He was born in
San Miguel, El Salvador on November 24, 1935. Argueta has stated that his exposure to “poetic sounds” began during his childhood and that his foundation in poetry stemmed from his childhood imagination. His writing career began with poetry produced at the age of thirteen. He was strongly influenced by the world literature he read as a teenager an cites
Pablo Neruda and
Federico García Lorca as his primary influences. He later studied law at the
University of El Salvador, but concentrated on his poetic work. In 1956, although he was relatively unknown at the time, he won first prize at the "
Floral Games of San Miguel", sponsored by the
Alberto Masferrer Society of Professors. During the sixties, he began to produce more fiction and became involved with the
Committed Generation, a literary group with a leftist political orientation, founded by
Ítalo López Vallecillos. All of its members were great admirers of
Jean-Paul Sartre and
existentialism. The group sought to create social change to benefit the "lower classes", but they also initiated a rediscovery of native cultural heritage.
Roque Dalton was, perhaps, its best-known member. Because of his writings criticizing the government, he was forced to go into self-exile in
Costa Rica. He was there from 1972 until 1993 and worked primarily as a teacher. He also held guest professorships throughout North America and Europe, including the Chair of Contemporary Literature at
San Francisco State University. Since returning to El Salvador, he has held the position of "Director of National and International Relations" at the university. A characteristic of his writing style, present in the majority of his works, is the use of Salvadoran Spanish vernacular and slang. He considers this a way to express and preserve some of El Salvador's cultural identity. ==
One Day of Life ==