Edgardo Alfredo Espino Najarro was born in
Ahuachapán Department, in western El Salvador, on January 30, 1900. He was the second of eight children of educator Enriqueta Najarro and Alfonso Espino, both teachers and poets. He grew up in a home filled with poetry and a love of art. According to historian Carlos Cañas Dinarte, he was remembered as being "modest and easy-going, of a gentle and even timid temperament, a fine humorist in intimate settings and possessor of an astonishing memory." He would write poetry and show them to his close family, whose positive responses he reacted to with timidity. He came to be known as the () because of how young he was when he began to write poetry. Apart from poetry, he also practiced music and graphic arts. He was known to be a good guitarist, and also painted and drew caricatures. He also had a penchant for writing , one of which, now lost, was presented in San Salvador in August 1928 by the , directed by
Gerardo de Nieva. He was a member of literary societies and an active collaborator with multiple publications and newspapers. In 1920, he entered the
University of El Salvador, enrolling in the Faculty of Jurisprudence. During his stay at the University City, he participated in many activities within the school, including demonstrations by students to prevent the rise in tram fares. He completed his studies and obtained a doctorate in law on March 12, 1927, with his thesis ; his thesis was published a month later in the Sansalvadoran magazine . He suffered from depression and
alcoholism in the last years of his life. Sources close to him and his family suggested that his parents' refusal to allow his marriage to certain young women on multiple occasions led to constant emotional and romantic turmoil. He tried to cope by living a
bohemian lifestyle, frequenting bars and brothels in the country's capital. Espino's health deteriorated due to alcohol abuse. He died in the dawn of May 24, 1928, aged 28, in
San Salvador, in an alcoholic crisis. It is speculated that his death was a
suicide, and there are rumors that he had
hanged himself or overdosed on pills. He was buried in the
General Cemetery; present at his burial were the writer and lawyer Julio Enrique Avila and then baccalaureates Manuel F. Chavarría and Rafael Vásquez, who gave speeches. His body would be later later moved to the Crypt of the Poets in the Jardines del Recuerdo Cemetery. == Works ==