Who was Rogelio Sinán?

Taken from UNIVERSIDAD LATINA `s site -
Republic of Panama

"I wanted to rebel against the traditional patterns of current poetry, even in Panama, misfortunately, but I don’t know if I have achieved it...some of my verses seem too ingenuous, too simple; some others seem a bit confusing: but that’s the state at which they were in mi soul and I have expressed them wholeheatedly..."
Rogelio Sinán is the pen name of Bernardo Domínguez Alba. ( "The idea was tohave a unique name, there are hundreds of Dominguez and I wanted to be alone in the phone book." )

Sinan was born in the island of Taboga on April 25, 1904*. He traveled to Santiago, Chile to broaden his future as a student at the Pedagogical Institute and his relationships with writers who would later succeed in the Chilean and universal arts. From 1925 to 1930, he studies Art at the Universidad La Sapienza in Rome.
In 1929, he publishes his first book of verses called Onda, which was the flagship of the vanguardist movement in Panama. The book is the blossoming of juvenile development within the patterns of pure poetry. The author seeks to find the essence of things, surprising with boldness, without masks that would hide them.

Balad of the naked breast

Mangoes!...Look!...Soo Many!
Oh!...A ripe one...!
(She leaped...and out came
her naked breast!).

In 1944 he publishes Incendio (Fire), a poem originated from a fire that occurred nearby his house.

Fire
Soundless, speechless sirens
a silent chant audible only by death
which pierced agonies into the night.

"It was three in the morning. I stuck a piece of paper in the typewriter and wrote these three verses. After reading them I felt more at ease, less guilty. I realized I needed to expel my guilt lyrically, create the poem to form a catharsis, purification; it was then when I wrote the poem at once. I laid crossway on the bed I fell soundly asleep." (Lotería Magazine,110-11)

A year later, in 1945, Sinan publishes his poem book Semana Santa en la Niebla (Holy Week in the Fog) with which he earned the National Poetry Award. “With a style different from Onda , Semana Santa en la Niebla is the transformation of reality into a creature of art, as authentic or even more authentic than the model, it is the adaptation of Jesus Christ’s life to natural phenomena."
....

In 1969 he publishes Saloma sin salomar** which is a compilation of his poetry from his second book and others. Sinan’s poetry work is short since he did not practiced it regularly, but his teaching has been fruitful. “He is skilfull with verses, sensible for delicate things, has an imaginative and cultural reach and love for the arts."

Notes:
*Similarly as his change in name, Sinan also changed his birthday (to appear legally as Panamanian), thus, in most biographies it states 1904 as his birth year..
** "Saloma" is the peasant`s shout when working at the fields.

Poety Bibliography: Onda, Incendio, Semana Santa en la Niebla, Saloma sin salomar.