Molina, Juan Ramón (1875–1908)

Juan Ramón Molina (b. 17 April 1875; d. 2 November 1908), Honduran modernist poet. Born in Comayaguela, twin city of Tegucigalpa, Molina studied in Guatemala, where he met Rubén Darío, the great modernist poet, in 1891. Molina began writing at age seventeen and later edited several journals and newspapers. He served as undersecretary of public works for the government of Dr. Policarpo Bonilla (1895–1899). In 1900 he went to prison for criticizing President Terencio Sierra. In the revolution of 1903, Molina fought and earned the rank of colonel. In 1906 he participated along with Rubén Darío in the Pan-American Conference in Rio de Janeiro and for the first and only time experienced the creative environment of a large urban center. Another revolution in 1907 defeated Bonilla, and Molina was exiled to El Salvador. Throughout his life Molina felt stifled by his surroundings and suffered depression augmented by alcohol abuse. In 1908, at age thirty-three, he died from an overdose of morphine, an apparent suicide. After his death his poems and short prose pieces were collected by his friend and fellow writer, Froylan Turcios, in Tierras, mares y cielos (1911). Miguel Ángel Asturias called Molina the greatest Central American modernist poet after Darío.

See alsoHonduras .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Miguel Ángel Asturias, "Juan Ramón Molina: Poeta gemelo de Rubén," in Antología de Juan Ramón Molina (1959).

Julio Escoto in Tierras, mares y cielos (1977).

Additional Bibliography

Molina, Juan Ramón, Arturo Oquelí, and Elisea Pérez Cadalso. Juan Ramón Molina: su obra y su vida. Tegucigalpa, Honduras: El Comité Pro Monumento a Juan Ramón Molina, 1994.

Reina Argueta, Marta. Nací en el fondo azul de las montañas hondureñas: Ensayo sobre Juan Ramón Molina. Tegucigalpa, Honduras: Editorial Guaymuras, 1990.

                                                Ann GonzÁlez