An Ibañez story and Puerto Rican translator José Padín
One hundred years ago today … New Yorkers could read the conclusion of “The Monster,” a new short story by Vicente Blasco Ibañez. The popular Spanish writer’s The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse had been the best-selling novelist in the US in 1919, and would be adapted into a 1921 movie that launched Rudolph Valentino’s stardom.
The Daily News Feb 18, 1920, p. 15. Newspapers.com
The Daily News Feb 16, 1920, p. 15. Illustration for “The Monster.” Newspapers.com.
The Daily News ran “The Monster,” part of its “Blue Ribbon Fiction” feature, in three installments, February 16th, 17th, and 18th, starting one day later than the story’s its debut in the Chicago Defender.
The story was translated into English by Puerto Rican writer and translator José Padín, born José Padín Rodriguez in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1886. Padín had been living in New York since 1916, working for publisher D.C. Heath and Co., which had offices in the McGraw Building, 239 West 39th Street. His writings ranged from a 1916 essay “The problem of teaching English to the people of Porto Rico,” to an annotated translation of Shakepeare’s The Merchant of Venice, listed variously as both 1919 and 1921. (It can be accessed on The Internet Archive.)
José Padín Rodriguez at Haverford College, where he graduated in 1907. Courtesy Haverford College Blog.
He would later earn a doctorate at Columbia University and become Secretary of Education in Puerto Rico (1930-36), leading a successful movement to reverse US policy and reinstall Spanish as the official educational language of the commonwealth. Read more about Padín in a feature by Jennifer O’Donnell, “Remembering Dr. José Padín Rodriguez” and at the online Encyclopedia of Puerto Rico.