The papers of Peruvian Surrealist poet and artist César Moro include notebooks, drafts of poems, manuscripts of articles, personal diaries, exhibition catalogs, photographs, and correspondence with a number of other artists of the era, including André Coyné, Benjamin Péret, Paul Éluard, Leonora Carrington, Wolfgang Paalen, and Rufino Tamayo. Also included are two collages by Moro, a watercolor by Alice Rahon [Paalen], an etching by Wolfgang Paalen, and several works by patients with mental illness at the Hospital Larco Herrera, where Moro taught art. The collection also includes books and journals from Moro's personal library.

César Moro was born Alfredo Quíspez Asín in 1903 in Lima, Peru. He changed his name in 1923 to that of a character in a story by Spanish writer Ramón Gómez de la Serna. Two years later he joined his older brother in Paris, where he intended to become a ballet dancer, but instead began writing poetry in French and painting, both activities influenced by the Surrealist movement. During his time in Paris he participated in exhibitions and published poems in Surrealist publications. He also met and began long friendships with other artists, including Benjamin Péret, Paul Éluard, and André Breton.

8 Linear Feet (12 boxes, 1 flat file folder)

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