Decima History

Décima--General Information for Educators

© P. Pasmanick 2-22-09

Introduction The term décima refers to a Spanish poetic form consisting of one or more stanzas each with 10 octosyllabic lines. Most décimas are composed in the style known as espinela, after the Spanish poet, novelist and musician Vicente Espinel (1550-1624), who in 1591 published 10-line verses of octosyllabic lines with a rhyme scheme of abba.accddc. If virtually unknown to English speakers, a substantial body of research and anthologies in Spanish celebrates the décima from a range of cultural, historical, and musical perspectives. Décima in Spain Lope de Vega (1562-1635), Tirso de Molina (1571-1648), and Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681) (notably in his famous play La vida es sueño) used espinelas extensively. Décimas also quickly became popular among Spain’s unlettered working classes, particularly in rural areas. The décima form, easy to put to music and blessed with a particularly appealing and satisfying rhyme structure and cadencia (cadence), was quickly appropriated by popular poets in Andalucía and the Canary Islands. As the décima’s literary fortunes rose and fell, these campesinos maintained a vibrant tradition of décimas improvised to music, still celebrated today in Spain, particularly in the Genil River basin, the Alpujarra region, Almería, and especially the Canary Islands. A major international décima festival is celebrated every July in Villanueva de Tapia (Málaga) Décima in the Americas Décima spread rapidly throughout the Americas; Latin American poets as disparate as the Mexican polymath Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz (1651-1695), who won a national décima improvisation contest in 1683, the Nicaraguan innovator Rubén Darío (1867-1916), and the Chilean Violeta Parra (19171967) were preeminent decimistas of their times. Décima also entered the oral and musical folk culture of the continent. Puerto Rico, Mexico, Argentina and Peru in particular developed national styles of décimas set to music. But in all the world today no place surpasses Cuba as a place where décima thrives among academic poets, campesino improvisers (with their guitar-based punto cubano style), and the Afro-Latin urban folk whose rumba, a music and dance form invented in Cuba in the 20th century, is a unique and fertile showcase for décima. Décima in the Spanish language classroom The study of décima structure, with its predictable yet challenging rhyme scheme and meter, promotes phonemic awareness, while the texts themselves are often valuable snippets of culture and history, told in a poetic voice honored throughout the Spanish-speaking world for the last 400 years. The use of rumba rhythms with the verses adds another layer of cultural awareness, as well as access to the mathematical properties of music. Anyone teaching or learning Spanish literature and literacy skills can benefit from these pithy poems. ¡Adelante! Write me at [email protected] for more information.