Décima--General Information for Educators ©P.

Pasmanick 12-22-97

Introduction
The term décima refers to a Spanish poetic form consisting of one or more stanzas each with 10
octosyllabic lines. Most décimas are composed in the style known as espinela, after the Spanish
poet, novelist and musician Vicente Espinel (1544-1644), who in 1591 published 10-line verses of
octosyllabic lines with a rhyme scheme of abbaaccddc. If virtually unknown to English speakers, a
substantial body of research and anthologies in Spanish celebrates the décima from a range of
cultural, historical, and musical perspectives.

Décima in Spain
Lope de Vega (1562-1635), Tirso de Molina (1571-1648), and Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681)
(notably in his famous play La vida es sueño) used espinelas extensively. Décimas also quickly
became popular among Spain’s unlettered working classes, particularly in rural areas. The décima
form, easy to put to music and blessed with a particularly appealing and satisfying rhyme structure
and cadencia (cadence), was quickly appropriated by popular poets in Andalucía and the Canary
Islands. As the décima’s literary fortunes rose and fell, these campesinos maintained a vibrant
tradition of décimas improvised to music, still celebrated today in Spain, particularly in Murcia, the
Alpajarra region, Almería, and the Canary Islands.

Décima in the Americas

Décima spread rapidly throughout the Americas; Latin American poets as disparate as the Mexican
polymath Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz (1651-1695), who won a national décima improvisation contest
in 1683, the Nicaraguan π innovator Rubén Darío (1867-1916), and the Chilean Violeta Parra
(1917-1967) were preeminent decimistas of their times. Décima also entered the oral and musical
folk culture of the continent. Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Peru in particular developed national styles
of décimas set to music. But in all the world today no place surpasses Cuba as a place where
décima thrives among academic poets, campesino improvisers (with their guitar-based punto
cubano style), and the Afro-Latin urban folk whose rumba, a music and dance form invented in
Cuba in this century, is a unique and fertile showcase for décima.

Décima in the Spanish language classroom

The study of décima structure, with its predictable yet challenging rhyme scheme and meter,
promotes phonemic awareness, while the texts themselves are often valuable snippets of culture and
history, told in a poetic voice honored throughout the Spanish-speaking world for the last 400
years. The use of rumba rhythms with the verses adds another layer of cultural awareness, as well
as access to the mathematical properties of music. Anyone teaching or learning Spanish literature
and literacy skills can benefit from these pithy poems. Attached to this brief essay is an illustrated
anthology of my décimas written for young learners, a collection of classic décimas suitable for
study, lesson ideas, an essay on rumba, and some resources for further study. ¡Adelante!