ABSTRACT
With these flowery verses, Miguel Luis Castañeda, “un modesto campesino de nuestra patria, pero un poeta popular de la más fina estirpe …” [a modest peasant of our country, but a popular poet of the finest lineage], paid tribute to Águeda Zamorano, one of the leaders in an historic 1953 gathering of Chile’s popular poets. From rural and urban laborers to members of elite academic circles, at this unprecedented event individuals were brought together from distinct socioeconomic groups in an effort to foster both the revival of Chilean popular poetry and a climate of cross-class collaboration in tune with mid-century populist movements. While certainly complimentary, Castañeda’s lines nonetheless single out women’s participation in popular poetry as something unique and unusual, a late addition to a tradition that began as “flowers of only thistles” (flores de puros cardos). A strong and eloquent female poet who has assumed leadership of the first national organization of poets and singers in Chile, Zamorano is simultaneously a flower that lends a special sweetness to the tough, poetic world of men.
