Roque Dalton (San Salvador, El Salvador, 14 May 1935 – Quezaltepeque, El Salvador, 10 May 1975) was a leftist Salvadoran poet and journalist. He is one of Latin America's most compelling poets. He wrote emotionally strong, sometimes sarcastic, and image-loaded works dealing with life, death, love, and politics.

He was the son of Winnall Dalton, an American adventurer from Arizona who is related to the Ronstadt's from Arizona. Winnall Dalton went to Mexico and fought in the Mexican revolution and came to El Salvador in the early 1920's. Winnall Dalton married a woman by the last name of Maine. He gained control of a large farm from one of the families of the oligarchy that has controlled El Salvador, for most of that country's existence. The owner of the farm was about to lose it to the bank and Winnall Dalton bought it on credit. He sold all of the timber on the land and payed off the Bank and the Salvadoran landowner. The Salvadoran banker was not happy and sent assassins to kill Winnall Dalton. He survived and the Salvadoran nurse who took care of Winnall Dalton in the Salvadoran hospital, María García Medrano, was the mother of Roque Dalton. Her hard work and good luck allowed her to provide their children a high quality education.

Roque graduated from Externado San José, an exclusive Jesuit school for boys in San Salvador. Afterwards he was sent by his father to Santiago in Chile to study law in the Universidad Nacional de Chile. There, he established close relationships to Leftist students and attended lectures with the Mexican artist Diego Rivera. Around this time, he developed a great interest for Socialism.

When he returned to El Salvador, he was accepted in Law School in the Universidad de El Salvador (UES) and in 1955 he founded Círculo Literario Universitario, which put together the country's most recognized literary figures.

Roque Dalton was already politically active in El Salvador when the Cuban revolution started in 1959. This year he was arrested and was alledgedly sentenced to be executed by a firing squad. The day before his execution, Col. José María Lemus was overthrown from presidency, and because of this, Dalton's life was spared. Once he was freed from jail, he travelled to Mexico in exile and wrote much of the material that appeared in his books El Turno del Ofendido and La Ventana en el Rostro

In 1961 he travelled to Havana, where he was welcomed by Casa de las Américas, a gathering place for many exiled leftist Latin American writers. Dalton returned clandestinely to El Salvador in 1965 but was soon caught and taken prisoner again. He awaited execution in Cojutepeque, but once again he was miraculously saved. There was an earthquake and the wall from his prison cell fell down. Dalton took advantage of this and escaped, he slipped into a passing religious procession and managed to meet his fellow revolutionaries who helped him escape to Cuba again. He was then sent to Prague as a correspondent for The International Review: Problems for Peace and Socialism. While he was in Prague, he wrote his internationally acclaimed Taberna y Otros Lugares. He also produced a landmark biography of Miguel Mármol, a prominent Salvadoran communist who participated in the 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising and was living in exile in Prague.

In 1970 Roque Dalton had become a recognized figure in the Salvadoran left. He tried hard to become a revolutionary soldier, for which reason he participated in military training camps in Cuba several times. He once wrote "Politics are taken up at the risk of life, or else you don't talk about it".

When he felt ready as a soldier, he sought admission in the Salvadoran Marxist-Leninist army FPL - Fuerzas Populares para la Liberación (Popular Liberation Front in English). However, the organization's leader, Commandante Marcial (whose real name was Salvador Cayetano Carpio), rejected his application, arguing that Roque's role in the revolution was as a poet, and not as a foot soldier. Because of this, he applied to join the ERP - Ejérito Revolucionario del Pueblo (People's Revolutionary Army in English). Roque Dalton's military career also included cooperation with Guatemalan revolutionaries in creating EGP - Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres (Guerrilla Army of the Poor in English).

According to a legend, Roque Dalton underwent plastic surgery during this time. He did this in order to be able to return clandestinely to El Salvador. According to the Salvadoran writer Claribel Alegría, he had to disguise his long nose and flapping ears. He grew a moustache, started using eye glasses and went around with a different hairdo.

Once an active member in ERP, Dalton stressed the importance of establishing bonds with the organizations from civil society. Some of the other members of ERP disagreed with him. They accused him of trying to divide the organization. This group condemned him to death, and executed him the 10th of May 1975, only four days before Roque became 40 years old. Another version of facts suggests that Dalton was mistakenly accused of operating as a double agent for the CIA, reason for which he was executed. It is plausible that the Salvadoran government spread this false rumour about him, as it was a common strategy used by the Salvadoran intelligence service for getting rid of political opponents.

Bibliography

POETRY

- Mía junto a los pájaros, San Salvador, 1957

- La ventana en el rostro, México, 1961

- El mar, La Habana, 1962

- El turno del ofendido, La Habana, 1962

- Los testimonios, La Habana 1964

- Poemas. Antología, San Salvador, 1968

- Taberna y otros lugares, Premio Casa de las Américas, La Habana 1969

- Los pequeños infiernos, Barcelona 1970

Translation to English:

- "Small Hours of the Night", translated by Jonathan Cohen, James Graham, Ralph Nelson, Paul Pines, Hardie St. Martin and David Unger. Edited by Hardie St. Martin, Curbstone Press. 1996

ESSAYS

- César Vallejo, La Habana, 1963

- El intellectual y la sociedad, 1969

- ¿Revolución en la revolución? y la crítica de la derecha, La Habana, 1970

- Miguel Mármol y los sucesos de 1932 en El Salvador, 1972

- Las historias prohibidas del Pulgarcito, México, 1974

- El Salvador (monografia) UCA Editores.

FICTION

- Pobrecito poeta que era yo, San Salvador: UCA Editores, 1994, 2000

External links

*http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=304
*http://www.curbstone.org/authdetail.cfm?AuthID=53
*http://www.yclusa.org/article/articleview/1569/1/294