José María Hinojosa Lasarte (17 September 1904 – 22 August 1936) was a Spanish writer and political militant. As a man of letters he is considered one of the first if not the very first and the only genuinely surrealist poet in Spain, counted also among members of Generation ‘27. Following an alleged visit to the Soviet Union, he shifted, to the shock and horror of his surrealist colleagues, from Stalinism towards Carlism, the Catholic Church in Spain, and the Agrarian Party. These beliefs made him highly sceptical of the Second Spanish Republic when it was declared in 1931 and ultimately caused him to fall victim to the Red Terror by the Republican faction during the subsequent Spanish Civil War. Following more than half a century of oblivion, his memory and especially the circumstances of his abduction and murder have become a counter-reference in politically-charged discussions about the similar murder of fellow poet Federico García Lorca during the White Terror.
Family and youth
According to the family legend the forefathers of José Maríafull name José, Salvadór, Francisco, Javier, Rafael del Corazón de Jesús descended from Moctezuma; according to historical records the Carvajals were first noted in Málaga province in the 16th century, having founded the town of Campillos.Julio Neira, Introducción, [in:] José María Hinojosa, La Flor de Californía, Santander 1979, p. 15 Along the strictly male paternal line the Hinojosas, another local family, throughout the centuries as wealthy landholders ensured their dominant position in the county. The list of Campillos’ mayors reads like the Hinojosa genealogical tree; also José María's father Salvador Hinojosa Carvajal (1869–1936)Alfonso Sánchez Rodríguez, La poesía de José María Hinojosa [PhD thesis Universitat de Lleida], Lérida 1995, p. 2-5, La Correspondencia de España 30.12.11, available here and his uncleLa Correspondencia de España 19.04.19, available here held the alcaldia post in the late Restoration period; Salvador, influential within the local conservative realm,Julio Francisco Neira Jiménez, De musas, aeroplanos y trincheras (poesía española contemporánea), Madrid 2015, , p. 79 served also as diputado provincial.Diario de Córdoba 12.02.22, available here In 1893see Asunción Hinojosa Carvajal entry, [in:] myheritage service, available here, Rosa Ruiz Gisbert, José María Hinojosa, el gran olvidado, [in:] Isla de Arriarán XXIX (2007), p. 181 he married Asunción Lasarte Xuarez (1872–1932),El Siglo Futuro 13.02.33, available here descendant to another affluent landholder family from the nearby Estepa.Sánchez Rodríguez 1995, p. 2-5. Asunción Lasarte was daughter to José Lasarte Andrés and Asunción Xuárez de Sanabria, Jaime de Salazar y Acha, Estudio histórico sobre una familia extremeña, los Sánchez Arjona, Ciudad Rodrigo 2001, , p. 478 The couple lived on family estates in Campillos and Alameda;Alfonso Sánchez Rodriguez, Casas de familia Hinojosa, [in:] Luna de Hipnos service, available here they had 6 children,Ruiz Gisbert 2007, p. 181 José María born as the second oldest son.
Hinojosa and his siblings were brought up in luxuryHinojosa spent his infancy and adolescent years between Campillos, Alameda and Málaga, Geo Constantinescu, José María Hinojosa y el surrealismo español, [in:] Diacronia 6 (2010), pp. 445-449 and under heavy religious influence,Ruiz Gisbert 2007, p. 181 the latter mostly due to their mother. Certain scholars suggest that Asunción's strong Catholic conviction bordered on tyranny.A case usually often quoted to demonstrate Hinojosa’s mother's zealous Catholicism and its impact on him is her insistence that the young José María did not reside in the Residencia de Estudiantes, which she considered a hotbed of atheism and blasphemy, Sánchez Rodríguez 1995, p. 2-16. Also in the late 1920s the tension persisted; Hinojosa’s mother refused to enter his room while a surrealist act was hanging on the wall; acting on suggestion on Freullen Valls eventually Hinojosa removed the painting, Sánchez Rodríguez 1995, p. 2-48 From infancy, José María was described as serious, withdrawn, addicted to reading, and having a penchant for extravagance.Sánchez Rodríguez 1995, p. 2-7 In 1915Sánchez Rodríguez 1995, p. I2-8. Some authors claim he entered school in 1914, Ruiz Gisbert 2007, p. 182 he entered the Colegio de San Fernando in Málaga and possibly also the Jesuit college of San Estanislao; he graduated in 1920.Ruiz Gisbert 2007, p. 182 In 1921–1922 he attended preparatory law courses at the Universidad de GranadaSánchez Rodríguez 1995, p. 2-12 before moving to Madrid in 1923, where he enrolled at the Facultad de Derecho. After a 1925–1926 spell in Paris – either to improve his French or to prepare for diplomatic serviceSánchez Rodríguez 1995, p. 2-22 to 2-26 – Hinojosa returned to SpainRuiz Gisbert 2007, p. 186 and completed his curriculum in 1926.Ruiz Gisbert 2007, p. 182 He spent most of 1927 serving in the militarywhen performing his military service in Madrid Hinojosa lived in Hotel Majestic and showed up on duty every morning, Sánchez Rodríguez 1995, p. 2-30 as a soldier in the capital.the service lasted from February to December 1927; Hinojosa was assigned to Brigada Obrera y Topográfica, Ruiz Gisbert 2007, p. 186 He completed his service in 1928.Ruiz Gisbert 2007, p. 188
The years of 1928–1930 were mostly bohemian in Málaga, combined with journeys across Andalusia and abroad. Apart from trips to France and England, Hinojosa visited Nordic countries and toured the USSR, perhaps the first of this sort permitted by the Soviet authorities.Sánchez Rodríguez 1995, p. 2-38 Partly living with his family, he also began to engage in the family business, which apart from landholdings also includes industrial exploration activities.El Financiero 19.08.21, available here Around that time, he fell in love with Ana Freüller Valls, an aristocrat, granddaughter to Juan Valera and a local aviation pioneer. Their relationship proved to be a complex and erratic one. Hinojoisa hoped for marriage and indeed Freüller later admitted that at one point they were about to marry; however, she also claimed that they were simply close friends.Ruiz Gisbert 2007, pp. 195-196 The affair went on until Hinojosa's death; he was never married and had no children.
Literary career
In the early 1920s, Hinojosa began his career in Málaga with Emilio Prados as his literary mentor.Sánchez Rodríguez 1995, p. 2-11 In 1923, he co-foundedwith Emilio Prados and the two and José María Souvirón Ambos, a literary review. Vaguely anchored in Andalusian rural myths it embraced aspects of the eclectic avant-garde, including dadaism, futurism and expressionism;Ruiz Gisbert 2007, p. 183 apart from juvenile poems contributed by its founders, the periodical also printed works of García Lorca, Laffón Zambrano and Salazar Chapela. With circulation limited mostly to acquaintances, Ambos stopped after just 4 issues.Sánchez Rodríguez 1995, pp. 2-13 to 2-16 Hinojosa's writing matured in Paris, where he joined the circle of young Spanish artists: apart from already befriended Prados and Lorca the group included Buñuel, Dalí and a number of later famous writers and painters.the group of Hinojosa’s acquaintances included also Juan Ramón Jiménez, José Moreno Villa, José Bergamín, Rafael Alberti, Juan Vicéns, José María Chacón, José Bello, José María Barnadas, René Crével, Pierre Unik, Joaquín Peinado, Hernando Viñes, Ismael de la Sema, Francisco Cossio, Francisco Bores, Benjamin Palencia, José María Ucelay and Gregorio Prieto; in 1926 he met Breton himself, Sánchez Rodríguez 1995, p. 2-17 Though styled after Rimbaud,Hinojose used to wear Rimbaud-style hat and smoked a pipe, Alfonso Sánchez Rodriguez, José María Hinojosa y la calavera de Rimbaud, [in:] Clarín 04.06.08, available here in terms of poetry Hinojosa was described as a surrealist;origins of Hinojosa's surrealism are disputed; some scholars claim it stemmed from Andalusian baroque esthetics combined with rural mythology, others reply that he clearly picked up surrealism in Paris, influenced by Aragon and Breton, Sánchez Rodríguez 2014, p. 185 the poems he contributed to reviews like La Verdad or Verso y prosa,Ruiz Gisbert 2007, p. 186 but especially the volumes he published in 1925–1927, are considered a stepping stone towards full literary maturity.his first surrealist work is considered to be a 1924 poem Sueños. 1925, 1926 and 1927 volumes are thought to be "preambulo" and "comienzo" to full literary maturity, Enrique Baena, El argumento de la Obra. Poética y sueño en José María Hinojosa, [in:] Julio Neira, Almoraima González (eds.), Escondido en la luz, Málaga 2005, , p. 174
Hinojosa's writings climaxed in 1928 with the publication of further two volumes, considered the peak embodiment of his surrealism. In the late 1920s, he got involved in Imprenta Sur, a friendly Málaga publishing houseset up by his friends Altoaguirre and Chaves and especially in the launch of Litoral, another Málaga-based avant-gardist literary review. He contributed as editor and poet, specifically involved in the 1929 commemorative issue dedicated to Góngora; at that time he also engaged financiallyVíctor de Lama (ed.), Poesía de la generación del 27: Antología crítica recomendada, Madrid 1997, , p. 433 and entered the board;Ruiz Gisbert 2007, p. 183 later Hinojosa intended to launch a strictly surrealist periodical.with provocative titles like Poesía y Destrucción, El Agua en la Boca or El Libertinaje, Sánchez Rodríguez 1995, p. 2-46 Due to his poetry and bohemian lifestyle but also because of somewhat anti-religious if not nearly blasphemous motives of his writings, in the local Málaga milieu he was already enjoying the reputation of an extravagant iconoclast. Hinojosa reinforced this image by staging social provocations scandalizing both iconic intellectuals like Valle-Inclanduring a homage reception to Valle-Inclan Hinojosa was reading fake telegram messages urging to kill the writer; other ones were in scatological tone, e.g. claiming that "la condesa de Noailles menstrúa como una vaca", Sánchez Rodríguez 1995, p. 2-29 and plain rural Andalusians; he was willingly assisted by acquaintances like Dalí and his new female partner Gala.Dali and Gala, driven across Andalusia in Hinojosa’s Chrysler cabrio, paraded half-naked in the countryside, Ruiz Gisbert 2007, p. 187; see also Giovanni Allegra, Trent'anni di avanguardia spagnola: da Ramón Gómez de la Serna a Juan-Eduardo Cirlot, Jaca 1987, , p. 165