Roque Dalton

Poet, essayist, and journalist Roque Dalton grew up in San Salvador, El Salvador. He studied at the University of Santiago, Chile, and the University of San Salvador. His poetry collections include El Mar/The Sea (1962), El turno del ofendido/The Injured Party’s Turn (1962), La Ventana en el rostro/The Window in My Face (1961), and Taberna y otros lugares/Tavern and Other Places (1969), winner of the Casa de las Américas poetry prize.

As a member of a revolutionary army, a communist, and a political exile, Dalton lived in Mexico, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, Cuba, and Prague, where he worked as a correspondent for The International Review: Problems of Peace and Socialism. Arrested in 1959, 1960, and 1965, he escaped execution multiple times throughout his life. He was ultimately executed on May 10, 1975, just a few days before he would have turned 40 years old.