Lilian Serpas

Lilian Serpas Gutiérrez (1905–1985) was a Salvadoran poet. It has been said "information on her is scarce and contradictory", but that she may have had a sexual relationship with Che Guevara. She appeared on a postage stamp of El Salvador and in Roberto Bolaño's novel Amulet. She is also mentioned in Bolaño's novel The Savage Detectives.

Early life

Serpas was born into a family closely connected to literary and cultural life in El Salvador. Her father, Carlos Serpas, was a Salvadoran writer whose influence on her intellectual environment was significant despite his death when she was still very young.

After returning to El Salvador, she devoted herself fully to working for El Diario de Hoy, primarily in the section Pajaritas de Papel (1941). She published several major poetry collections in the postwar period, including Huésped de eternidad (1947) and La flauta de los pétalos (1951), both of which were noted for their thematic maturity and stylistic refinement.

Books