A celebrated poet and academic, Rafael Heliodoro Valle was born in Honduras and spent the majority of his life in Mexico.
After an early career in Honduran journalism, Valle moved to Mexico where he pursued academic studies. His writing appeared in various newspapers and journals including La República, El Fígaro, La Enseñanza Primaria, and La Prensa. He taught at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the National Autonomous University of Honduras.
His works explored historical figures and Pan-Latino history and include Ánfora sedienta/Parched Amphora (1922), El espejo historial/The Mirror of History (1937), Unísono amor/Love United (1940), Contigo/With You (1943), and Santiago en América/Santiago in America (1946). La rosa intemporal: antología poética 1908-1957, a collection of his poems, was published after his death in 1964.
In 1940, he received the prestigious Maria Moors Cabot journalism award from Columbia University. His archives is housed at the National Library of Mexico. He made audio recordings at the Library of Congress in 1952.
The Honduran government awards a biennial “Rafael Heliodoro Valle Prize” to academics and students for “research contributions to a greater understanding of Ibero-American culture.”
Valle lived in this house from 1949 to 1956 as the Honduran Ambassador to the United States.
The Homes
4715 16th St NW, Washington, DC (Formerly the Honduran Embassy)
This mansion was originally built for Paul and Anetta Himmelfarb, Russian Jewish immigrants, and their eight children, although it is more commonly referred to as the Cafritz Mansion, for a later owner. In addition to serving as the Embassy of Honduras, the building has a history of use as a school, by The British School in Washington, Washington Latin Charter School, and now the South Campus of the Jewish Primary Day School. When the Jewish Primary Day School made the purchase of the property in 2011, they noted with satisfaction that the expansion would return the mansion to its Jewish roots. Now the Jewish Primary Day School.
Rafael Heliodoro Valle
4715 16th St NW
Located in Sixteenth Street Historic District neighborhood, Northwest - East of Rock Creek