Tirano Banderas

The long process of writing "Tirano Banderas" began around October-November 1923. The first evidence of this is found in the letter he wrote to Alfonso Reyes on November 14, 1923: "These days I'm working on an American novel: 'Tirano Banderas.' The novel of a tyrant with traits of Dr. Francia, Rosas, Melgarejo, López, and Don Porfirio. The hero is a synthesis, and the language a sum of American idioms from all Spanish-speaking countries, from the vulgar to the gaucho. The Republic of Santa Trinidad de Tierra Firme is an imaginary country, like those European courts that Abel Hermant paints in some book." From June 1925 to October 1926, he published excerpts of the novel in various media outlets. With additions, relocations, corrections of various kinds, and new texts, he transformed it into the final version during the summer and autumn of 1926, which appeared on December 15, 1926. In this novel, Valle reveals himself as a great artist, exasperated. What irritates and distresses him is seeing Spanish flaws copied, sometimes even amplified, in Latin America, and finding no way out.