2. About Rubén Darío

Ruben Dario was a nicaraguan poet, journalist and diplomat, he was the maximum representative of the modern literature in spanish language, also called the prince of castillian words.

Darío was the firstborn child of Manuel García (known for being excessive with alcohol and women) and Rosa Sarmiento, García’s cousin.

Rosa Sarmiento

They got married thanks to donations given to the church, because, on those times, marriage between second cousins wasn’t allowed.

García’s behaviour made Rosa Sarmiento, already pregnant, choose to leave their home and take shelter in Metapa city, in which she gave birth to her son, Félix Rubén.

Then, after a brief reconciliation, she becomes pregnant with a daughter, who died few days after birth. Their relation falls apart again, and Rosa abandoned her husband once again, to go and live with her son at one of her aunt's house, Bernarda Sarmiento, in the same city of Leon.

But Rosa Sarmiento wanted to live a new life without her son, and later on, she went to live with another man at San Marcos de León, leaving her son in charge of his grandparents.

Although Rubén Darío was baptized with his father’s last name (García), the paternal family was known from generations by the surname Dario.

During his childhood, he lived in the city of Leon, being raised by his great uncles Felix and Bernarda, whom he considered, during his childhood, as his true parents (in fact, during his first years, he signed his homework as Félix Rubén Ramírez). He barely had any contact with his mother, who resided in Honduras, and with his father, whom he called "Uncle Manuel".

  House of Rubén  Darío in Metapa, Nicaragua

From a very young age he began to read and write, his relatives commented that he began to read at age 3, and by the time he reached 13 years old, he had published “Una elegía, una lágrima” , that appeared in El Termómetro newspaper. Shortly after, he collaborated with the literary newspaper El Ensayo, and became famous as the "child poet". It was strongly influenced by Víctor Hugo’s works, liberal ideology and his opposition to the catholic church thinking.