Federico Uhrbach Campuzano

Cuban poet, representative of modernism during the early years of the twentieth century.

He was born into a wealthy family in Matanzas. Together with his brother, Carlos Pío Uhrbach (born in 1872 and died in the field of revolutionary struggle in 1897), he completed his early studies in his place of origin. He continued his education with him in the United States, returned to Matanzas, and later moved to La Habana. The two collaborated in La Habana Elegante (1893-1895), El Fígaro (1893-1927), and Gris y Azul (1894). Both attended the meetings that, in an artistic and literary atmosphere, were held at the home of the Borrero family and which were also attended by poet Julián del Casal.

In 1895, he became engaged to Elena Borrero, a poetess like her sisters Juana Borrero (fiancée of Carlos Pío) and Dulce María Borrero. The following year, he went to Cayo Hueso, where he married Elena. He collaborated in the Revista de Cayo Hueso, El Yara, El Expedicionario, Las Tres Américas, Cuba y América. He founded, together with José Govín, the separatist weekly Los Azules.

Back in Cuba, he was part of the editorial staff of El Fígaro, was in charge of fixed sections in El Heraldo and La Nación, and collaborated in El País, La Discusión, and Letras. His work Dolorosa, with music by Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes, premiered at the Teatro Nacional in 1910 and was staged in 1911 at the Teatro Balbo in Turin. His literary work received an honorable mention at the National Exhibition in La Habana in 1911. Dismissed from his position as Head of the Intellectual Property Department, he experienced days of misery. He held other bureaucratic positions in the Secretary of Public Education.

The collection of poems under the title "Flores de hielo," Federico's first book, and "Camafeos" by his brother Carlos Pío, were published in a single volume, Gemelas (1894). He appeared in the anthology Arpas cubanas (1904) and later compiled all the poetic production of both in the volume titled Oro (Imp. Avisador Comercial, La Habana, 1907), in which the authorship of either of the two is not attributed to the texts.

He left unpublished a book of short stories written in collaboration with his brother, several volumes of prose and verse ("Collar de cuentos," "El dolor de la vida," "Rimas para ella," "Más allá," "Trigales de oro," "Diafanidad"), and the lyrical fantasy Niebla de ensueño, which was brought to the stage in La Habana. He used the pseudonyms "Tulio Arcos," "Jorge Brummel," and "René de Vinci."

He was a founding member of the Academia Nacional de Artes y Letras, and secretary of its Literature Section.

Federico Uhrbach is a representative figure of that widespread frustration of the early years of the republic in Cuba. His work, poetically united with that of his brother, is one of unfailing fidelity to modernism and to poet Julián del Casal, who exerted great influence in Cuban literary circles of the time. Casal's aesthetics had become an ideal, and one can speak of a true cult of his image. Uhrbach represents, precisely, the most prolonged survival of Casalian modernism.

Of a sickly eroticism, emotional and physical dissatisfaction runs through his work in a concealed manner. In it, woman is seen, mainly, in two ways: as an inducer of temptation or as an untouchable virgin, mute and cold in her chastity. The ideal replaces reality.

The most intense poetic moment of Federico Uhrbach is Resurrección (1916), of a modernism made of lyrical intimacy, vague notes and half-tone, where he achieves a closer relationship with life thanks to moderation. His special sensitivity ennobles the image of his best poems. Let "Bertica," dedicated to his dead sister, serve as an example, one of the finest family elegies in all of our poetry, in which Uhrbach achieves his most moving moment.

Juan Marinello said of him: "It is a happy and spontaneous marriage between the discreetly romantic attitude and the broader, freer, and more sonorous modes of Rubenism."

The work of Federico Uhrbach has few readers in our time. The poor circulation it has had contributes to its obscurity. None of his books has been published a second time. Editorial Letras Cubanas, in 1989, published a selection of his poems, edited by Jorge Yglesias.

Federico Uhrbach died in La Habana on July 31, 1932.

Bibliography

Active Bibliography

"Flores de hielo," in Gemelas (by Carlos Pío and Federico Uhrbach), Biblioteca de La Habana Elegante, Imp. A. Miranda, La Habana, 1894.

Oro (by Carlos Pío and Federico Uhrbach), Imp. Avisador Comercial, La Habana, 1907.

Amor de ensueño y de romanticismo (prize from the floral games of the Ateneo y Círculo de La Habana), Imp. Avisador Comercial, La Habana, 1908.

Dolorosa. Idilio trágico, with a prologue and two acts. Music by Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes. Premiered at the Gran Teatro Nacional on April 23, 1910. Imp. P. Fernández y Cía., La Habana, 1910.

Poesías, selection, prologue and notes by Jorge Yglesias, Editorial Letras Cubanas, La Habana, 1989.

Resurrección, new poems, Imp. El Siglo XX, La Habana, 1916.

Source: EnCaribe.org