Jacmel (Haiti), 1926

By Flávio Aguiar

Since Depestre was nineteen years old, Haiti has recognized the quality of his poems first published in Centelleos (1945). That year, he began editing an avant-garde magazine inspired by European surrealism, a movement that Caribbean artists, represented by notable names such as Aimé Césaire, followed with great interest. Arrested along with other colleagues persecuted by the Haitian dictatorship, he contributed to the creation of a special issue of the magazine Roche in tribute to André Breton, which was soon censored by the police. This episode sparked intense popular protests that were harshly suppressed by the Army.

Sentenced to exile, he joined the Negritude Movement, founded in Paris by Léon Damas, Léopold Senghor, and others. He developed a literary career centered on exploring surrealism’s thematic and aesthetic aspects through which he campaigned culturally and politically against all forms of social oppression. He dedicated the volume Cantata a octubre (1968) to the death of Ernesto Che Guevara. He wrote prose (Hadriana en todos mis sueños, 1988) and essays on Black literature. Another work: Cucaña (1973).