C É S A R M A R A Ñ Ó N
___________________________________________________from CINCO POETAS AMAZÓNICOS BOLIVIANOS
Translated from the Spanish by Nico Austin Suárez and the author
César Marañón died as he lived: nearly anonymously. There is no record of where he was buried, although it is known he died in Nana, a village between Lima and Chosica. It is believed he died in 1957 at age sixty-nine. His life was sketched in a few anecdotes. In winter, he invariably wore a thick black overcoat and a silk red kerchief around the neck. With more sanity than the great majority of Latin-American men, Marañón proposed that in love relationships women should approach men. This would eliminate the implicit violent threat that often men pose for women, a violence inherent to the act of sexual penetration. Men, naturally, “would have the right to reject such advances if they were not to their liking” (El Diario, Lima, April 12, 1956).
Among the few women who approached Marañón, only one, Carmela Belaunde, a distant relative of the man who later became President of Peru, captivated him. But they never married nor had children.
The poems of this selection were provided by Miss Belaunde, and for that we extend our gratitude to her.
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