Between the ages of sixteen and thirty years, Delgado wrote much lyric poetry. Francisco Sosa compares his work in this field with that of Pesado, and adds: “Greater commendation cannot be given.” From the time when he was a student in the _Colegio Nacional_ at Orizaba, Delgado always received the helpful encouragement of his old teacher, the head of that school, Silvestre Moreno Cora. It was due to this truly great man’s efforts that the _Sociedad Sánchez Oropeza_ was founded in Orizaba, in the literary section of which Rafael Delgado was active. At this society he gave a series of brilliant _Conversaciones_ and to its Bulletin he contributed both prose and verse. He has written _Cuentos_ (Tales) of excellence, showing the influence of Daudet. More important, however, than his lyric poems and his stories, are Delgado’s novels, three in number, _La Calandria_, _Angelina_, _Los parientes ricos_ (Rich Relations). In fiction he is a realist. He prefers to deal with the common people; he is ever a poet in form and spirit; his satire is never bitter; beauty in nature ever appeals strongly to him. Without being a servile imitator, he has been influenced by Daudet and the Goncourts. His plots are simple--almost nothing. In regard to this, he himself, in speaking of _Los parientes ricos_, says: “Plot does not enter much into my plan. It is true that it gives interest to a novel, but it usually distracts the mind from the truth. For me the novel is history, and thus does not always have the machinery and arrangement of the spectacular drama. In my judgment it ought to be the artistic copy of the truth; somewhat, that is, as history, a fine art. I have desired that _Los parientes ricos_ should be something of that sort; an exact page from Mexican life.”