ROQUE DALTON was born in San Salvador, El Salvador, in 1935. He studied law and social science at universities in San Salvador, in Chile and in Mexico. In 1955 he joined the Communist Party.
He was imprisoned and forced into exile several times. One time, while he was under sentence of death, an earthquake split the walls of his cell and Dalton escaped. For the next thirteen years he lived in exile: in Guatemala, Mexico, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, and for a short time in North Vietnam.
In 1961 his first book of poetry, LA VENTANA EN EL ROSTRO, was published in Mexico, and he won the International Literature Prize awarded by the International Union of Students (UIE). In 1969, he won the Casa de las Américas Prize in Cuba for his book, TABERNA Y OTROS LUGARES.
In 1973, living in Cuba, Dalton decided to return to his own country and join the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP). Living underground as a guerrilla, he continued to write poetry and popular history under different pseudonyms.
On 10 May 1975 Roque Dalton, together with a worker whose name has never been released, was assassinated by a faction of the ERP. While the circumstances surrounding his death remain obscure, it seems he fell victim to militarism and adventurism that existed at the time among the leadership of the ERP.
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SOLDIER'S REST
The dead grow more intractable every day.
Once they were obedient:
we gave them a stiff collar a flower
we eulogized their names on an Honor Roll:
in the National Cemetery
among distinguished shades
on hideous marble.
The corpse signed up pursuing glory
once more joined the ranks
marched to the beat of our old drum.
Wait a minute!
Since then
they have changed.
These days they grow ironic,
ask questions.
It seems to me they realize that more and more
they are the majority!
-- Roque Dalton
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