Los Contemporáneos, which means "The Contemporaries" in English, refers to a group of Mexican modernist writers active in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It also refers to the literary magazine they created, which was their main way of sharing their work from 1928 to 1931. In some ways, they opposed a literary movement called stridentism.
The group began when students at Mexico City’s National Preparatory School, a school for elite students, formed friendships and worked together on writing projects. Founding members, including José Gorostiza, Carlos Pellicer, Bernardo Ortiz de Montellano, Enrique González Rojo, and Jaime Torres Bodet, first met there. Later, they all attended the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, specifically its law school, where they studied under professors Antonio Caso and Enrique González Martínez. These professors were part of a literary group called Ateneo de México. In 1918, a new group called Nuevo Ateneo de la Juventud was formed. As a literary group, Los Contemporáneos were influenced by modernismo, the work of Ramón López Velarde, and the European avant-garde movement. Their writing first appeared in magazines like Pegaso (1917) and San-Ev-Ank (1918). In 1921, Salvador Novo and Xavier Villaurrutia joined the group, and later, Jorge Cuesta and Gilberto Owen became part of it. During the time when José Vasconcelos was Secretary of Public Education (1920–1924), the group received government support. Antonieta Rivas Mercado was also a member and a supporter of the group.
Members of the group wrote for magazines and other publications. They also started their own journals. The first was México Moderno, a magazine about art and literature, which ran from 1920 to 1923. Other short-lived but influential publications included La Falange (December 1922–February 1923), a magazine about Latin culture, and Ulises (May 1927–February 1928), which focused on curiosity and criticism.
In 1928, Jaime Torres Bodet started the group’s longest-running magazine, Contemporáneos. From June 1928 to December 1931, the magazine published work by the group’s members, older Mexican, Latin American, and Spanish writers, and translations of American and European authors. The magazine used high-quality paper, photographs, and illustrations, made possible by continued government funding.
In 1928, Jorge Cuesta published a poetry collection titled Antología de la poesía mexicana moderna under the group’s press. This book caused strong debates because some people believed important poets were left out. Many pages of the anthology were filled with poems by members of Los Contemporáneos.
Los Contemporáneos: tradition and innovation
The group's main belief was called "contemporary cultural universalism," which means they recognized that cultural expression and creativity were becoming shared worldwide. This change was caused by the growth of capitalism and faster technological progress. The group wanted to take part in this global trend and also add their own unique perspective as Mexican artists. As individuals and as a group, they helped make Mexican poetry more diverse and rich.
The Contemporáneos greatly respected the French literary group La Nouvelle Revue Française and its writers. They also closely followed the development of surrealism, a creative movement. While in Europe, members of the group met with important figures in surrealism, such as André Breton, who wrote the Surrealist Manifesto. The most important writers who influenced the Contemporáneos were Guillaume Apollinaire, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, Marcel Proust, T. S. Eliot, and Juan Ramón Jiménez. Among these, Gide and Proust had the greatest impact.
Critical assessment
The Contemporáneos created works that used many metaphors and complicated images to show unusual ways of telling stories in time and space. These methods were meant to express ideas from philosophy or science. Sometimes, people criticized the Contemporáneos for focusing too much on style and favoring a small group of people, rather than being more connected to everyday life. They were also compared to other groups, like the estridentistas, who were more active in politics and focused on national pride. Critics said the Contemporáneos preferred abstract, philosophical ideas over strong, practical, or common themes.