Portrait of Juan Sánchez Peláez by Enrique Hernández-D’Jesús

This postcard was printed for the IX Semana Internacional de la Poesía in Caracas in November 2001, which was dedicated to Juan Sánchez Peláez (1922-2003). The photograph was taken at Sánchez Peláez’s home in Los Palos Grandes in 1975 by his friend the poet and photographer Enrique Hernández-D’Jesús. It was used as the author photo for Sánchez Peláez’s last book of poems, Aire sobre el aire (1989), which Hernández-D’Jesús and Simón Alberto Consalvi published with their small imprint Tierra de Gracia Editores.

The inscription by Hernández-D’Jesús on the postcard reads: “Juan le dice a la noche que lo acompañe, que después se prolongue y que no cese nunca, porque la estrella debe seguir su curso y brillar para darnos luz en lo más alto. Juan.” [ “Juan tells the night to accompany him, that it then prolong itself and never end, because the star must follow its course and shine on so as to give us light from high above. Juan.”]