Design Arturo Trujillo - 2002

Could black flowers be born by Florez?

"… in the dust of dreams and illusions, my black flowers are laid numb."

TRIVIA At the beat of a Cuban popular dance, the poem "Idilio Eterno" (Eternal Romance) by Julio Florez was read in a ceremony to celebrate the 54th anniversary of the UNESCO foundation.

Thus, with somber sentimentalism, the Colombian poet Julio Florez expresses his mood in "Mis Flores Negras" (My Black Flowers) that gave Composer Emilio Murillo the lyrics for the famous song bearing the same name. This song immediately caught the people's attention to become a hit in 1933, with the beautiful performance recorded by Carlos Gardel.


Julio Florez was born on May 22, 1867 in Chiquinquira, Department of Boyaca, Colombia.

WORKS Horas (Hours), Cesta de Lotos (Basket of Lotus Flowers), Manojo de Zarzas (Bundle of Bush Branches), Cardos y Lirios (Thistles and Irises), Fronda Lirica (Lyrical Frond), Gotas de Ajenjo (Drops of Absinthe), Oro y Ebano (Gold and Ebony), Mi Retiro y Otros Poemas (My Seclusion and Other Poems).

As he was a very young boy, he began writing poems. Because of civil wars fought all over the country, he had to interrupt his education and started joining literature clubs mingling and strongly relating to poets of great artistic value such as Candelario Obeso.

In 1884, during the funeral of Candelario Obeso, young Julio Florez exalted his memory with an emotional poem which set the beginning of his career. Two years later, his name was added to those of famous poets included in the poetic anthologies at that time.

None the less, fame did not prevent him from undergoing the "hunger of poets", as he himself used to describe it. Unlike other intellectuals, Julio never accepted a position or gifts from a government he politically opposed.

-Love is a volcano, lightning, fire, it should be consuming, intense, it should be a hurricane, it should be the peak… From the poem "Tu no sabes amar" (You don't know how to love) in "Gotas de Ajenjo" (Drops of Absinthe) - 1910.

Together with Valencia, Londoño, Soto, Uribe and many other great geniuses at the time, he founded the "Gruta Simbolica" (Symbolic Grotto), a literary gathering driving intellectual activity in the midst of civil wars where all trends and all schools fitted in a display of democracy and universality. "I like all genres, except the boring ones" he claimed.

The contents of his work, sometimes erotic, always liberal, caused him to be criticized and prosecuted by his enemies in high power echelons. In contrast, the despair, melancholy and disappointment projected in his poems were a reflection of popular feelings and hence he was dearly loved by the people who spared no love and applause for him.

In 1904, he left Colombia for political reasons on his way to the Atlantic shores of Venezuela, Central America, and Mexico where he was triumphantly met. Finally, he traveled to Spain as a Second Secretary of the Colombian Legation.

In 1909, he returned to his homeland and after a brilliant recital in Barranquilla, he settled in Usiacuri, a small town on the Atlantic shore.

MUSEUM The last house where Julio Florez lived in while in Usiacuri is currently a museum to his memory and his bust rises on the main square of Chiquinquira.

Loved, actually worshiped and followed by women, his relationships were always flimsy until he was 42 years old when he fell in love, head over heels, with Petrona Moreno Nieto. He married her and the couple bore 5 children.

In January 1923, after a 30 year delay, he was crowned as a national poet brilliantly honored by the government. A month later, in the greatest poverty but applauded by the people and worshiped by his countrymen, Julio Florez died between echoes of glory and a laurel branch in his soul.

Julio Florez, an example of the best of the latin spirit.