las misiones pedagógicas (1931-1936) 

In November 1931, Cernuda joined an ambitious educational initiative of the new republican government, the Misiones Pedagógicas. Though at first his job was only to collect books to provide all schools with a library with the classics of Spanish and World literature, in 1932 the poet joined a group of volunteers that took culture to some of the most remote villages of Castile and Andalusia, a mission in which he was involved until 1936.

He worked in the Museo del Pueblo, a small traveling museum with copies of famous paintings at the Prado Museum, made by young artists like Ramón Gaya, Juan Bonafé and Eduardo Vicente. While other members of the Misiones were responsible for transporting and setting the exhibition, Cernuda was the guide to the visitors.

Those visits to Spanish villages gave him a close look at the lagged social and cultural conditions that plunged much of the country. Cernuda’s social awareness sharpened, and in the autumn of 1933 he published a short text supporting the communist movement in Octubre, Rafael Alberti’s revolutionary periodical. He did not, however, join the Communist Party, and the text itself suggests that his knowledge of Marxism was rather shaky. The poet expresses his total rejection of the capitalist system, but sees no substitute for it other that a romantic return to nature. Nevertheless, during these years Cernuda maintained a close friendship with intellectuals and artists who shared a deep social concern.