Antonio Ávila Jiménez
Antonio Ávila Jiménez was a Bolivian poet and violinist born in La Paz in 1898. His poetry, though limited in quantity, is regarded for its excellence and often intertwines themes of music, reflecting his background as a musician. After studying music in Paris and focusing on it for over a decade, he began publishing poetry in the late 1920s, with his personal experiences, including his relationships and family life, influencing his work. Ávila's life was marked by significant events, including participation in the Chaco War and a rewarding career in the Bolivian Ministry of Foreign Relations. He was recognized for his contributions to Bolivian culture, notably through the establishment of La Casa del Poeta, which became a cultural hub in La Paz. His poetry, characterized by brevity and a direct style, often incorporates elements of the Aymara language and reflects his deep connection to both the Andean landscape and the broader human experience. While he admired the Aymara people, his commentary on their struggles remains limited in his body of work. Ávila's writing style shows influences from the avant-garde movement, notably through his unconventional use of punctuation and avoidance of capitalization.
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Antonio Ávila Jiménez
Writer
- Born: June 3, 1898
- Birthplace: La Paz, Bolivia
- Died: December 16, 1965
- Place of death: Bolivia
Biography
Despite a slim output of poetry, the volumes that Antonio Ávila Jiménez produced in his lifetime affirm his poetic excellence. Born in La Paz, Bolivia, in 1898, Ávila was raised in his parents’ stone house in the center of the city. He studied at the National Conservatory of Music and became a proficient violinist. In his writing, he attempted to merge poetry and the music that was a reoccurring motif in his poems.
In 1926, the year after he published his first poems in the journal Inti, Ávila went to Paris to study music. For more than a decade his concentration was on music rather than poetry. His first child, Genevieve, who appears in several of his poems, was born out of wedlock to Ávila and a French mother. In 1929, he married a Dutch violinist, Hendrika Vermeer, with whom he had three children.
In 1932, Ávila returned to Bolivia with his family and joined the Bolivian army to fight in the Chaco War that raged from 1933 until 1936. In 1933, he and his wife joined the National Symphonic Orchestra in La Paz as regular performers. His idyllic family life ended abruptly in 1935, when Hendrika died unexpectedly. In the same year, he was appointed Bolivia’s honorary counsel in France, a post he held until 1937.
On his return to Bolivia, he became an administrator with the Ministry of Foreign Relations. In 1938, he married Laura Villanueva Rocabado, a Bolivian writer. Ávila remained in the ministry for the rest of his professional life. The high regard in which people held him was evident when the municipality of La Paz gave him a house in recognition of his contributions to Bolivia. This house, popularly called La Casa del Poeta (The House of the Poet), became a cultural magnet in La Paz.
Ávila lived and wrote during a difficult period in Bolivia’s history. His life was sandwiched between the Chaco War and the Bolivian Revolution of 1952. These conflicts informed his writing in many ways, as did his close relationship with his children, including his and Laura’s youngest daughter, Silvia Mercedes, herself a poet and the author of a comprehensive study of Ávila ’s work.
Known for his magnanimity and graceful disposition, Ávila incorporated into his poetry the landscape and music of both Europe and Bolivia, for whose natives and Andean highlands he had a special affinity. He often communicated in the native Aymara language. Despite his admiration for the Aymara people, he deals with the injustices they endure in only a handful of his poems.
Ávila’s poems are generally short and direct. They focus on the international, the national, and the personal, in the latter case often involving the poet’s children. He frequently used punctuation, particularly ellipses, rather than completing a thought verbally. This subtle technique forces the involvement of readers’ imaginations. His refusal, like E. E. Cummings, to use upper case letters, reflects some of the influence of the avant-garde movement.