Creative Convulsion: José María Hinojosa and La Flor de Californía

Abstract

José María Hinojosa’s book, La flor de Californía (1928), concludes with the prediction that the air, after flowing around the world, will come back loaded with questions, at which point “nuestros cuerpos se cubrirán de llagas por donde alcanzará su libertad la sangre y el aire meterá sus dedos hasta tocar nuestras entrañas” [our bodies will be covered with wounds through which blood will achieve its freedom and the air will go inside until its fingers touch our entrails] (184). This image of bleeding bodies summarizes the knowledge the poet has achieved at the close of his creative journey. It subverts Christian imagery, which Hinojosa knew well from his Catholic upbringing, because these bleeding bodies do not offer any transcendence beyond suffering for the sake of freedom. The lines predict a future day when “tu sangre y mi sangre y la sangre de todos los hombres” [your blood and my blood and every man’s blood] will gush forth from the Earth “en mil surtidores que inundarán nuestras tumbas y quedará enrojecido eternamente el manantial del aire de donde sólo manará aire rojo” [in a thousand water jets that shall flood our graves and the foun-tainhead of the air will be forever reddened from which only red air will flow] (184).