1914 was the year when Vicente Huidobro, a Chilean, revealed against everything

By IASP. 

Non Serviam. In 1914, a poet led the upraising against everything (all revolts should spark like poetry). "I am not serving you ever again," he admonished to the omnipotent mother nature with all his strength. Non Serviam. That phrase, the Chilean Vicente Huidobro claims, was carved in history. "I will never serve you as a slave, never again." With two words, Non Serviam, a revolution like never before began. This was the ammunition of Vicente Huidobro's Manifest of Creationism. To create, create, and create. This is fascinating. Perhaps the most important vanguard movement ever made.

Cover picture of the Quilapayun's Album "Survario"

"The poet says to his brothers: 'Until now we have done nothing but imitate the world in its aspects, we have not created anything. What has come out of us that was not before standing before us, surrounding our eyes, challenging our feet or our hands?' (...) Non serviam. I am not to be your slave, Mother Nature; I will be your master." 

Like a bird that learns how to fly from the ground. That soil is our teacher, but never again, our chains. We are called to make new words that have no resemblance at all to anything ever seen. May us burn reaching the oblivion, to reborn in the unknown.

Vicente Huidobro did not merely preached and preached since he actually made it with Altazor or Viaje en Paracaidas ("Journey in Parachute"). Yes, this is Altazor, the work of Vicente Huidobro. Altazor is a poet, who decides to jump in this oblivion. Perhaps moved by bravery or in just a self-destructive motion deeply rooted in our souls. Life, in the words of Altazor himself, is nothing but a journey in parachutes and "fear changes the shape of the flowers." Can't you see that you're already falling? Fall as low as you can fall, but without vertigo. Through all spaces and ages. Souls and shipwrecks. He falls

                                                                                                                                          fell,

                                                                                                                    Falling,

                                                                                                 Fail,

                                                                           Coma, 

                                                          Dhaf,

Words gain a new meaning. 

The cataclysm was upon us. Even before Europe could finish burying all their dead. Vicente Huidobro foresaw this transition to a world without certainties. There was no longer good, beauty, or truth to appeal for. The compass was lost, broken and our language began to sink as well to a point where perhaps we could not understand each other as Altazor was. How were we supposed to embrace the oblivion and keep walking with one foot behind while the other swings blinded? Singing.  

Singing. The poetry of Vicente Huidobro is a song. Creation cannot be anything but a song. He sings, Altazor is singing. Still, he is falling, that's a fact and let's agree on that, but Altazor sings non-stop. It amazes me that it seems that everything deserves some lines of Altazor's poetry because we may be falling in despair but there is always time to sing and create in Huidobros' poetry. Poetry is not only our parachute in this journey, but our rocket. Although Altazor is falling, we watch him ascending to the sky. It is in this ascent where the words lose their meaning so that the ground could become the sky as the stars begin illuminating the bottom of the sea. 

Somehow Huidobro is inviting us to join this exaltation  chorus of creation. Altazor has the most fascinating musicalizations ever made because words carry a unknown meaning by the time Altazor his reaching his destiny -whether below or above. For instance, the Chilean band Quilapayun played the seventh part of the poem (the dialect of birds) as follow: Monlutrella monluztrella//alol'u/Montresol y mandotrina//Ai ai/ Montesur en lasurido//Montesol. When I listen this part of the song, I would swear that it sounds almost like Spanish if I am not really focused on the words. This is fascinating. 

Huidobro passed away many years ago, but his rebellion sparks to this day. Altazor: Canto VII (dialect of birds) keeps being one of the most interesting pieces of music to be adapted. I have posted below just a few that I could find together with this part of the poem. I honestly believe that there is not enough musicalization of this masterpiece, so if any musician is reading this, I beg you to hear my call and adapt this poem to music, where most likely belong. 

Chile cannot be completely understood without Vicente Huidobro. His legacy blossoms deeply in our culture because it also admonished us to make us understand that our isolation was not a life sentence. We do not need to desperately copy the vanguards overseas when we lead our own. He awoke our culture and we are living this revolution. His eldest daughter, Manuela, and Eduardo Anguita wrote the following epitaph on Vicente Huidobro's grave: «Here lies the poet Vicente Huidobro / Open the grave / At the bottom of this grave you can see the sea».