ENGLISH CORNER, CON LINDA JIMÉNEZ – This week’s trivia question: What poem did León Felipe dedicate “To all the Jews in the world, my friends, my brethren”?
León Felipe was a Spanish poet who was born in Zamora in 1884 and died in Mexico in 1968. He fought in the Spanish Civil War for the Spanish Republican Army, against Franco’s Nationalists. In 1938 he left Spain and began a voluntary exile in Mexico. Because he was an anti-Fascist, his work was practically unknown in Spain until the return of democracy after Franco’s death in 1975. In recent years León Felipe has gained more recognition, and some of his poems have even been set to music. In 2018 a number of official institutions organized tributes to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death.
Jesús Jambrina is Associate Professor of Spanish and History and Coordinator of Latin American and Latina, Latino Studies at Viterbo University in Wisconsin. He spoke with us about León Felipe’s life and work, and his special connection with Israel and the Jewish people.
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After visiting Prague, Warsaw and Krakow, the León Felipe exhibit will finish its international tour at the Instituto Cervantes in New York (Sept. 12-Oct. 10) and Chicago (Oct. 15-Jan. 15).
(For the answer to this week’s trivia question, go here.)
