Yolanda U. Trapp
Profile of Poets and Published Work
1. Gabriela Mistral (1889 – 1957) Chile
Born Lucila Godoy in Vicu–a, Chile, represented her country in many parts of the world, and is probably the best loved poet of Spanish (Latin) America. Though she herself never married, many of her poems deal with motherhood. She wrote the most sensible verses for all Latin American children. Some important works are titled “Desolación” (Desolation, 1922), “Ternura” (Tenderness, 1924), “Tala” (Harvesting, 1938), “Lagar” (Winepress), “Sonnets of Death”. Due to her Lyricism in poetry, they granted her the Nobel Prize in 1945. Her poetry is famous for its musicality and emotional, almost mystical spiritualism. (3) US Poet Langston Hughes translated “Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral” (Indiana University, 1957); the Library of Congress and John Hopkins Press published a different book by the same title in 1971. (4)
2. Alfonsina Storni (1892 – 1938) Argentina
Born in Switzerland on May 1892, in Sala Caprisca, was the first unlikely event of her erratic fate. (5) Her family returned to the town of San Juan, Argentina, where business rapidly deteriorated, and her father disappeared on a mysterious hunting trip. She was forced to support her family when she was only thirteen years old, by taking a job at a hat factory. Also she performed in a play so good that they offered her a permanent position. She entered later to the Normal School at Coronda and began to teach at an elementary school after she graduated. Her first poems were published in the local newspapers. She fell in love with a married man and needed to resign her teaching job. She moved to Buenos Aires where her son was born in April 1912. Here, she started writing to the journal “Fray Mocho” who published her first short story, “De la vida” (About life). In 1917 she was able to secure a teaching position and was awarded the Yearly Prize of the National Council of Women. Her fame was growing in 1920. She wrote also many plays the students performed.
When she traveled to Europe in 1930 she was impressed by the Spanish literacy scene dominated at that time by Rafael Alberti, Luis Cernuda, Garcia Lorca and other Members of the Generation of 1927. Her new approach to writing theater is obvious, also in her last book of verse “Mundo de siete pozos” (1934) (World of seven wells), and “Mascarilla y trébol” (1938) (Mask and clover).
In 1935 Alfonsina got cancer. She no longer had the will to fight when the cancer spread, and she became very ill. She committed suicide by drowning in the Mar del Plata on October 25, 1938.
Works by Alfonsina Storni
“De la Vida” (short story). Fray Mocho (Buenos Aires, 1, 23 (Oct. 4, 1912: n.p.
“La inquietud del rosal”, Buenos Aires; La Facultad, 1916.
“El dulce da–o”. Buenos Aires: Soc. Coop. Ed. Limit, 1918.
“Irremediablemente…” Buenos Aires: Soc. Coop. Edit. Limit, 1919.
“Una golondrina” (novel) Hebe (Buenos Aires) 7 (1919): 3-26. “Reprinted in Cinco cartas y Una golondrina”.
“Mundo de siete pozos”. Buenos Aires: Tor, 1934.
“Teatro Infantil”, Buenos Aires: Ramón J. Roggero y Cia., 1950, Contains: “Negro,…Bianco…Negro”, “Pedro y Pedrito”, “Jorge y su conciencia”, “Un sue–o en el camino”, Los degolladores de estatuas”, El dios de los pájaros”.
“Los mejores Versos, Buenos Aires: Nuestra America, 1958.
“Obra Poética completa”. 2d. ed. Buenos Aires: Soc. Edit. Latino Americana, 1964.
Prizes
The Yearly Prize of The National Council of Women. (1917)
First place for the Buenos Aires Municipal Prize, and second for the National Prize for Literature (1920).
3. Delmira Agustini (1886-1914) Uruguay
Born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1886, from an Uruguayan family of the upper class. (6) She was educated like other women of her time; playing the piano and writing verses. For her, to write poems was a mere adornment of her social life, but soon it became a passion, a constant dedication. In 1907 she published her first book, “El libro blanco” (The white book); later she published “Cantos de la ma–ana” (Morning songs) 1910, “Los cálices vacíos” (The empty chalices). According to the critics in her work we can find a Modernist new attitude toward the erotic, the body points first toward itself and then inward, toward the subjective world. The text turns upon itself; the code acts as a verbal boomerang. Hence, the delirium of desire that marks her writing, is born, and sexual love devours itself. (7). In “Cantos”, her third and posthumous book, the poems are repeatedly structured around dualities: Heaven/Hell, Light/Shadow, Lily/Mud. The world of desire is viewed here as a abyss in which violence is identified with a “sed maldita” (cursed thirst) devouring the poetic self. (Poesías completas, ed. M. Aluar, p. 163.)
In 1913 she married and two months later she left her husband, but she kept on meeting him in a place her husband rented after their separation. On July 22nd (1913) she went to see him for the last time because he killed her and then committed suicide. She was only 27 years old and her ex-husband 28.
There is another peculiar aspect of her personal life. She was buried in five different places, and finally, in 1992 they buried her with a military and diplomatic ceremony at the National Cemetery after a request presented by Clara Silva who wrote her biography in 1964. Her violent death was another item that has contributed to the creation of a literary personality for Delmira, and to her being read as a character in a love story with a morbid ending, more than as a poet, obscuring her value as one of the most extraordinary poets of her time.
Works by Delmira Agustini
El libro blanco, Montevideo: O.M. Bertani, 1907.
Cantos de la ma–ana, Montevideo: O.M. Bertani, 1910.
Los cálices vacíos, Montevideo: O.M. Bertani, 1913.
Obras completas de Delmira Agustini. Vol. 1: El Rosario de Eros. Vol. 2: Los astros del abismo. Montevideo: M. Garcia, 1924.
Delmira Agustini, Antologia. Ed. Esther de Cáceres. Biblioteca Artigas Vol. 69. Montevideo: Minist. De Educ. y Cultura, 1986.
4. Juana de Ibarbourou (1895-1979) Uruguay
Juana de Ibarbourou of Uruguay has been honored with the title of “Juana de America” for her excellent poetry. Love is the frequent theme of her poems. Her maiden name was Juana Fernández Morales, her mother was a native Uruguayan born in Tacuari, her father, was a native of Galicia, Spain.
Juana began her education in a religious school (8) but she was deeply influenced by her black nanny, Feliciana, who expanded the child’s knowledge with songs, stories, from her culture. From the Old World she listened to her father reading poetry of José de Espronceda, Gaspar Nu–ez de Arce, and Rosalía de Castro. All these mixed ideas formed her basic education. Juana’s writings were from her heart. She wrote both – poetry and prose. She had a healthy and strong religious home atmosphere. She married a career military man, Captain Lucas Ibarbourou on June 1914. Miguel de Unamuno, the Spanish author and philosopher, identifies the name Ibarbourou as the French- basque rendering of Ibar – buru, cabecera del valle or “county seat”/“head of valley”.
Ibarbourou began writing verses at an early age. Her first poetry was a sonnet entitled “El cordero” (The lamb). She used (as many other poets) the pseudonym “Jeannette d’Ibar”. Her first collection of poetry, Las lenguas de diamante (Diamond tongues) was published in 1919 with a prologue by the Argentinian novelist Manuel Galvez. This work was a brilliant success, for its lyrical beauty and lighthearted sincerity brightened a sorrowing world just emerging from the horrors of World War I. The single work would have been sufficient to mark her as an outstanding writer. (9). She received several important honors. At the time of her death in 1979, she was granted state honors. She was and is a source of pride to her country, and was always respected during her lifetime.
Works by Juana de Ibarbourou
Las lenguas de diamante. (Diamond tongues) Prol. José Pereira Rodríguez. Biblioteca Artigas, Vol. 42. Montevideo: 1963. Minist. De Instrucción Publica.
El cántaro fresco. (The cool water jug) 1920. Montevideo, Editorial Maximino García.
Raíz Salvage. (Wildroot) Montevideo: Edit. Maximino García, 1922.
La rosa de los vientos. (the rose in the storm). Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Palacio del Libro, 1930.
Estampas de la Biblia. (Portraits from the Bible) Montevideo: Editorial Barreiro y Ramos, 1934.
Chico Carlo. (Chico Carlo) Montevideo, Edit. Barreiro y Ramos 1944.
Los sue–os de Natasha. (Natacha’s Dreams) Montevideo, Independencia, 1945.
Obras Completas. (Compilation by Dora Isella Russel, ed. 3d. edition, Madrid, Aguilar 1968.
5. Violeta Parra (1917-1967) Chile
Born in the south of Chile close to the city of Chillán, a region known for its poetry. Her family was already known as musicians. Her father played the violin and her mother sang. Violeta sang from a very young age and learned folk songs from elderly country people of her town and from her own family.
They all moved later to the capital, in 1930 where she began to sing with her sister Hilda. She soon became involved in a series of activities related to folklore, but she did not performed in social clubs, on the contrary, she sang in working-class areas, collecting the folklore and the innumerable cultural legacies that she would later return to the people.
In the 50s, Violeta began to have great artistic influence, singing on a radio Program where she presented a treasury of artistic activity from throughout the country. She sang folk-songs, spoke about local customs and introduced poets and singers from various regions. Her popularity increased when she traveled to the North-Center-and South of Chile, collecting and introducing a wide range of materials, including music, poetry and regional customs. She also traveled to Europe, working ceaselessly, beginning her own period as a creator, a stage that would last the rest of her life. She also exhibited her famous tapestries in the Museum of Mankind in Paris.
Despite her many successes, she felt in several depressions when her companion of many years abandoned her. She committed suicide on February 5, 1967.
Her compositions can be divided in three main categories: autobiography, love, and politics. Her poetic production is enormous but surprisingly there are no published chronologies of them, we only know the posthumously Décimas (Poems) and two fundamental books edited by Parra, Poésie Populaire des Andes (1964) and Canciones folkloricas chilenas (1977). In these books, one can see the methods she utilized to collect traditional songs, and the subject matter she liked to collect in the form of sayings and songs. (10) Parra’s Décimas, covers almost forty years of Chile’s turbulent political history. In the area of love poetry, the well-known compositions “Volver a los diecisiete” (To return to the 17) and “Gracias a la Vida” (Thanks to Life).
Despite the fact that Violeta Parra revolutionized Latin American music, initiated a counterculture, and introduced a new way of integrating indigenous culture and popular song, her work remains dispersed in unimportant publications. Even Parra’s important paintings are only mentioned in long-lost catalogues from her exhibitions in Switzerland, France, and Chile.
Mayor Work
Décimas (1970) is Parra’s autobiography in verse where she emphasizes the rural world in which she grew up. Little known by critics and the reading public, Décimas brings together a complex and varied group of poems dominated by the theme of life’s experience. She also begins to assume the role of a witness to the problems of women, as is demonstrated in her compositions treating rape and marriage as a shackle. (11) At the same time, she examines the fate of women who because of their marginal existence, do not have any other opportunities besides to getting married, or the maintenance of a family, what she personally did, maintaining her four children.
One more comment: An abundance of metaphors is clearly observed in Parra’s love poetry. Words are often repeated to give an essential meaning. She invokes God, the soul, and nature to calm the spirit’s pain. In a different section I will try to translate some of her poems, like “Volver a los diecisiete*” she also sang with her guitar, her precious company wherever she traveled.
* Translation: Back to the seventeenth
6. Julia De Burgos (1914-1953) Puerto Rico (12)
Born into a large family, in the rural neighborhood of Santa Cruz, Carolina, Puerto Rico, Julia attended rural public schools and graduated with honors. Even when the family could not help to provide her with an education, she applied for several grants and, took her degree at the University of Puerto Rico. After that she began teaching.
She married in 1934, but would only last for 3 years. While working for a economic rehabilitation program she met some of the most respected and talented Puerto Rican poets of the period: Luis Palés Matos, Luis Lloréns Torres, and Evaristo Ribera Chevremont. She became part of the Nationalist Party and supported also the Spanish Republic. Because of her political activism, she was fired from her job. But her passion was writing, and she always found time for it. Julia also wrote several poems, trying to sell them in order to pay for her mother’s treatment and operation. (the mother was diagnosed as having cancer). Despite all of her effort, the mother died in 1939 the same year she met Dr. Juan Isidro Jimenez Grullón, who inspired her to write some of her best love poetry. In December 1939, she published Canción de la verdad sencilla (Song of the unadorned truth), which received the prize of the Insituto de Literatura Puertorrique–a.
In 1943 she married Armando Marin and moved to Washington D.C., later returning to New York where she was again the object of public acclaim, but she started to become more isolated from her friends and her alcoholism began to worsen. On August 4, 1953, she was found unconscious on 105th street and Fifth Avenue in New York. She died at Harlem Hospital without identification and was buried in a grave for indigents. Her family found her later and her body was exhumed and buried in Puerto Rico, near the Rio Grande De Loíza, which she had immortalized with her poem by the same name. She is considered by many critics to be on par with her compatriot Luis Palés Matos.
Works by Julia De Burgos
Poemas exactos a mí misma (typescript. 1937. Poems exactly like me) Presumed lost.
Poema en veinte surcos. (poem in five furrowed time, 1938). San Juan, P.R.: Imprenta Venezuela, 1938.
Canción de la verdad sencilla. (Song of the unadorned truth.) San Juan, P.R.: Baldrich, 1939.
El mar y tú y otros poemas. (The ocean and you.) San Juan, P.R.: Printing and Publishing Co., 1954. Obra Poética. Intod. José Emilio Gonzalez. San Juan, P.R.: Instituto de Cultura Puertorrique–a, 1961 and others as Anthologies written in 1986 by María Solá, “Yo misma fui mi ruta”. (I was my own path).
7. María Elena Walsh (1930- ) Argentina
When still a teenager María Elena Walsh won acclaim from the Argentine cultural elite for her first book of poetry, Oto–o Imperdonable, 1947 (Unforgivable Autumn), she wrote very soon more poems, but increasingly disillusioned by both poetry and politics in Argentina, she left to live in Europe in 1952-56. In Paris, with poet and ethnomusicologist Leda Valladares, she formed the duo “Leda and María” and enjoyed considerable success singing traditional folklore in nightclubs and music halls, thus acquiring the musical training she would employ so magisterially later.
Following the example of José Sebastián Tallón, she sought to amuse and challenge her child audience in order to encourage intellectual autonomy. Her chief sources of inspiration came from the nursery rhymes, limericks of Edward Lear, and Lewis Carrol’s “Alice”, the ballards and carols of Hispanic folklore, and the ingenious worldplay of French Surrealist Robert Desnos’s “Chantefleurs et Chantefables, 1944. Walsh’s intention was, however, to adapt, to make “spiritual” rather than literary translations of poetic play, which readers from Argentina – and, indeed, from all Spanish America – could seize immediately. Her first collection of poem for children, Tutú Marambá, appeared in 1960 and was inspired from an ugly demon from Brazil.
She also spent three years in the United States. On returning to Argentina she continued writing poems for children. Co-wrote and co-produced a film for children in 1971, “Juguemos en el mundo” (Let’s play in the World).
She has always been an outspoken feminist, and used a variety of genres to combat “La horripilante misoginia y ni–ofobia de nuestra cultura hebreocristiana” (the horrifying misogyny and child phobia of our Judeo-Christian culture), and also to celebrate feminism as “this century’s real revolution”. (14) Thus, in her writing for children Walsh has systematically avoided sexual stereotypes by foregrounding instead some new-age protagonists like the Indian medicine woman in her revisionist rendering of the British invasion of Argentina in 1806, “El diablo inglés, 1974 (The English Devil), and others. In her popular poetry and songs Walsh has immortalized the army of undervalued women who are exploited in the home, in domestic service, and in underpaid teaching jobs. She set out the passive, ultraconservative image of the traditional female role in society.
In a long and multi-faceted career Walsh has reached the general public, that has responded with affection by venerating her as a familiar icon of Argentine popular culture.
Selected Works
Poetry
Oto–o Imperdonable, Buenos Aires; privately printed, 1947; Buenos Aires: Ediciones del Bosque, 1948.
Apenas Viaje, Buenos Aires; El Balcón de Madera, 1948.
Baladas con Angel, Published with Argumento del enamorado, by Angel Bonomini, Buenos Aires, Losada, 1952.
Casi Milagro, Montevideo; Cuadernos Julio Herrera y Reissig, 1958.
Hecho a mano, Buenos Aires: Fari–a, 1965.
Los Poemas, Buenos Aires; Sudamerica, 1984.
Las canciones, Buenos Aires; Seix Barral, 1994.
Children’s Literature
Tutú Marambá, Buenos Aires: “author’s edition, 1960.
El Reino del Revés, Buenos Aires: Fari–a, 1963.
Bisa Vuela, Buenos Aires: Hispamerica, 1985
and many others you can find in Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature, Edit. Verity Smith. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. Chicago Ill. U.S.A. 1997.
