This work links many perspectives, not only literary but also essayistic, historiographicand sociological which build diverse and changing images of Lima. We arguethat what has been written about the Peruvian capital accounts for a transformationgoing from the restrictive lettered city –seat of the central authority, oppressive andalienating– to a necessary meeting place of poets, artists and critical intellectuals. Wealso hold that those visions are not necessarily excluding, not even binary or contraryterms, but they include areas of critical spirit of the Peruvian culture dialecticallyformed. In this sense, the set of textual relationships go beyond the genres: historyengages with sociological essay writing (Basadre with Mariátegui), the narrativewith literary essay writing (Arguedas and Congrains with Sebastián Salazar Bondy)and poetry with literary critics itself (Pablo Guevar...

Nuestro inagotable ramal poético llamado Pablo no cesa de prolongar su trasiego por estos años-durmientes. Quien hubo de transformarse en creaturas, transatlánticos, hijo «mentor», Pound, Westphalen, en Proteo lírico en definitiva, nos ha legado una de sus formas finales y más logradas,  la del Tren bala que atraviesa diversas instancias de lo que dificultosamente llama realidad. Se trata de un modo de hacer poesía señalando un vínculo problemático con la subjetivación y la percepción de la realidad, con la instancia dicotómica y dialéctica de hombre-masa.