Efrén Rebolledo

Efrén Rebolledo, born Santiago Procopio Rebolledo, (Actopan, Hidalgo, Mexico, 9 July 1877 – Madrid, Spain, 10 December 1929) was a Mexican orientalist, modernist poet, diplomat, and lawyer. His poetry had parnassianist influences, such as in Cuarzos. It also touched erotic themes such as lesbianism in Victrix Caro and El beso de Safo; similar to José Juan Tablada, Rebolledo was ostracized by his contemporaries for this.

Biography On 9 July 1877, Rebolledo was born in Actopan, Hidalgo, Mexico, to Petronilo Flores, who abandoned the family, and Otomi Petra Rebolledo; he also had a brother named Francisco. He was baptized at San Nicolás Tolentino parish as Santiago Procopio but took the name of Ephrem the Syrian and did not take his father's surname. During his youth, his family faced poverty and also grew up in Pachuca. He received a scholarship to secondary and college-preparatory school, attending the Scientific and Literary Institute at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo; he then attended the and graduated with a law degree. leading to his professional beginnings in poetry in 1900, collaborating with the , whose director and founder, Jesús E. Valenzuela, encouraged his pursuit. He also collaborated with Revista de Revistas, , and Vida Moderna, among others. compared Rebolledo's values to the Mexican Youth Athenaeum based on his strong inclination to literature and his works published in Vida Moderna.

In 1901, he joined the diplomatic corps, possibly as suggested by Bernardo Reyes, under the protection of Ignacio Mariscal. He composed Rimas japonesas while in Tokyo, writing of its nights while thinking of prostitutes:

Before ambassador departure for Europe, he designated Rebolledo as chargé d'affaires. He himself left in June 1915 funded by a loan from Mitsui & Co.

Between 1911 and 1919, in addition to his own works he translated those by Rudyard Kipling, Oscar Wilde, and Maurice Maeterlinck.

On 10 or 11 December 1929, he died in Madrid due to complications with face paralysis first suffered in 1910. Javier Sánchez Mejorada requested his remains be returned to Mexico and his family receive a lifetime pension; neither were granted. Rebolledo was buried in the Cementerio de la Almudena on 15 July 1940 and no pension was awarded to Blomkvist-Rebolledo. He is commemorated in the name of the in Pachuca. One of his descendants is his Norwegian grandson, Torgeir Rebolledo Pedersen.

Works El enemigo (novel, 1900) Cuarzos (poems, 1902) Más allá de las nubes (poems, 1903) Hilos de corales, (poems, 1904) Estela (poems and prose poems, 1907) Joyeles (anthology, 1907) Rimas japonesas (poems, 1907, edited in 1915) Nikko (travelogue, 1910) Hojas de bambú (novel, 1910) El desencanto de Dulcinea (prose poems, 1916) Caro victrix (poems, 1916) Libro de loco amor (1916) El águila que cae (tragedy, 1916) Salamandra, novela de Efrén Rebolledo (1919, edited in Norway in 1922) Joyelero (collection of poems, 1922) Saga de Sigrida la Blonda (novel, 1922)