Although recent studies point toward the importance of his pioneering journalistic production in Central and South America, Porfirio Barba-Jacob is especially known for his poetry. His works are considered both a late example of romanticism and a development of Rubén Darío's modernismo. They are mainly regarded as an isolated poetic search, however, characterized by profound despair, combined with peaks of exultation. Barba-Jacob considered himself a vanguardist. In his autobiographical essay "La divina tragedia: El poeta habla de sí mismo" (The Divine Tragedy: The Poet Talks About Himself), which served as the prologue of his poetry collection Rosas Negras (Black Roses, 1933), he asserts that "Mi poesía es para hechizados. Aunque se manifiesta generalmente con una apariencia de tranquilidad, está llena de temblores, de relámpagos, de aullidos" (My poetry is for the bewitched. Although it generally displays itself under the...