentialism, and perhaps the one that most profoundly influenced Otero’s poetics, is initiated by Jean-Paul Sartre. It’s a primarily moral philosophy that emphasizes humanity’s commitment to its own freedom. There is no predestination, no gods or souls; each individual is solely responsible for their actions. This sense of existential loneliness is a cornerstone of Otero’s existential poetry. Sartre’s Existentialism aligns with Marxism in some aspects but diverges in its rejection of all forms of totalitarianism: individuals must be free to become what they believe in.
Blas de Otero’s engagement with Existentialism arises during a transitional phase, a response to his spiritual crisis of 1945, during which he lost his faith. Through Existentialism, he arrives at the final stage of his poetry: social poetry. However, this existential stage possesses its own distinct identity and value.
After the attempts at mystical union in the religious stage, the poetic voice is left alone and embarks on an agonizing search for a new faith or reason to live. Humanity is a being-towards-death in a context of desolation and ruin, yearning to survive, to avoid being lost in nothingness, seeking God. What was once a call now becomes a question uttered aloud. However, only silence answers, a silence that fills the heart with fear, the fear of death that imprisons and renders all actions meaningless.
In this poetic stage, as in the previous one, there are only two figures: I (the poet) and you (God). But the roles have changed: you are distant. Tired of shouting without a response, I turns inward, confronting a self that is destroyed, broken, ruined, like a city ravaged by war. The poetry seeks human salvation, integrating the fullness of life into mortal humanity.
Within this introspection lies the answer to alleviate the poet’s suffering. By becoming aware of their own tragedy, I acknowledges the existence of others facing the same predicament. After a long poetic quest, moving from “you” to “I” and from “me” to “other,” a glimmer of hope appears: there is no need to sacrifice everything for an afterlife, nor to deny humanity itself. The path forward is to accept one’s destiny and find a new way of life. Two sources of salvation emerge: love and poetry.
The theme of love in Blas de Otero’s work is multifaceted and present throughout his oeuvre: love for God, for women, for fellow humans. His poetry is at times spiritual, at times carnal, at times human, but above all, it is loving. Spiritual love is particularly prominent in his first stage, while human love takes center stage in the third. Carnal love appears throughout his poetry but is especially significant during the existential period, serving as a bridge between absolute love and mundane love, a tool that leads the poetic voice towards solidarity with others. The love that the poet feels seeks a recipient to whom they can fully surrender. Divine love offers only silence, and carnal love is fleeting, but the love for one’s neighbor, which begins to emerge, seems to offer what I seeks. Thanks to this insight, the poet, having accepted their finitude and limitations, can direct their attention to others and create a new poetic persona: the “we” that defines the third and final stage of their poetry.
The three existentialist works of Blas de Otero share a common theme, a starting point, and a developmental goal, although they differ in their treatment of these themes, their specific content, and, above all, their structure. Ángel fieramente humano consists of 18 sonnets and 16 free or semi-free compositions, generally maintaining a formal classicism. Its structure is tripartite: introduction (presenting the existential problem and the poet’s mood), development (the poetic quest for a new reason for living), and conclusion (the acceptance of mortality, the inherent value of humanity, and the recognition that it is humanity, not God, who must embrace poetry).
Redoble de conciencia comprises 14 sonnets and eight free or semi-free compositions. This work also exhibits formal classicism and a structure similar to Ángel fieramente humano.
Ancia is composed of 32 poems from Ángel fieramente humano, all of Redoble de conciencia, and 49 new poems. Its structure is also tripartite, but the arrangement of the compositions offers a different reading: the introduction reaffirms the defense of a collective identity, and the epilogue emphasizes the acceptance of human nature in general and the poet’s in particular. The development is divided into four parts: the first focuses on the confrontation between humanity and God, the second on human salvation through the love of women, the third on the demystification and ironic treatment of religion, and the fourth on the intensification of the historical and political reality of the poet, Spain, and Europe. In Ancia, human themes are reinforced, and the metaphysical and theological aspects are weakened, culminating in a poetic stance in favor of humanity. While traditional and classical forms are still present, new compositional approaches emerge, including prose poems, short verses, and poemillas (couplets, aphorisms, jokes).
Social Stage
The primary shift that transforms existential poetry into social poetry is the change in persona, from “I” to “we.” The poet, having accepted their humanity, finds their place among other humans and discovers a new reason for living: human solidarity, the pursuit of a better world through poetry. The poet champions a humanist utopia because they no longer possess religious faith. There is no perfect afterlife to aspire to, but even though humanity is destined to emerge from nothingness and return to it, individuals must fight for a life of dignity and happiness.
The poet becomes a prophet who identifies societal flaws and proposes ways to overcome them to achieve a better future. Otero remains preoccupied with absolute values but now examines them within the historical present. Thus, three poetic temporalities emerge:
- The historical past: characterized by expectations of transcendence and eternity; a period of internal conflict and searching. Rejection and denial signify the complete failure of old worldviews and also imply self-destruction, as religion demanded the renunciation of humanity itself.
- The historical present: the primary timeframe of social poetry. Three key elements are at play: the poetic “I” (existential and prophetic), humanity in its historical context, and the poetic doctrine or ideology. This triad constitutes the central theme. The poetic voice proclaims its humanity and finitude, its belonging to humankind, then speaks of humanity in general, its place in the world, its context, the shortcomings of the society it inhabits, and finally preaches its own doctrine: salvation through poetry.
- The utopian future: the illusion that justifies the work and effort of the present. The ideology of solidarity is not based on self-sacrifice but on future achievements. Reaching utopia is challenging because there is a force that opposes it: the historical past, which seeks to maintain its grip. Humanity must break with the past to enable change. It’s an archetypal confrontation between shadow (representing negativity and the past) and light (representing positivity and the future). The utopian future embodies the absolute values of peace, justice, and freedom. Otero’s social poetry demands a more just and free world for all. Communist ideology in his poetry becomes a means to the end of his poetic doctrine.
Formally, Blas de Otero’s social poetry exhibits distinctive features. He masterfully utilizes a wide range of expressive possibilities, from traditional resources to complex linguistic experimentation. He employs free verse, measured verse, and semi-free forms, seamlessly blending academic and avant-garde approaches, prose and verse, long poems and very short ones, like his famous couplet “Poética,” the shortest poem in the Spanish language.
In general, there is a tendency towards increasingly free models as his work progresses: Pido la paz y la palabra and En castellano are more traditional than Que trata de España.