Juan Zorrilla of San Martín

Juan Zorrilla de San Martín (Montevideo, December 28, 1855-Montevideo, November 3, 1931) was a Uruguayan writer, journalist, teacher and diplomat.

Biography

He was born in Montevideo on December 28, 1855, son of the Spanish Juan Manuel Zorrilla de San Martín and the Uruguayan Alejandrina del Poso y Aragón, a very Catholic family. His mother died when the poet was barely a year and a half old. He was raised with love and dedication by his aunt Juliana del Poso y Aragón, wife of Martín García de Zúñiga.

Together with his brother Alejandro, in 1865 he was taken by his father to study at the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepción in Santa Fe, Argentine Republic. Between 1867 and 1872 he studied at the Colegio de los Padres Bayoneses, in Montevideo, where he began his university studies. He graduated from high school in Santa Fe in 1872. Between 1874 and 1877 he studied at the College of the Jesuit Fathers of Santiago de Chile until completing his studies as a graduate in Letters and Political Sciences. In that period he collaborated in the writing of La Estrella de Chile and published Notes of a Hymn . In Chile he was influenced by the romantic readings of José Zorrilla, José de Espronceda and, above all, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer.

In 1907 the Uruguayan government commissioned him to create a historical essay on the figure of José Gervasio Artigas, which would have the purpose of providing data to artists interested in participating in a competition to create a sculpture of the hero. This essay was finally published in 1910 and was titled The Epic of Artigas.

Marriages and offspring

In his first marriage he married Elvira Blanco Sienra, daughter of Juan Ildefonso Blanco and granddaughter of the constituent Juan Benito Blanco, with whom he had six children: María Antonia, Alejandro María, Juan Carlos Modesto, Gerardo Luciano, Elvira Anselma and Rafael Vicente.

A few years after her death, he married his sister, Concepción Blanco Sienra, who gave him ten children: Rafael María, José Luis, Martín, Antonio Gabriel, Ignacio Juan Francisco, Francisco, Alfonso María, Juan León, Pedro de Alcántara, Concepción Elvira and Agustín Felipe.

One of his sons was the sculptor José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín, who in 1921 directed the last transformation of his house in the Montevideo neighborhood of Punta Carretas, designing the current dining room with the fireplace that has the coat of arms carved in its upper part. of the Zorrilla of San Martín, where the motto appears: “You must watch over your life in such a way that it remains alive in death.” Among his descendants are the former representative for San José and former ambassador Alejandro Zorrilla de San Martín, the actress China Zorrilla, the costume designer Guma Zorrilla, the painters Alfredo Zorrilla, Enrique Zorrilla de San Martín and Miguel Herrera Zorrilla and the writer Enrique Estrázulas, among others.

Career

Among his activities, he stood out as:

• Judge. He served as the District Court Judge of Montevideo.
• Political. He was elected deputy for Montevideo (1888-1891). He was a Catholic activist and promoted the creation of the Uruguayan Civic Union.
• Journalist. Founder of the newspaper The Public Good.
• Diplomatic. He held diplomatic representations in front of Spain—the country where his son José Luis Zorrilla was born in San Martín—France and the Vatican.
• Teacher. He held various chairs at the University of the Republic (Literature, Public International Law and Art Theory).

On August 18, 1935, his house was declared a museum by the Uruguayan Parliament through law 9595.

Sculptures

• Cruz del Cerro Pan de Azúcar in Maldonado, Uruguay. 35 m high cement cross built in 1933, conceived by Zorrilla de San Martín and Father Engels Walters.

Poems

• Notes of an hymn (1877)
• Legend home (1879)
• I will (1888)
• The epic of Artigas (1910)
• Rims and legends
  • The angel of the charrúas
  • Impossible
  • Hate and love
  • Always alive
  • You and me.
  • Hymn to the tree
  • Vestals

Tests

• Address by La Rábida (1892)
• Resonance of the road (1896)
• Closed (1900)
• Conferences and speeches (1905),
• Details of the rioplatense history (1917)
• The Sermon of Peace (1924)
• Ruth's book (1928)
• Ituzaingo
• Artigas

Distinctions

• Grand Cross Knight of the Order of Elizabeth the Catholic
• Leader of the Legion of Honor
• Big Knight of the Order of Charles III
• His efigie circulates in the 20-weight Uruguayan ticket.

Operas based on his works

• I will, opera by Alfonso Broqua.
• I willArturo Cosgaya Ceballos.
• I willHeliodoro Oseguera's opera.
• I willThomas Breton's opera.
• I will (1923), opera by Alfredo Luis Schiuma, premiered in 1925 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

Zorrilla Museum

Zorrilla's summer house, located in the Montevideo neighborhood of Punta Carretas on Zorrilla de San Martín streets and Rambla Mahatma Gandhi, is currently a museum, called Museo Zorrilla.

It began to be built in 1904, in a then depopulated area. In 1921, an extension was made under the direction of his son, the sculptor José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín, who designed the dining room with the fireplace that has the coat of arms of the Zorrillas of San Martín carved into its upper part, where the motto "Velar se "he owes life in such a way that he remains alive in death."

In 1936 the house became property of the state. In 1942 it was transformed into a museum dependent on the Ministry of Education and Culture as 'Museo y Escuela Cívica Juan Zorrilla de San Martín', forming part of one of the historical houses belonging to the National Historical Museum of Uruguay.

From 1995 to 2013 the museum was administered by the Committee of Friends of the Zorrilla Museum, which recovered the place and built a modern room where exhibitions and cultural events are held. Currently it is part of the National Museum System of Uruguay.

Zorrilla said: "My whole life is within these four walls, here are my family memories and the fruit of my efforts."