In the field of Puerto Rican literature, it is necessary to highlight the intellectual and romantic Eugenio María de Hostos, main figure of the colonial stage. As of 1930, Puerto Rican literature gets on an upward trend. Writers, aware of their artistic responsibility and the role they play in their national culture, set themselves higher goals from the technical, thematic and stylistic points of view. Many of the writers who had had taken their first steps in the 20’s –especially in poetry, through the avant-garde movements of those days—continued to write for later generations. Juan Antonio Corretjer, Luis Hernández Aquino, Evaristo Ribera Cheviemant. The group of writers, essayists, critics and writers that constituted the so-called 1930 generation, also continued for many years in the literary activity: Concha Meléndez, Enrique Laquerre, Rubén del Rosario, Margot Arce, Tomas Blanco, among others. Thus, in 1943, Hernández Aquino Isla would publish “Isla para la angustia”; in 1956, “Memorias de Castilla”; in 1960, “Del tiempo cotidiano”. Corretjer would produce “Yerba bruja” in 1957. From Evaristo Ribera Cheviemant we would read “La llama pensativa” in 1954 or “Río volcador” in 1968. Enrique A. Laquerre was the novelist par excellence. The insular desires of novelistic narration were overwhelmed by Solar Montoya in 1940, El 30 de febrero de 1943, La resaca in 1949, Los dedos de la mano in 1951, La ceiba en el tiesto in 1956, El laberinto in 1959, Cauces sin río in 1962 and El juego y su aire in 1970. In the course of time, some poets of that generation acquire a special significance in our national literature: Juan Antonio Corretjer (National Poet), Luis Pales Matos, Julia de Burgos. Pales is probably the best-known poet abroad and one of the poets most studied by Hispanic critics, particularly for his poetry on negroid themes that I won him a great deal of fame. Julia of Burgos is the most outstanding female voice in literature. Her poetic art won her a preeminent place in Spanish-American poetry, and she could be as prominent as Gabriela Mistral and Alfonsina Storni, among others. By 1940, the yearning for reaffirming the Puerto Rican roots becomes more evident. The theater would experience a time of great growth and development. Playwriting consecrates names like Manuel Méndez Ballester, Fernando Sierra, Francisco Arrias and others. Their most important works addressed problems that were very singular at the time: the uprootedness of the Puerto Rican who has emigrated to New York, the racial problem, etc. An example are works like Tiempo muerto, of 1940. In the fifties and subsequently, dramatic creation would continue its boom. Particularly after the founding of the Puerto Rican Culture Institute in 1955 and with the Puerto Rican Theater Festivals starting in 1958. This brings about as a sequel the renovation and updating of our theater in terms of techniques and topics. It also stimulates dramatic creation, the appearance of new authors and the consecration of those that had started years before, like Rene Marques; later ones like Luis Rafael Sánchez, Miran Casas, Piri Fernández, etc. One of the most interesting phenomena in this period was the resurgence of the short-story as a genre with many aesthetic and mainly communicative abilities. A short-story that in a few words reflects the social and economic situation of a people is very effective as a genre. It is important to recognize the encouragement received by the narrators in the forties and later, from the Asomante magazine and the Ateneo Puertorriqueño contests. Representatives of that generation of storytellers are Abelardo Díaz, José L. González, Enulio Díaz Valcárcel, among others. These writers are responsible for the technical and aesthetic renovation of the genre in Puerto Rico. In the fifties, Soledad Llorens Terres, Haydee Ramírez de Arellano, Félix Franco Oppenheimer, Nimia Vicens, José Emilio González, Francisco Lluch Mora, Lilliane Pérez and others publish their first poetic works. The 60’s, up until today, reveals a great desire; all those that had written and published in 1930 continued to do so. But a pleiad of young writers arises. Poetry remains as the backbone genre; along with the already traditional themes coexist the concerns of the world’s current generations. Aware of the prevalent trends of world literature, and paying special attention to the literature of Spanish America, all types of techniques and methods of literary expression are used. Among them are: Carmelo Rodríguez, Edgar López, Jorge María Puscalleda, Bercedonis Andrés Castro Ríos, Antonio Caban, Vicente Rodríguez, José M. Torres, Marina Arzola, Ramón F. Medina, Clara Cuevas, Iris Zavala, Tomás López, Juan Torres, among many others. A significant event at the time was the publication, starting in 1962, of the Guajana magazine. And we cannot fail to mention other magazines that, starting in 1930, after Indice, have contributed to a greater or lesser degree to the development of literature on the island. Some of these magazines are: Brújula, Ateneo Puertorriqueño, Isla, which sprang up in the thirties. El Día Estético, which came into being in the 40’s; Hélices, Bayoan, Pegaso, Poesía. Artes y Letras, Orfeo, a magazine of the Puerto Rican Culture Institute, founded in the fifties; others of the 60’s like: Mester, Prometeo, etc. Many others have appeared since the 70’s up until today. Even those that were short-lived have played an unavoidable and important role because of the stimulus and the means they have offered the Puerto Rican youth and people as a whole, channeling their creative concerns and encouraging the island’s cultural progress. Among the most outstanding contemporary writers, there are: Julia de Burgos, Evaristo Ribera Chevremont, Rosario Ferré, Enrique Laguerre and Luis Rafael Sánchez, among others.
