Cesar Vallejo is one of the best-known Latin American poets of the twentieth century. Challenging, intense, and difficult to translate, Vallejos work has often been overshadowed by his fervent endorsement of communism. Noted scholar Ilan Stavans tackles the avant-garde poets politics head-on in an enlightening new introduction that places Vallejo in his proper literary context, while Margaret Sayers Pedens new translation does full justice to Vallejos complex literary style. Including Spanish and English versions of more than eighty poems that span his career, this volume is certain to become the leading collection of Vallejos work for years to come.