Chilean poet from the fertile “Generation of 1938,” Rojas was a member of the surrealist group Mandrágora. Stylistically and thematically close to Pablo Neruda, his work has a darker and more passionate personal tone. His first book, La miseria del hombre (1948), presented poetry that opposed the image-driven rhetoric of the avant-garde and was deeply tied to his political activism.

During Salvador Allende’s government, he served as Chile’s ambassador to Cuba. A professor of literary aesthetics and Chilean literature, Rojas taught in his country and, after the military coup in 1973 that brought Augusto Pinochet to power, continued to teach in Venezuela, Europe, and the United States. In 1992, he won the Spanish Queen Sofia Prize. He published several books, including Contra la muerte (1965), Oscuro (1977), Transtierro (1980), Del relámpago (1986), Desocupado lector (1990), Zumbido (1991), Río Turbio (1996), and Metamorfosis de lo mismo (2000).