César Vallejo

Peruvian expatriate César Vallejo (1892-1938) was a major 20th Century poet known for the authenticity and originality of his work. Deeply rooted in a mixed European and Peruvian Indian heritage, his poetry expresses universal themes of the human condition through the lens of his own painful experiences as an inmate in a Trujillo prison, as an expatriate political activist, and as a witness of the devastating Spanish Civil War. He died in Paris of a chronic illness in 1938.