Ambassador DJ Chang Cash welcomed Members of the Diplomatic Corps (Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, Iran, Palestine, Sahrawi, Dominican Republic), Mr Bingo Thamaga, Director for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean at DIRCO, Comrades of the South African Writers’ Association, Comrades from the World Federation for Democratic Youth, Comrades from the ANC and the South African Communist Party, and other friends on 6th February 2025.

H.E. expressed deep gratitude to the guests for joining in the commemoration of the 158th anniversary of the birth of the great universal poet, Rubén Darío, known as the Prince of Spanish Literature and Father of Literary Modernism.

The Government of Reconciliation and National Unity, presided over by Commander Co-President Daniel Ortega and Co-President Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua, recognises the value and position of poet and national hero Rubén Darío as the greatest exponent of Nicaraguan culture. He is considered the precursor of literary modernism in Latin America in the twentieth century, earning him the title of the Prince of Castilian Letters, with a legacy that transcended the borders of the continent.

His masterpiece, Azul (1888), is considered the first work of Spanish-American Modernism. This work was charged with sensuality, eroticism, and musicality.

Rubén Darío defined Modernism in this way:
“… It is nothing more than Castilian verse and prose passed through the fine sieve of good verse and good French prose.”

Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Rubén Darío
We celebrate the prodigious life of Rubén, where we say:

Darío…
Here he illuminates us, A Sun that Does Not Decline!

During the first stage of the Revolution, the Nicaraguan government created the Order of Cultural Independence “Rubén Darío”, the highest distinction granted by Nicaragua to nationals and foreigners for their merits in culture, education, and science.

In 2025, we commemorate “Rubén’s Footsteps”, honouring his legacy and contribution to Hispanic-American literature. He is recognised worldwide as the Father of Literary Modernism.

Félix Rubén García Sarmiento, known as Rubén Darío, was born in Metapa on 18th January 1867 and passed away in León on 6th February 1916. He was a Nicaraguan poet, writer, journalist, and diplomat, and the greatest representative of literary modernism in the Spanish language. He is, perhaps, the poet with the greatest and most lasting influence on 20th-century poetry in the Hispanic world, earning him the title “Prince of Castilian Letters”.

The Embassy of Nicaragua in South Africa, in the framework of its cultural diplomacy, collaborated with the National Writers Association of South Africa and the World Federation for Democratic Youth to organise this significant event, symbolising the unity of nations in promoting and strengthening the bonds of brotherhood and solidarity.

The purpose of “Rubén’s Footsteps” is to share the historical legacy of our Universal Poet, Rubén Darío, who contributed through literature, poetry, and other writings to advocating for peace, respect for sovereignty, and self-determination of all nations.

A Tribute to Rubén Darío’s Oeuvre
Ambassador Cash shared an excerpt from one of Rubén Darío’s most famous poems, Ode to Roosevelt, dedicated to the President of the United States:

ODE TO ROOSEVELT
It’s in the voice of the Bible, or Walt Whitman’s verse,
that we should reach you, Hunter!
Primitive and modern, simple and complicated,
with a little of Washington and four of Nimrod.

You are the United States,
you are the future invader
of the naïve America that has indigenous blood in it,
that still prays to Jesus Christ and still speaks Spanish.

You are a proud and strong specimen of your race;
you are cultured, you are skilful; you oppose Tolstoy.
And taming horses, or slaying tigers,
you are an Alexander-Nebuchadnezzar.

The United States is powerful and large.
When they shudder, there is a deep tremor
that passes through the huge vertebrae of the Andes.
If you cry out, it is heard like the roar of the lion.

Beware, long live Spanish America!
There are a thousand cubs loose from the Spanish Lion.
It would take, Roosevelt, to be God himself,
the terrible Rifleman and the strong Hunter,
to hold us in your iron clutches.

And, since you have everything, one thing is lacking: God!

by Marion Kate