Summary
The period following the Spanish Civil War was, for many Catalans, one of great pain as they were forced to flee the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Among these exiles was author Agustí Bartra, who sought refuge in Mexico along with a large part of his countrymen. Inspired by Mexican myth and culture he penned the epic poem Quetzalcoatl (1960), an homage to Mexico and a reflection of the author’s own feelings of loss and pain in exile. Bartra, inspired by precolonial indigenous codices and various post-conquest versions of the myth, found in Quetzalcoatl a reflection of his own lived experience. Celebrated by his Mexican contemporaries for both his creativity and his faithfulness to the myth, Bartra imbues in his tale the pain of exile, the sadness of losing one’s home, and the hope for a better future. Citing translations from Nahuatl by Ángel María Garibay Kintana, Bartra’s representation of Quetzalcoatl reflects both an authentic version of the exiled god-king and the Catalan exile experience. However, despite his sorrow, his longing, his anger, his pain, Quetzalcoatl never wavers in his quest to better life for all humanity. As Bartra’s protagonist ascends to the sky to assume his role as a star, he creates a beacon of light for all those who are lost to follow, a reminder to the displaced that all is not lost. My project studies Bartra’s poem alongside its Mexican origins to examine the emotion of exile, the victory triumph of light over darkness, and the triumphant rebirth of the exile god Quetzalcoatl.
Adam Singh, University of Indiana, adamsing@iu.edu