César Alfredo Miró-Quesada Bahamonde
Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
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(Lima, June 7, 1907 – November 8, 1999)
Was a
Peruvian writer and composer. He wrote novels, short stories, plays, essays,
and poetry.
César
Miró-Quesada was born on June 7, 1907, in the Miraflores district of Lima.
His parents were Alfredo Miró-Quesada Carassa
and Rosa Mercedes Bahamonde Polo. Despite being a member of the Miró Quesada
family, for personal reasons he only used the surname Miró, unlike his brother,
former minister Fernando Miró Quesada Bahamonde.
He
attended the Jesuit schools of San Agustín and La Inmaculada. He used to skip
classes at the Jesuit school to go to the National Library and immerse himself
in its books. At the age of 15, he published the school newspaper
"Relámpago" and shortly afterward, he published the newspaper
"Relámpago." Some time later, he published his first poems in the
magazine "Amauta." He was a friend of José Carlos Mariátegui,
although he only discussed art and literature with him as he did not sympathize
with his political ideas.
In May
1927, he was arrested along with Jorge Basadre, accused of plotting against
President Augusto B. Leguía. He was taken prisoner to San Lorenzo Island, where
he would spend his birthday, and a month later, he, like Basadre, was deported
to Montevideo. Basadre would later say that the plot never existed. In Paris,
in 1929, he met and befriended César Vallejo.
In 1932,
with Calonge and Castillo, they formed the trio "Sudamericano," which
disbanded after a tour of Chile. In 1936, he wrote the waltz "Se va la
Paloma," with music by Filomeno Ormeño, which pays homage to the
traditional procession of the Virgen del Carmen in the Barrios Altos of Lima.
In Los
Angeles, United States United, he received an offer to film a movie depicting
the desire of Latin Americans living in the U.S. to return to their homeland.
The film would be called "Gypsies in Hollywood," and César Miró was
in charge of writing the script, but after he had already begun writing it, the
entrepreneur who was going to finance the film became discouraged from pursuing
it. At that time, César Miró composed the lyrics and music for a song for the
film. Upon returning to Lima in 1943, Jesús Vásquez premiered the song, and
from the moment he began to sing the first verses, it was known that a new
glorious page had been written for the Creole song... "Everyone returns to
the land where they were born, / to the incomparable spell of its sun, /
everyone returns to the corner where they lived, / where perhaps more than one love
flourished..."
The
tondero "Malabrigo" would suffer a similar fate to that of
"Todos Vuelven." When he and José María Arguedas wanted to To film a
movie portraying the lives of fishermen, searching for a suitable harbor, they
arrived at the port of Malabrigo. This movie couldn't be filmed either; the
song "Al Puerto" (To the Port) had already been composed, and with
music by Alcides Carreño, it would become popular.
Julio
Villanueva of the newspaper El Comercio on June 7, 1997, interviewed him on the
occasion of his 90th birthday. There he pointed out that gossip had it that he
had shortened his last name as an act of rebellion against his family, who
owned the newspaper, which was not true. In the United States, they used to
call him "Míster Quesada," so, tired of this situation, he went by
the name César Miró and signed his articles in El Comercio with that name.
In
Mexico, he used to sing "Todos Vuelven" (Everyone Comes Back) with
Peruvian friends, who would end up in tears. He couldn't understand how he
could touch on the feeling of nostalgia for a distant land, especially Peru,
without intending to.
The most
popular versions of "Todos Vuelven" were those by Jesús Vásquez and
Los Chalanes del Perú in the 1990s. Rubén Blades also made a salsa-rhythm
arrangement for "Todos Vuelven" that he disliked because he
considered it a loss of poetic meaning. Blades, during a visit to Lima, asked
him to forgive him for having made some changes to the lyrics and rhythm; César
Miró told him not to worry, that later the people would change what Blades had
done.
The
Peruvian pianist and composer Alfonso de Silva dedicated his last poem to Miró
before his death in 1937: "I forgive myself for having been only an
attempt at Eternity... You are almost as good as my attempt at having
been" (taken from Caretas magazine, December 19, 2002).
He
compiled and wrote the prologue for the first edition of César Vallejo's
Complete Poems (1918-1938), published by Edición Losada—in its collection Poets
of Spain and America—of Buenos Aires, in May. 1949 (the second edition was
published in June 1953 despite the objections of Vallejo's widow, Georgette de
Vallejo).
A great
communicator, he worked in newspapers, radio, and television, demonstrating his
outstanding talent, eventually becoming Director of Radio Nacional del Perú.
He was
President for Life of the APDAYC (National Association of Peruvian Languages),
a member of the Peruvian Academy of Language and the Bolivarian Society. He was
also the Peruvian ambassador to Peru.
Song
Todos vuelven
Todos vuelven
César Miró
Todos vuelven a la tierra en que nacieron,
al embrujo incomparable de su sol,
todos vuelven al rincón donde vivieron,
donde acaso floreció más de un amor.
Bajo el árbol solitario del pasado
cuántas veces nos ponemos a soñar,
todos vuelven por la ruta del recuerdo,
pero el tiempo del amor no vuelve más.
El aire que trae en sus manos
la flor del pasado, su aroma de ayer,
nos dice muy quedo al oído
su canto aprendido del atardecer.
Nos dice con voz misteriosa,
de nardo y de rosa,
de luna y de miel,
que es grande el amor de la tierra,
que es triste la ausencia
que deja el ayer.
Autor(es): César Miró, Alcides Carreño
With
affection,
Ruben
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