Julio Molina Núñez

He was born in Rinconada de Los Andes in 1884, died in Santiago in 1965 and lies in the Rinconada de Los Andes Cemetery.

His father was Amable Molina, a veteran of the Aconcagua Volunteer Battalion in the War of the Pacific and his mother was Dolores Núñez, both natives of the Casuto sector in the Rinconada de Los Andes commune.

He was a prominent Chilean lawyer, poet, and critic.

He studied at the Liceo de San Felipe and obtained his law degree from the University of Chile, although his desire was always to be a Spanish teacher, given his innate preference for literary art.

In the Railways of the States, he served as the chief lawyer of this entity at the time when the largest constructions were made in the country, leaving our country communicated from La Serena to Puerto Montt.

He was president of the Club Deportivo Magallanes in his early years in 1935 and is a member of the board of the National Football Association together with Pedro Aguirre Cerda.

With former President Aguirre Cerda they were neighbors who normally visited between Rinconada de Los Andes and Pocuro in Calle Larga, which is why he is part of the government as Interim Minister of the Interior.

Lyric Jungle

He is known for his controversial anthology "Selva Lirica" published in 1917 in which the poetry of numerous Chilean authors was correctly analyzed, discussed and criticized.

This anthology includes the first recorded criticism of Gabriela Mistral, who twenty-eight years later won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945.

Julio Molina was the first person to predict his success as a poet.

"... we are sure that soon there will be a revelation and a beautiful hope for all words in Spanish ... and in Spanish literature, we have yet to see poetry of equal caliber to what we have seen ..."

Motivations for writing the Anthology

It is evident that Julio Molina Núñez was motivated to improve the quality of writers in Chile.

The book begins with Mr. Molina calling the poetic youth of Chile to become innovators without abandoning the oldest art.

"... [to youth] Do not abandon Ancient Art, you have to study it and take advantage of its projections ..."

On September 6, 1912, Julio Molina Núñez and his assistant Juan Agustín Araya invited all the country's writers to present his poems to be included in the most complete anthology to date.

People responded with immense enthusiasm without suspecting Mr. Molina's real intention, which included not only the object of creating an anthology, but also offering an intense study of Chilean poetic activity.

Selva Lirica was probably inspired by the centennial celebrations.

The authors installed all their materials in the Molina Office (Morandé 458, Santiago) where they began the study, discussion, analysis and writing of Selva Lirica, published in 1917.

Review

Selva Lirica was so applauded and recognized as strongly criticized, by various kinds such as: that the chronological ordering was not adequate, the classification under other criteria but mainly because of the choice of poets who did not come out well weighted.
Many of the so-called "simple versifiers", those considered bad poets in the book, even threatened Julio Molina with death.

Chronological organization

The first part of the book consists of the good poets, including Manuel Magallanes Moure, Francisco Contreras, and others.

Among the so-called "promising authors" are Vicente Huidobro and Lucila Godoy (Gabriela Mistral).

These findings show the deep insight and understanding of the author as they both became one of the best poets in the Spanish language.

Pablo Neruda was not mentioned in this anthology because in those years he was just starting out as a writer.

The second part includes poets with classical and romantic tendencies along with other poets that are difficult to classify.

The most controversial section in which the biggest controversies arose was the last part dedicated to the bad poets or "versificatiors", as the authors called it.

Importance

Selva Lirica became the most important Chilean book in 1917, in which the names of the fathers and mothers of twentieth-century Chilean poetry were announced.

Due to its impact and significance in Chilean literary history, the Archives and Museums Libraries (DIBAM) and LOM Ediciones decided to publish a new version of this controversial anthology in 1995.

Pablo Neruda (1976 Nobel Prize winner) mentioned Selva Lírica in his book "I confess that he lived" published in 1974 and says:

"... Selva Lirica. This was the romantic title of Julio Molina Núñez's great anthology ... this is a book that has it all, full of greatness and generosity.
This is the poetic pen of a confused moment ... [Selva Lírica is full of] extremely pure splendor ... "[3]

"... When his stanzas speak to the heart of the universe, invoking the majesty

Revista Chilena.com