gallo, no. 2

The second issue of gallo appeared in April 1928. It also opened with a classic quotation, this time a verse from the Poema de Mio Cid that presented again a statement of intent: “apriessa cantan los gallos e quieren quebrar albores,” (“the roosters crow and want the dawn to break”). That is to say, let us celebrate the new light (of the new art).

The first text was the Manifiesto Antiartístico (anti-art manifesto), a translation of the Manifest Groc signed by Salvador Dalí, Sebastiá Gasch, and Luis Montanyà that had previously appeared in Catalan in March of 1928, defending the aesthetic ideals of “anti-art”: the poetry of modernity; machines; standardized products; the industrial arts, such as photography and the cinema; jazz; sports, and so on, against the ideas of art and beauty inherited from classical tradition. Joaquín Amigo, one of gallo’s editors, wrote a note in which he enthusiastically espoused those ideas and tried to explain their meaning. However, the translation and the note angered some friends. On April 25, 1928 Pedro Salinas wrote from Madrid to Jorge Guillén:" My latest indignation has been caused by gallo’s second issue, with the stupid Catalan manifesto and Amigo’s little article in its defense. Last night, I told Federico a series of atrocities regarding my opinion about all this. I think I overdid it, but I was possessed by holy indignation.”

The issue also included an article by Sebastià Gasch on Picasso; a fragment of a novel by Francisco García Lorca; poems by Manuel López Banús, Francisco Cirre and Enrique Gómez Arboleya written in the style of Juan Ramón Jiménez, Gerardo Diego and García Lorca; a scholarly tour by José Navarro Pardo of Cordoba’s mosque; the second part of Gómez Arboleya’s " Cuaderno de Eugenio Rivas”; Francisco Ayala's story" Susana saliendo del baño"; and two dramatic poems by Federico García Lorca: “La doncella, el marinero y el estudiante” and “El paseo de Buster Keaton. "  The notes section included a text in defense of Manuel de Falla’s music, a story about how the journal was received, and a playful nod to the Pavo’s acrostic: "Beware of any propaganda against the gallo that does not bear the imprint of its editorial board.”