REYES, ALFONSO

älfônˈsō rāˈyĕs, 1889–1959, Mexican writer, diplomat, and educator. Reyes is generally recognized as one of the greatest Spanish American writers of his time. After spending several years in Europe, Argentina, and Brazil as a diplomat, he became president of the Colegio de Mexico. Reyes gained international fame for his poetry, narratives, literary criticism, and essays. His Visión de Anáhuac (1917) is a long prose poem. His poetry also includes Huellas [traces] (1922), Romance del Río de Enero (1933), Yerbas del Tarahumara (1934), Golfo de México (1935), and Romances (1945). A classicist both in style and temperament, he brought grace, wit, and prodigious erudition to his essays. His prose works number in the hundreds; some of the most representative are La experienca literaria (1942), El deslinde [the frontier] (1944), Mexican Heritage (in English, 1946), and the series Simpatías y diferencias [sympathies and differences], Burlas literarias [literary spoofs], and Marginalias. His more recent works are Ancorajes (1951), Albores (1960), and A campo traviesa [open country] (1960). The complete works of Reyes were published in 14 volumes between 1955 and 1959.

See his selected essays (tr. and ed. by C. Ramsdell 1964); studies by J. W. Robb (1969), B. B. Aponte (1972).

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