Manuel del Cabral

Latin American poet and author Manuel del Cabral (1907-1999) was born in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. Cabral moved to the capital, Santo Domingo, where he joined the elite literary group “La cueva” (The Cave), whose members influenced his innovative poetry, which was focused on issues of social justice and politics.

In the late 1930's Cabral moved first to New York, then to Washington D.C., where he served as a diplomat, a career made possible by his father's position as president of the Senate in the Domincan Republic. Cabral was later assigned to posts in Columbia, Panama, Peru, and Chile, where he met other leading poets and authors.

Cabral produced his most important work during the 1940's, including Tropico negro (1941), Compadre Mon (1942), and De este lado de mar (1949), the latter an indictment of U.S. economic policy regarding Latin America. In the letter transcribed below, Cabral refers to his La carabina piensa (1976) and Historia de mi voz (1964).