Rubén Darío

Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (18 January 1867 – 6 February 1916), known as Rubén Darío (US: dah-REE-oh, Spanish: [ruˈβen daˈɾi.o]), was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-language literary movement known as modernismo (modernism) that flourished at the end of the 19th century. Darío had a great and lasting influence on 20th-century Spanish-language literature and journalism.

Life

His parents, Manuel García and Rosa Sarmiento were married on 26 April 1866, after obtaining the necessary ecclesiastic permissions since they were second degree cousins. However, Manuel's conduct of allegedly engaging in excessive consumption of alcohol prompted Rosa to abandon her conjugal home and flee to the city of Metapa (modern Ciudad Darío) in Matagalpa where she gave birth to Félix Rubén. The couple made up and Rosa even gave birth to a second child, a daughter named Cándida Rosa, who died a few days after being born. The marriage deteriorated again to the point where Rosa left her husband and moved in with her aunt, Bernarda Sarmiento. After a brief period of time, Rosa Sarmiento established a relationship with another man and moved with him to San Marcos de Colón, in Choluteca, Honduras.

Although, according to his baptism, Rubén's true surname was García, his paternal family had been known by the surname Darío for many years. Rubén Darío explained it as follows in his autobiography: According to what some of the old people in that town of my childhood have referred to me, my great-grandfather had Darío as his nickname or first name. In this small town he was known by everyone as "Don Darío" and his entire family as the Daríos. It was in this way that his and all his family last name began to disappear to the point where my paternal great-grandmother already replaced it when she signed documents as Rita Darío; becoming patronymic and acquiring legal stand and validity since my father, who was a merchant, carried out all his businesses as Manuel Darío...