Salomón Ibarra Mayorga
Encyclopedia
Salomón Ibarra Mayorga was a Nicaragua
n poet
, political thinker, and the lyricist
of "Salve a ti, Nicaragua
", the Nicaraguan national anthem
. His poetry is simple, expressive, musical in quality, and patriotic. A strong proponent of peace
and democracy
, he is honored in Nicaragua for his anti-interventionist
stance and his patriotism
.
of Chinandega
, Chinandega
department
, to Felipe Ibarra and Eloísa Mayorga. His father was an attorney
, philologist, and poet, and had been a teacher of the poet Rubén Darío
. His mother came from a distinguished family whose membership included many poets and writers. Ibarra Mayorga first studied at the Seminario Conciliar San Ramón in the city of León
. In 1909, he began work as the accountant of the Colegio Mercantil de Occidente. In 1927, he married Angelina Mejía, and the pair had three children, Eloísa, Gloria, and Salomón.
newspaper
that criticized the regime of Juan José Estrada
. On May 14 of the same year, he was hurt in an attack he believed to have been orchestrated by the anti-intellectual Carlos Pasos. The attack drove him to join the Revolución Constitucionalista Liberal, which engaged in violent struggle against the dictaorship of Adolfo Díaz
and militated against United States intervention. As a result of his efforts, he was exiled to Honduras
. For the next fifteen years, he directed the Central America
n operations of the Singer Corporation
.
Emiliano Chamorro to determine the lyrics of the Nicaraguan national anthem. The composition of the lyrics was a difficult task, given the United States
occupation
of the country. Ibarra Mayorga had to be careful to neither anger the occupiers, nor to "wound the national dignity" by making reference to the occupation. Nonetheless, he wanted to write words that would reflect the popular anti-interventionist sentiment of his compatriots.
In his 1955 Monografía de Nicaragua, which details the story of the anthem's composition, he writes,
He won the contest, but political turmoil prevented the lyrics from becoming official until 1939, when President Anastasio Somoza García
officialized them with by executive order.
to direct the national credit bureau, a post he held until 1946.
He was also secretary of the local social assistance league in Managua
, president of the Nicaraguan section of the Asociación de Escritores y Artistas Americanos (American Association of Writers and Artists), president of the Nicaraguan-Israel
i Cultural Institute, and president of the Managua Rotary Club.
In 1949, he was awarded the Rubén Darío National Prize by the Nicaraguan Teachers' Union.
and remained there for the next twelve years, visiting Nicaragua often.
In 1975, he published a volume of poetry entitled "Gris".
He died in 1985 in Tegucigalpa
, leaving a poem entitled "Ruego" asking his survivors to drape a Nicaraguan flag over his heart. And in accordance with his wish to have his remains repatriated, as related in his poem "La Canción del Ausente", Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemán
ordered the exhumation and reburial of his ashes on September 12, 2000. They now rest in the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura in Managua. A school in Tipitapa
, Managua
department is named in his honor, as is the city plaza in Chinandega.
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
n poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, political thinker, and the lyricist
Lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...
of "Salve a ti, Nicaragua
Salve a ti, Nicaragua
Salve a ti, Nicaragua is the Nicaraguan national anthem. It was approved October 20, 1939, and officially adopted August 25, 1971. The lyrics were written by Salomón Ibarra Mayorga, and the musical arrangement is by Luis A. Delgadillo.The music dates back to the 18th century, when it was used as a...
", the Nicaraguan national anthem
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
. His poetry is simple, expressive, musical in quality, and patriotic. A strong proponent of peace
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
and democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
, he is honored in Nicaragua for his anti-interventionist
Non-interventionism
Nonintervention or non-interventionism is a foreign policy which holds that political rulers should avoid alliances with other nations, but still retain diplomacy, and avoid all wars not related to direct self-defense...
stance and his patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
.
Early life and family
He was born in the municipalityMunicipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
of Chinandega
Chinandega
Chinandega is a town and the departmental seat of Chinandega department in Nicaragua. It is also the administrative centre of the surrounding municipality of the same name. The city has a population of 121,793 inhabitants with 151,000 in the municipality...
, Chinandega
Chinandega (department)
Chinandega is a department in Nicaragua, located on the border with Honduras. It covers an area of 4,926 km² and has a population of 441,300...
department
Departments of Nicaragua
Nicaragua is a unitary republic, and for administrative purposes, it is divided into 15 departments and two self-governing regions based on the Spanish model:-Zelaya Department:...
, to Felipe Ibarra and Eloísa Mayorga. His father was an attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, philologist, and poet, and had been a teacher of the poet Rubén Darío
Rubén Darío
Félix Rubén García Sarmiento , known as Rubén Darío, was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement known as modernismo that flourished at the end of the 19th century...
. His mother came from a distinguished family whose membership included many poets and writers. Ibarra Mayorga first studied at the Seminario Conciliar San Ramón in the city of León
León, Nicaragua
León is a department in northwestern Nicaragua . It is also the second largest city in Nicaragua, after Managua. It was founded by the Spaniards as Santiago de los Caballeros de León and rivals Granada, Nicaragua, in the number of historic Spanish colonial homes and churches...
. In 1909, he began work as the accountant of the Colegio Mercantil de Occidente. In 1927, he married Angelina Mejía, and the pair had three children, Eloísa, Gloria, and Salomón.
Political activities
In 1911, Ibarra Mayorga founded El Tiempo, the only liberalLiberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
that criticized the regime of Juan José Estrada
Juan José Estrada
Juan José Estrada Morales was the President of Nicaragua from 30 August 1910 to 9 May 1911.-Biography:He was a member of the Conservative Party of Nicaragua. He began a rebellion against the liberal government of José Santos Zelaya in 1909. Zelaya soon resigned, and in August 1910 the unstable...
. On May 14 of the same year, he was hurt in an attack he believed to have been orchestrated by the anti-intellectual Carlos Pasos. The attack drove him to join the Revolución Constitucionalista Liberal, which engaged in violent struggle against the dictaorship of Adolfo Díaz
Adolfo Díaz
Adolfo Díaz Recinos was the President of Nicaragua between 9 May 1911 and 1 January 1917 and between 14 November 1926 and 1 January 1929...
and militated against United States intervention. As a result of his efforts, he was exiled to Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
. For the next fifteen years, he directed the Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
n operations of the Singer Corporation
Singer Corporation
Singer Corporation is a manufacturer of sewing machines, first established as I.M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac Merritt Singer with New York lawyer Edward Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Manufacturing Company in 1865, then The Singer Company in 1963. It is...
.
National anthem
In 1918, under the nom de plume Rómulo, he entered the contest held by the government of PresidentPresident of Nicaragua
The position of President of Nicaragua was created in the Constitution of 1854. From 1825 until the Constitution of 1838 the title of the position was known as Head of State and from 1838 to 1854 as Supreme Director .-Heads of State of Nicaragua within the Federal Republic of Central America...
Emiliano Chamorro to determine the lyrics of the Nicaraguan national anthem. The composition of the lyrics was a difficult task, given the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
occupation
Occupation of Nicaragua
The United States occupation of Nicaragua was part of the larger conflict known as the Banana Wars. The formal occupation began in 1912, although several other operations were conducted before the full scale invasion. United States military interventions in Nicaragua were intended to prevent the...
of the country. Ibarra Mayorga had to be careful to neither anger the occupiers, nor to "wound the national dignity" by making reference to the occupation. Nonetheless, he wanted to write words that would reflect the popular anti-interventionist sentiment of his compatriots.
In his 1955 Monografía de Nicaragua, which details the story of the anthem's composition, he writes,
¨Ciertamente la primera estrofa del Himno, por la sencillez del asunto, fue concebida fácilmente como una expresión del ansia nacional que pedía paz y trabajo después de una enconada lucha fraticida. Pero esto no era para satisfacer los impulsos del alma, los anhelos del patriotismo.¨ (Certainly the first stanza of the Anthem, due to the delicacy of the issue, was conceived easily as an expression of the national longing that was asking for peace and work after an exasperating fratricidal struggle. But this wasn't everything to satisfy the impulses of the soul, the desires of patriotism.)
He won the contest, but political turmoil prevented the lyrics from becoming official until 1939, when President Anastasio Somoza García
Anastasio Somoza García
Anastasio Somoza García was officially the President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1937 to 1 May 1947 and from 21 May 1950 to 29 September 1956, but ruled effectively as dictator from 1936 until his assassination.-Biography:Somoza was born in San Marcos, Carazo Department in Nicaragua, the son of...
officialized them with by executive order.
Return to Nicaragua
In 1935, he was recalled to Nicaragua by President Juan Bautista SacasaJuan Bautista Sacasa
Juan Bautista Sacasa Sacasa was the President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1933 to 9 June 1936. He was the eldest son of Roberto Sacasa, 44th and 46th President of Nicaragua, and wife and cousin Ángela Sacasa Cuadra...
to direct the national credit bureau, a post he held until 1946.
He was also secretary of the local social assistance league in Managua
Managua
Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua as well as the department and municipality by the same name. It is the largest city in Nicaragua in terms of population and geographic size. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Xolotlán or Lake Managua, the city was declared the national capital in...
, president of the Nicaraguan section of the Asociación de Escritores y Artistas Americanos (American Association of Writers and Artists), president of the Nicaraguan-Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i Cultural Institute, and president of the Managua Rotary Club.
In 1949, he was awarded the Rubén Darío National Prize by the Nicaraguan Teachers' Union.
Later life, death, and legacy
Following the 1972 Managua earthquake, he took refuge in HondurasHonduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
and remained there for the next twelve years, visiting Nicaragua often.
In 1975, he published a volume of poetry entitled "Gris".
He died in 1985 in Tegucigalpa
Tegucigalpa
Tegucigalpa , and commonly referred as Tegus , is the capital of Honduras and seat of government of the Republic, along with its twin sister Comayagüela. Founded on September 29, 1578 by the Spanish, it became the country's capital on October 30, 1880 under President Marco Aurelio Soto...
, leaving a poem entitled "Ruego" asking his survivors to drape a Nicaraguan flag over his heart. And in accordance with his wish to have his remains repatriated, as related in his poem "La Canción del Ausente", Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemán
Arnoldo Alemán
José Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo was the 81st President of Nicaragua from 10 January 1997 to 10 January 2002.-Biography:Alemán was born in Managua and received his early education at the La Salle institute in Managua...
ordered the exhumation and reburial of his ashes on September 12, 2000. They now rest in the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura in Managua. A school in Tipitapa
Tipitapa
Tipitapa is a municipality in the Managua department of Nicaragua.- History :Tipitapa has its origin in a settlement whose first settlers were the Chorotegas who populated the center of Nicaragua and especially the location between two lakes. Over time Chorotegas were divided into two rival gangs,...
, Managua
Managua (department)
Managua is a department in Nicaragua. It covers an area of 3,672 km² and has a population of 1,380,300 . The capital is the city of Managua.- Municipalities :# Ciudad Sandino# El Crucero# Managua# Mateare# San Francisco Libre...
department is named in his honor, as is the city plaza in Chinandega.