García Terrés, Jaime 1924–1996

PERSONAL: Born May 15, 1924, in Mexico City, Mexico; died April 29, 1996; son of Trinidad and Elisa (Terres) García; married Celia Chavez, May 4, 1960; children: Alonso, Ana Ximena, Ruy Martin. Education: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, law degree, 1946; degrees from University of Paris and College de France, both 1950.

CAREER: Institute Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico, assistant director, 1948–49; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, director of cultural affairs and university literary publications, 1953–65; Mexican ambassador to Athens, Greece, 1965–68; Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores, Mexico City, director of library and archives, 1968–71; La Gaceta, Mexico City, director, 1971–89; Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico City, assistant director, 1972–74, director, 1982–89; Public Library of Mexico, Mexico City, director, beginning 1989.

WRITINGS:

Panorama de la critica literaria en Mexico (conference papers), [Mexico,] 1941.

Sobre la responsabilidad del escritor, [Mexico,] 1949.

El hermano menor, [Mexico,] 1953.

Correo nocturno, [Mexico,] 1954.

Las provincias del aire (poems), Fondo de Cultura Económica (Mexico City, Mexico), 1956.

La fuente oscura, Ediciones Mito (Bogota, Colombia), 1961.

Los reinos combatientes (poems), Fondo de Cultura Económica (Mexico City, Mexico), 1961.

La feria de los días: y otros textos políticos y literarios, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico), 1961.

(Editor) 100 imágenes del mar (poems), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico), 1962, reprinted, Colegio Nacional (Mexico City, Mexico), 1982.

Grecia 60 poesía y verdad (poems), Alacena (Mexico), 1962.

Los infiernos del pensamiento: en torno a Freud, ideología y psicoanálisis, J. Moritz (Mexico City, Mexico), 1967.

Funerales (poems), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico), 1969.

Todo lo más por decir (poems), J. Moritz (Mexico City, Mexico), 1971.

Reloj de Atenas, J. Moritz (Mexico City, Mexico), 1977.

Breve antología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nexuci (Mexico City, Mexico), 1977.

Honores a Francisco de Terrazas, limited edition, Taller Martin Pescador (Tacámbaro, Michoacán, Mexico), 1979.

Corre la voz, J. Moritz (Mexico City, Mexico), 1980.

Poesía y alquimia: los tres mundos de Gilberto Owen, Era (Mexico City, Mexico), 1980.

Letanías profanas: breve antologia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico), 1981.

(Editor, with Adolfo Castañón) Los reinos combatientes todavía (conference papers), 1986.

Ambo, Taller Martin Pescador (Tacámbaro, Michoacán, Mexico), 1987.

Las manchas del sol: poesía, 1956–1987, Alianza (Madrid, Spain), 1988.

Parte de vida, J. Moritz (Mexico City, Mexico), 1988.

El teatro de los acontecimientos, Colegio Nacional (Mexico City, Mexico), 1988.

Baile de máscaras (poetry translations), Ediciones del Equilibrista (Mexico), 1989.

(With José Luis Rivas) Las provincias del aire, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (Mexico City, Mexico), 1992.

Obras, compiled by Rafael Vargas, Colegio Nacional, Fondo de Cultura Económica (Mexico City, Mexico), 1995.

Obras I: las manchas del sol: poesía, 1953–1994, compiled by Rafael Vargas, Fondo de Cultura Económica (Mexico City, Mexico), 1996.

Obras II: el teatro de los acontecimientos, compiled by Rafael Vargas, Fondo de Cultura Económica (Mexico City, Mexico), 1997.

Obras III: la feria de los dias, 1953–1994, Fondo de Cultura Económica (Mexico City, Mexico), 2000.

Author of Carne de dios, c. 1960s; work represented in anthologies. Translator, from the Greek, of poems by George Seferis.

SIDELIGHTS: Jaime García Terrés, who died in 1996 at the age of seventy-one, was an important Mexican poet, as well as a lawyer, publisher, and diplomat. He was director of Mexico's national art institute and taught at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, where he also was responsible for literary publications. He was director of the Mexican state publishing house Fondo de Cultura Económica during its most relevant period. His post as ambassador to Greece led him to write Reloj de Atenas, in which he writes of his life there and in which he makes observations about Greek travel. García Terrés was also a translator of works by others, notably the poems of Greek Nobel laureate George Seferis.

García Terrés wrote many volumes of poetry. In an obituary in the London Guardian, Hugo Estenssoro wrote that his "poetic style was very much the man: an elegant limpidity at the service of an intelligence at ease with itself." Estenssoro noted that García Terrés "was also an eclectic, refined essayist." Corre la voz is considered to be one of García Terrés's finest poetry collections. M. Durán, writing in World Literature Today, described it as "a well-integrated collection in which each part or chapter has a role to play, a voice to add to the chorus; the quality of the poems is unusually high."

Maria José Bas Albertos wrote a study of García Terrés's life and work titled La poesia civica de Jaime García Terrés, which was reviewed in Hispanic Review by Frank Dauster. Dauster found that, according to Albertos, García Terrés's work "is often direct and deceptively straightforward in technique and reflective in tone. Rather than a flow of images, it is the examination of a thought, the evocation of a feeling, the memory of a voyage or a poem from another time and place, the fascination of the past…. The volume is a useful introduction, and one hopes for further studies of a poet who will, lamentably, offer us no further works."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Bas Albertos, Marie José, La poesia civica de Jaime García Terrés, Universidad de Alicante (Alicante, Mexico), 1996.

Cortés, Eladio, editor, Dictionary of Mexican Literature, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT).

PERIODICALS

Hispanic Review, winter, 1998, Frank Dauster, review of La poesia civica de Jaime García Terrés, p. 117.

World Literature Today, spring, 1982, M. Durán, review of Corre la voz, p. 314; winter, 1990, William Ferguson, review of Las manchas del sol: poesía, 1956–1987, p. 81.

OBITUARIES:

PERIODICALS

Guardian (London, England), May 1, 1996, Hugo Estenssoro, "Elegant Lines from Mexico," p. 15.