César Vallejo was born in 1892 to a mestizo family in Santiago de Chuco in the rural highlands of Peru. He published his first book of poems, LOS HERALDOS NEGROS (THE BLACK HERALDS) in 1918. Arrested on trumped-up charges of inciting a riot in Lima in 1921, he spent three months in prison in Trujillo, during which time he wrote many of the poems in his second book, TRILCE. In 1921 he left Peru for Paris. He never returned. While most of Vallejo's friends during his early years in Paris were Surrealists, Cubists or others of the avant-garde, he remained critical of their 'pseudo-new' art and of their drawing room sensibility which, consciously or unconsciously, continued in service to the bourgeoisie. On December 29, 1928 he co-founded the Peruvian Socialist Party. He made three visits to the Soviet Union touring factories and farms, attending a congress and meeting Bolshevik writers and artists, including Mayakovsky, who took him to the movies to see THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN and THE GENERAL LINE. Deported from France in late 1930 for his militant activities, Vallejo joined the Communist Party in 1931 in Spain, where he taught Marxism-Leninism in workers' cells. During the Spanish Civil War he supported the Republic and, with others, founded the "Comité Ibero-americana para la defensa de la República Española." From 1936 until his death, he was in active opposition to the fascist take-over in Spain. He wrote a small book of poems for the Republicans in Spain titled ESPAÑA, APARTE DE MÍ ESTE CÁLIZ (SPAIN, LET THIS CUP PASS FROM ME), which was printed by republican soldiers at the front and distributed to the partisans. He died in 1938 in Paris. The major body of his poetry was collected and first published with the title POEMAS HUMANOS (HUMAN POEMS) in 1938, after his death. Many critics believe Vallejo to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, 20th century poet. If you care deeply about living life consciously, about thinking and acting as a principled human being, and about the need to empathize and commune with others, then you must read César Vallejo.