Migrant Vallejo in The Black Heralds (1919)

Abstract

 The approaches that have been made to César Vallejo’s first collection of poems, published 100 years ago, have suggested, developed and deepened the presence of diverse themes, including romantic-loving allusions, family images and nationalist sentiment due to the presence of elements of indigenous culture. However, there are still some issues to be de­veloped, one of them is migration. In this sense, this lecture will focus its attention on the analysis of the issue of migration in Los heraldos negros (The Black Heralds). I maintain that there are several poems in which this figure appears, either as an announcement of the journey or departure, or as an allusion to the nostalgic memory of the place of origin that has been left behind to move from one space to another. To understand the expression of this theme more accurately, some references to other texts of Vallejo, where he expresses this feeling, will also be used: letters, poems from Trilce and some of the posthumous poems.