José Jacinto Milanés Fuentes

Cuban poet and playwright; one of the essential voices of the first Cuban poetic romanticism in the nineteenth century, alongside José María Heredia and Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés, Plácido.

The life and work of José Jacinto Milanés is closely linked to the city of Matanzas. Although he lived 49 years —with only a few brief stays in Havana and abroad, but most of his life in his native city—, the years he had for his creative work were few, only one decade, as a consequence of the loss of his reason.

Milanés did not have, unlike José María Heredia, a high level of education. He had lost his father early and the family lived with financial assistance from an uncle. In fact, for economic reasons, moving frequently was common until in 1832 the family inherited a large Matanzas mansion in which Milanés lived until the end of his days; and in which the Historical Archive of Matanzas is located today.

Despite the limitations he suffered, his education and his skills and interest in learning other languages are corroborated by a work of notable interest that includes poems written in Italian and French. He knew Latin and English (the latter more rudimentary). The study of languages and eagerness for reading was shaping the sensibility that would soon make his poetic work stand out.

In 1832 he traveled to Havana to work in the hardware store of Don Valentín Martínez; however, the atmosphere was not favorable and he soon returned to Matanzas.

Milanés's literary work includes poems, dramatic works, and some journalistic articles.

His poetic production can, broadly speaking, be grouped into three main streams: purely lyrical poems —those which, without a doubt, guarantee him the prominent place he holds in Cuban romantic literature—, poems of popular style —almost always humorous or satirical— and those that attempt a direct socio-moral message.

The first known poems by Milanés date from 1831-1834, heavily marked by his reading of Spanish poetry and theater from the Golden Age. It is precisely, beginning in 1835 with the Matanzas gatherings of Domingo del Monte, that the name of Milanés comes to be associated with the delmontina figure.

The relationship between him and Milanés, recorded to a large extent through letters, fills almost an entire chapter of Cuban literary history. Not a few critics value that the salon atmosphere influenced 1835 to be the most productive year in terms of Milanés's creations.

Special attention deserves, from that year, the verses of "El recuerdo de amor" (Love's Memory), which anticipates the direction the poet would take. The romantic air, the remarkable simplicity, and the popular roots of his later work can be glimpsed there. It is that romanticism, in him more intimate and delicate, that approaches the poets of the second romantic period on the Island, with Juan Clemente Zenea and Luisa Pérez de Zambrana. Among the sonnets from this time that have received the most attention are "El mar" (The Sea) and "Su mar" (His Sea). Likewise, Milanés's first forays into the satirical-customs line appear, which he would group under the name Cancionero de Tristán Morales (Songbook of Tristán Morales).

The use of distinctly Cuban voices and social criticism are evident here, foreshadowing the philosophical-moral zone that would animate the period 1837-1838. Milanés defended the commitment of the intellectual to society. His poems "El mendigo" (The Beggar) and "El negro alzado" (The Risen Black Man) are very eloquent —the first truly anti-slavery poem in Cuban history, according to the criterion of one of its greatest scholars, researcher Salvador Arias.

Milanés's mental imbalance is often blamed for the so-called "carelessness" present in some of his texts, which do not fully comply with the literary canon of the era. Milanés had his own conception of what is poetic and expressed it more than once (see in this regard his poem "La ley del trabajo" [The Law of Work]). The will to make a verse as "natural as spontaneous" was deeply rooted in him.

In 1837 the famous poem "La madrugada" (Dawn) was published in the Aguinaldo Habanero, considered among the most notable and characteristic of his poetry. It is told that Víctor Hugo expressed to Justo de Lara upon reading this poem: "That is a poet! More than thirty years have passed since I spoke Spanish. I understood every one of these stanzas and I feel that in my Autumn Leaves, my Orientals, or my Twilight Songs, nothing of this style occurred to me." In this extensive poem (composed of 24 redondillas) a different vision of the nature of the Island is notable, through the relationship, typically romantic, between the image of dawn and the poet's interior, anguished world. However, the most famous text written in that time is "El beso" (The Kiss), with the theme of the encounter between two lovers, intertwined with the poet's philosophical-moralist concerns, purity, in particular. Cintio Vitier drew attention to what he called his "obsession with purity," a "neurotic constant, linked to hyperbolized scruple and guilt."

Milanés's work achieved great popularity and, despite certain criticisms it faced (especially regarding its philosophical-moral aspect), it was highly praised in the intellectual sphere. This was the case with "La fuga de la tórtola" (The Escape of the Turtle Dove), which transcended the poet to become an icon of Cuban poetry of all times.

In 1841, Milanés published in co-authorship with his brother Federico, and under the pseudonym Miraflor, the book Los cantares del montero (The Huntsman's Songs), the first to publish décimas of certain quality on the Island. Also from this year is the extensive poem in décimas "Su alma" (His Soul). Other compositions would follow where the enrichment of his lyricism is revealed, and among them "De codos en el puente" (Elbows on the Bridge) could not fail to be mentioned, which, in the opinion of Cintio Vitier, and almost by critical consensus, is his emblematic poem. The text begins with an invocation to a natural element, the San Juan River, one of those that crosses his city, to give way to deep reflections on the contradiction between material progress and the advance of culture.

In July 1842 Milanés wrote his "Epístola a Ignacio Rodríguez Galván" (Epistle to Ignacio Rodríguez Galván), a Mexican poet. With it, he responded to an invitation to abandon his homeland in search of a better environment for creation. The entire poem is full of clamor for the independence of his homeland. The text never reached its recipient, who died four days after it was written, and it was Cirilo Villaverde who managed to recover the letter that contained it. The composition was so appreciated by the people that its stanzas circulated clandestinely throughout the country.

Although Milanés's poetry succeeds in captivating the attention of scholars, it cannot fail to be mentioned that the author made notable efforts in theater, with El conde Alarcos (Count Alarcos) being his outstanding work.

The year 1842 marks the end of Milanés's work and the starting point of his intellectual and organic decline. Little information exists regarding the state of his health then. It is questioned whether his brother Federico promoted the declaration of his mental imbalance as a way to preserve him from colonial authorities, taking into account the strong criticism of Cuba's situation in his last texts. Regarding the causes of his madness, an entire legend has been created: the one that tells of an impossible love for his cousin, considerably younger than him and from a comfortable position, quite different from the poet's.

There is evidence of this ill-fated love in his verses "A Isa." The last original fruit of his poetic genius is considered to be the composition titled "Dios existe" (God Exists).

After 1851 he wrote no more and his condition worsened until his death in 1863.

Regarding the presence of Milanés's figure in the literary panorama of the twentieth century, obligatory mention deserves the theatrical work of Abelardo Estorino, especially La dolorosa historia del amor secreto de don Jacinto Milanés (The Sorrowful History of Don Jacinto Milanés's Secret Love), 1973, and Vagos rumores (Vague Rumors), 1992.