After being reclaimed in 1975 by the Chilean poet Ronald Kay (1941–2017), Quebrantahuesos came to be seen as a seminal landmark in the field of experimental poetry combined with visual arts in Chile. The genre was formally established in the late 1960s by authors such as Ludwig Zeller (b. 1927), Guillermo Deisler (1940–95), Tito Valenzuela (b. 1945), and Cecilia Vicuña (b. 1948). Ronald Kay published Quebrantahuesos in Manuscritos magazine as part of his drive to validate the visual poetry tradition that was in vogue at that time in Chile.
Nicanor Parra (1914–2018) produced Quebrantahuesos with the assistance of the distinguished writers Enrique Lihn (1929–88) and Alejandro Jodorowsky (b. 1929), who were just getting started in their careers, working in a poetry group they had founded. The collective survived until Jodorowsky left for Europe in 1953; he subsequently settled in Mexico in the 1960s and then in Spain and France, where he lives to this day. His activities during those early years no doubt helped to shape his literary work, even after the two writers split up to follow different, separate career and pursue different disciplines.
Kay published “Re-writing,” a visual essay, in Manuscritos magazine. It was a textual interpretation of the Quebrantahuesos object; that is, his essay addressed two separate actions: the reclamation (and republishing) and the interpretation (as an exercise in critical writing). [For information about the author, see the following texts in the ICAA digital archive: “Los trabajos prácticos de Nicanor Parra” (doc. no. 753780) by Justo Pastor Mellado; and by Nicanor Parra “Artefactos” (doc. no. 753705), and “Chistes parra (para) desorientar a la policía (poesía)” (doc. no. 753714)].
