Roque Dalton - Trivia

Trivia

• Roque Dalton is currently featured on Salvadoran postage stamps.
• According to a legend, Roque Dalton underwent plastic surgery. He did this in order to be able to return clandestinely to El Salvador. According to the she Salvadoran writer Claribel Alegría, he had to disguise his long nose and flapping ears. He grew a moustache, started using eye glasses and went around with a different hairdo.
• Roque Dalton was already politically active in El Salvador when the Cuban revolution started in 1959. This year he was arrested and was allegedly sentenced to be executed by a firing squad. The day before his execution, Col. José María Lemus was overthrown from presidency, and because of this, Dalton's life was spared. Once he was freed from jail, he travelled to Mexico in exile and wrote much of the material that appeared in his books El Turno del Ofendido and La Ventana en el Rostro
• Roque Dalton is credited with the following quote: "Poetry, like bread, is for everyone."
• Roque Dalton's "Poema de Amor" (Love Poem) is the most popular poem among the Salvadoran community abroad. Many of his poems have been put into songs. Dalton's "Poema de Amor" was musicalized by the group Yolocamba Ita. and Bohemia
• Roque Dalton's two sons, Roquito (i.e. Roque Dalton Jr.) and Juan José (also known as "El Vaquerito"), joined the FPL and were founding members of the FMLN in 1980. Juan José (whose FPL nom-de-guerre was Joaquin) had the honor to have the main speech on the FMLN's founding parade in Cuba. The other orator during the parade was supposed to be Commander Fidel Castro, but due to security reasons, the speech was delegated to Division General Arnaldo Ochoa.
• The short story "Yo, Roque Dalton" is the latest published work of the author, although he has been dead for almost 40 years, the story is the poet's response to an interview by one of his alleged murderers. A tale of a poet's ghost in Habana Salvadoran short story.