Monica Szurmuk

Introduction: Light and Proud and Fervent, Like a Flag Fulfilled in the Wind

Porque la mujer [Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda] era hermosa, de grande estatura, de esculturales contornos, de bien modelados brazos y de airosa cabeza, coronada de castaños y abundantes rizos. . .: Era una mujer; pero lo era sin duda por un error de la naturaleza, que había metido por distracción una alma de hombre en aquella envoltura de carne femenina. José Zorrilla, Recuerdos del tiempo viejo , 382–383.

Boom, Realismo Mágico– Boom and Boomito

Poetry was part of the common sound space, ranging from grand odes to heroes to popular songs about bandits or gauchos. The recitation of a poem, often composed solely for the occasion, accompanied most public events, and later in the century learning to recite poetry well was considered part of a good education. Poems from the ancient Spanish romancero were alive and well then in Spanish America, as Portuguese traditional poetry was in Brazil. Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda is the brightest star in the nineteenth centurys female poetic firmament and, until the appearance of Ruben Dario in the 1880s, is perhaps only rivaled in the lyric by her earlier compatriot, Jose Maria de Heredia. With the expansion of public education, especially the normalista movement in Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and other countries, young people, both men and women, from modest beginnings entered the literary sphere.