Palés Matos, Luis

Palés Matos, Luis (lwēs pälās` mä`tōs), 1898–1959, Puerto Rican poet and essayist. Palés Matos was an outstanding exponent of Afro-Antillean poetry, which by use of African intonations, dance rhythms, and colorful suggestion evokes the speech and the life of West Indian blacks. His later poetry, blending satire and lyrical terseness, covered a broad range of themes. A major collection of his work is Poesías, 1915–1956 (1957).

---

Palés Matos, Luis (1898–1959) poet; born in Guayama, Puerto Rico. He was one of the creators of Afro-Antillian poetry, which introduced African rhythms and words into the Puerto Rican poetic idom. Works such as Tuntún de Pasa y Grifería and Últimos Poemas led many to think him Puerto Rico's most important 20th-century poet. He supported himself by working as a civil servant.