Joaquín Lorenzo Luaces

Born July 21, 1826, in Havana; died there Nov. 7, 1867. Cuban poet.

Luaces’ first narrative poem, Rosa, the Tradesman’s Daughter, was written in 1849. In 1857 he published the collection Verses. After a period of writing in the romantic Ciboneyist style, Luaces turned to depicting tragic social conflicts. Revolutionary and patriotic motifs permeate such narrative poems as The Fall of Missolonghi (1857) and the heroic odes “To Lincoln,” “To Warsaw” (published 1877), and “Ode to Juarez” (unfinished). In the narrative poems Labor (1867) and Invitation to Labor and Accord he extolled labor and reason. Luaces’ tragedy Aristodemo (published 1867) condemns Spanish colonialism.

REFERENCES