Blanco, Andrés Eloy (1897–1955)

Andrés Eloy Blanco (b. 6 August 1897; d. 21 May 1955), Venezuelan poet, journalist, and statesman. A prolific author of poetry, theater, stories and anecdotes, innumerable articles in periodicals, and political speeches, Blanco is chiefly remembered today for his very popular poems in a folkloric vein and for his humorous writings. He was also, however, a lifelong (and frequently imprisoned or exiled) opponent of successive dictatorships and an important figure in the evolution of what came to be the Acción Democrática Party. He is credited with important contributions in the drafting of the 1947 Constitution, and he served as minister of foreign affairs during the brief presidency of Rómulo Gallegos (February-November 1948). In his poetry he was among the earliest in this century to reabsorb traditional Hispanic popular forms and themes into contemporary poetic practice; many of his works in this mode are charming, some are memorable. Juan Liscano and Efraín Subero note an underlying Christian attitude in his hopeful celebrations of common people and his vision of the nation. Subsequent generations of poets have turned away from Blanco's regionalist or nativist manner. Some of his verses have entered oral tradition, and he remains widely read by the general public, for whom he stands alone among modern Venezuelan poets as a national icon.

See alsoLiterature: Spanish America; Venezuela, Constitutions; Venezuela, Political Parties: Democratic Action (AD).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andrés Eloy Blanco, Obras completas (1973), is the best available presentation of the texts and contains excellent essays by various specialists. Efraín Subero has edited Apreciaciones críticas sobre la vida y la obra de Andrés Eloy Blanco, 2d ed. (1974), a valuable compendium of studies and essays, many of them by Blanco's contemporaries. For detailed discussion of his place in Venezuelan literary history, see José Ramón Medina, Ochenta años de literatura venezolana (1981), and Juan Liscano, Panorama de la literatura venezolana actual (1984).

Additional Bibliography

Ramírez, Alfonso. Biografía de Andrés Eloy Blanco. Caracas: Comisión Presidencial del Centenario del Natalicio de Andrés Eloy Blanco, 1997.

                                Michael J. Doudoroff