This bust is located in the park of the Plaza de España.
On a granite pedestal is this black bust.
"José María Alonso de Trelles y Jarén , known by the nickname El Viejo Pancho , born in Ribadeo on May 7 , 1857 and died in Montevideo on July 28 , 1929 , was a Uruguayan Gaucho poet .
Again, he emigrated and settled permanently in Tala (Uruguay), where he came to be in charge of the satirical publications El Tala Cómico and Momentáneas . His most important literary contributions were in lyric poetry, which he cultivated in the form of Gaucho poetry, and to which he provided his work through the traditional weekly El Terruño , El Fogón and El Ombú . In 1915 he published what is considered his flagship work, Paja brava , in which he compiled most of his texts of the genre. Already major, he was deputy by the department of Canelones .
Early years
He was born in a house on the street that today bears his name, 'Viejo Pancho', in the parish of Santa María do Campo, in the town of Ribadeo . He was the son of Vicenta Jarén, of Galician origin, and Francisco Alonso y Trelles, of Asturian origin, who was a teacher at a school near Navia . In his childhood he lived a few years in Asturias, making studies of mercantile expert work in the same Navia . In 1875 , with 18 years of age emigrated to America , taking root during two years in Chivilcoy (town of the province of Buenos Aires , Argentina), until in 1877 moved first to Montevideo and soon to Cutting , locality located to 110 km of the capital, where it acquired fame like poet of the Uruguayan rural life.
Youth
José Alonso y Trelles (right) shortly after reaching Tala.
His first job was as an accountant in a warehouse owned by Juan Riccetto. Years later he married Ricetto's daughter, Dolores.
In the youthful years the rural teacher Joaquin Tejera had much ancestry on him, to that arrived by recommendation of Emilio Rodriguez, companion of trip to the emigration. Tejera supported him and facilitated his work as a postman, and giving him participation in the newspaper "El Tala", founded by him and in which also acted as editors Servando Paisal, Schickendantz and Klappenbach.
In 1882 he married Dolores Riccetto, and shortly afterwards they moved to Sarandí Garupá , near Santana del Livramento . There he acted as an administrator in a trading house that would later close. It was at this time that he met the journalist and politician Rafael Cabeda , with whom he maintained a relationship that continued by letter when he returned to Uruguay. In this same period two children were born from the marriage. They returned to Tala in 1887 .
In Tala for a time he was a partner of his father-in-law and later - advised by his friend Pedro Soto, Justice of the Peace of Tala - he decided to study for Solicitor and Notary .
He participated in several development entities created by the residents, such as the first "Auxiliary Commission of Tala" (for which he was appointed secretary), or the "Cosmopolitan Society of Mutual Aid" of which he was vice president.
Literature
Theater
Drawing of Trelles made by Hermenegildo Sábat León .
He organized a theater group. In him it fulfilled diverse works, like director, stage designer, pointer, and author of several works. For his work, the city of Tala considers him its first theater director.
Among the plays written by him are: A drama in the palace , Fall and redemption , Columbus , The Veterans , Spion Kook , The False Othello , Pepiyo , Lightning Idyll and Juan el Loco , published through the poet Orosman Moratorium in 1887. most of these works have not been published, only a few being preserved.
Satirical journalism
The Comic Logging
"And we hung it, yes, sir; we hung the cartoonist of this weekly for the crime of having hung it on others."
On November 18, 1894 he founded the periodical El Tala Cómico , where he was director and main contributor. The satirical magazine arose in response to Trelles ’need to make a critique of local ecclesiastical and administrative authorities.
In the presentation of this magazine, Trelles summarized the reasons for its appearance:
Apathy, a Muslim apathy, consumes us and has shattered all social bonds and tends to produce selfish and sterile isolation. We live wrapped in an atmosphere of glacial indifference that has frozen all initiatives of progress ... Embracing the shield and raising the visor, so that it is known who we are, we enter the fight. No one has to fear us; whoever wants to avoid a mandible has nothing else to do but perform his duties; for the good there will be no shortage of encouraging words, just as there will be no shortage of censorship for what it deserves.
As the author explains, the fight against that social apathy to which he alludes is another reason for the appearance of this weekly frequency publication. The first repercussions of the inauguration of this publication can be found the following month, in La Razón directed at that time by Carlos María Ramírez , who highlighted:
It’s funny, almost comical. El Tala, that small town that remains in Canelones, beyond the vicinity of San Ramon, has a satirical newspaper as there is no other in the whole Republic. Its director is Juan Monga . The newspaper is fine, but very well written. This Monga , is not a Juan Monga either, because he has salt and still pepper. He is also a skilful cartoonist and a man of patience worthy of passing into the history of Tala. Imagine that he only writes it from cover to cover, he only illustrates it and he only prints it, thanks to one of those machines that reproduce the manuscripts. Moreover the “system” employed in the arrangement has nothing in common with what distinguishes the generality from our outside colleagues. El Tala Cómicoit does not admit cuts, it does not have long articles, it does not publish articles of Taboada, nor it insults to the departmental authorities. Gentlemen: For all these reasons, subscribe to El Tala Cómico .
"This is what our weekly illustrates, the one that stains all its vignettes, and its fat brush serves as an ordinary, to tickle certain poets."
The "Juan Monga" to which Ramírez refers is one of the many nicknames that Trelles used to write in this publication and that alternated according to the circumstances, happening through others like "Cáustico", "Candil", "Tácito", "Ventosa" or " He, ”among others.
Trelles was also responsible for the layout and inclusion of satirical cartoons in the various issues of this weekly. The printing process was tedious and rudimentary, and was done by means of carbon paper, a Cyclostil, and a manual press. its circulation was from 70 to 100 copies, and had the occasional collaboration of his nephew, Ángel Asuaga and the master Luis Scarzolo Travieso.
This publication had a strong influence of the Spanish weekly Madrid cómico , in which Trelles was inspired to give it format, the critical and satirical tone and even name. In this magazine that was published between 1880 and 1923, important figures of the media and the Spanish literature of that time wrote, like Leopoldo Wings "Clarín" , Thin Sinesio , Luis Taboada , Luis de Ansorena , Antonio de Valbuena , Perez Zúñiga , Jose Fiacro Iraizoz and Eduardo of Palace , among others. Eduardo Ramón "Cilla" and Francisco Sancha were caricaturists and cartoonists .
Through El Tala Cómico , Trelles defended his principles, such as compulsory education, and criticized political figures, ecclesiastical authorities, and priests, as well as directed them against healers and hypnotists. One of the satires that had the most repercussions was the one that unleashed a strong controversy with a poet of Willow , that following a critic realized by Trelles, raised that he, in the same way, would criticize the verses of Trelles, to which he responded:
You criticize my verses! / You catch my hiatuses! / Man; don't make me sweat. / Look at making allegations / It's not the same as rhyming.
In a matter of consonants / I judge your importunate failure / And it is better not to anticipate it ... / Because there are many ignorant / "But like you, none!"
These episodes motivated the drawing of its better self-caricature, appeared in the number of the 9 of February of 1896.
In March 1897 the last issue of El Tala Cómico was published , with a total of 83 issues published since 1894.
Momentary
Original manuscript of "La Güeya".
In June 1899 , he founded a new publication, Moments . In its first issue, he made a statement of reasons defining it in part as a continuation of El Tala Cómico :
Momentary: it is worth saying that they give little work, that they have the short duration of the lilies, although I feel that the itching that they produce will last much more than I would like ... El Tala Cómico did not die. These Momentaries are manifestations of his latent life. [ 13 ]
In the lines of Momentáneas it was where Trelles demonstrated, with an evolution that could be called 'melancholic', his passage from the satire of his first literary steps, to a sensitivity and bitterness that he showed with his nickname "El Viejo Pancho". With him, he wrote in this publication fourteen texts, among which we find "Resolution" and "La güeya", considered very important works in the whole of his literary production.
Trelles, in relation to El Tala Cómico and Momentáneas , wrote in his autobiography:
From November 1894 to March 1897 he published, using a Ciclostil in which he overflowed with patience and calligraphic ability, eighty-three issues of El Tala Cómico , a semi-satirical and semi-illustrated newspaper that left no puppet with a head in the department and served as an essay for his later literary critiques, "quite" less glossy than those of the insigne Clarín, but no less devastating than those of Valbuena's good. And from June, 1899, to January, 1900, twenty-three issues of Momentáneas , with "trichomies" giving the twelve.
Poetry gauchesca
Text of " Sing the night ".
His skills as a writer of Gaucho poetry have evolved over time and the successive publications of El Tala Cómico and Momentáneas , in which he absorbed and expressed the idiosyncrasy of the people of Tala and other places in the interior of Uruguay, such as Florida, Durazno or Minas , localities that Trelles visited every day.
Some of the works found in these magazines began to be collected by publications such as the famous Creole magazine "El Fogón" in Montevideo, to which he contributed, along with Elías Regules, Orosmán Moratorio, Alcides de María, Martiniano Leguizamón and other poets. As the magazines El Fogón and El Terruño were much larger than those handled by Trelles, they managed to popularize some of their texts. As an example, "La Güeya", published in the " Momentáneas " of September 10, 1899, and collected almost immediately by El Fogón .
Brava Straw
Original of " Tiento sobáo ".
Previous publications, along with others, have been collected in his major work, published in 1915 under the title Paja brava . This compilation of his Gaucho poems had an important repercussion and a great sales success, being republished about twenty times. Some of these editions have been illustrated by renowned Uruguayan artists.
Another indication of the impact of this book was the incorporation by Carlos Gardel of the poems "Insomnia," Oops! Oops! Hop! "," Like all of them! "And" Mystery "to his repertoire, with music composed by Américo Chiriff .
Besides, Alfredo Zitarrosa based on the poem "In the fight" one of his songs, and composer Eduardo Fabini wrote the music for " The Guey " and " Pa eg ".
In 1998 the edition was published in Galician , with the name of Paja Brava by El Viejo Pancho and other works by José A. y Trelles by the publishing house Oriberthor, SL, with a brief biography of the author.
Political action
On September 25, 1902 , Alonso y Trelles obtained Uruguayan citizenship. Between the years 1908 and 1911 , was delegated by the National Party , being first substitute by the Department of Canelones . His affinity with this looming political party in some of his poems in the book Paja Brava . his arrival in the House of Representatives was accompanied by some debate in the newspapers, which discussed his suitability on the basis of his status as a foreigner. This led the House of Representatives committee to draft the following informative text:
[...] That being Mr. Trelles in legal conditions to be elected deputy, by virtue of his letter of citizenship, which dates from September 25, 1902, and which this Commission had in view, his powers must be accepted. "
After clarifying this point, Trelles took possession of his position on February 20, 1908. In his period as a representative he stood out in his defense of municipal autonomy.
Final years
After ending his political activity, he moved to Montevideo for the studies of one of his children. At this time he made a trip to Asturias and Galicia , visiting his family.
Back in Uruguay, he received a major tribute in San José on January 8, 1922.
He died in Montevideo in 1924 , a victim of a long illness associated with peritonitis .
Literary work
Plaque at the birthplace of José Alonso de Trelles in Ribadeo .
He was the best known representative of traditionalist poetry, in force in the region between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Juan el loco (poem with two songs. Prologue by Orosmán Moratorio. Montevideo, 1867 )
Guacha! (National drama in one act. Printing and publishing house "Renacimiento", by Luis and Manuel Pérez. Letter-prologue by Casiano Monegal . Montevideo, 1913 )
Paja brava (1st ed. Creole verses. Printing and publishing house "Renacimiento" by Luis and Manuel Pérez. Montevideo, 1915 )
[Successive editions:
Paja brava (2nd ed. Creole verses. Enlarged edition. Printing and publishing house "Renacimiento" by Luis and Manuel Pérez. Montevideo, 1920 )
Paja brava (3rd ed. Creole verses. Enlarged edition. National Library Antonio Barreiro y Ramos . Barreiro y Cía. Sucesores. Montevideo, 1923 )
Paja brava (4th ed. Creole verses. Enlarged edition. Foreword by Justino Zavala Muniz . General Agency of Bookstore and Publications. Montevideo - Buenos Aires, 1926 )
Paja Brava by El Viejo Pancho and other works by José A. y Trelles (in Galician), Ed. Oriberthor,
Some of his works have been set to music. Carlos Gardel included in his repertoire several poems of his, set to music by Américo Chiriff : "Insomnia", "Oops! Oops! Oops!", "How All!" and "Mystery."
Acknowledgments
In Ribadeo, the street where the house where he was born (formerly called 'das Angustias') is located, and the local library.
Various events have been organized around his figure; among them, the congress 'The cultural links Galicia-Uruguay', straddling Vilanova de Lourenzá and Ribadeo in 2007, dedicated to him and Juana de Ibarborou ."
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