This article analyses Nicomedes Guzmán's contribution to realism, from the vitalist perspective of the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. The categories of "minor literature" and "missing people" will be used to analyse the aesthetic guidelines of the new realism presented by the writer who leads the generation of 38. The emphasis will be on presenting the critical and clinical dimension of The Dark Men (1939) and Blood and Hope (1943), which, in addition to dismantling the canon of traditional realism, seeks to make the silenced people speak from the margins of the city.