Castellanos, Rosario
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Wikipedia-Article "Rosario Castellanos"
Rosario Castellanos (25 May 1925 – 7 August 1974) was a Mexican poet and author. Along with the other members of the generation of 1950, she was one of Mexico's most important literary voices in the last century. Throughout her life, she wrote eloquently about issues of cultural and gender oppression, and her work has influenced feminist theory and cultural studies. Though she died young, she opened the door of Mexican literature to women, and left a legacy that still resonates today.
Life
Born in Mexico City, she was raised on the family ranch near Comitán in the southern state of Chiapas. She was an introverted young girl, who took notice of the plight of the indigenous Maya who worked for her family. According to her own account, she felt estranged from her family after a soothsayer predicted that one of her mother's two children would die shortly, and her mother screamed out, "Not the boy!"
The family's fortunes changed suddenly when President Lázaro Cárdenas enacted a land reform and peasant emancipation policy that stripped the family of much of its land holdings. At sixteen, Rosario Castellanos and her parents moved to Mexico City. One year later, her parents were dead and she was left to fend for herself.
Although she remained introverted, she joined a group of Mexican and Central American intellectuals, read extensively, and began to write. She studied philosophy and literature at the National University, where she would later teach, and joined the National Indigenous Institute, writing scripts for puppet shows that were staged in impoverished regions to promote literacy. Ironically, the Institute had been founded by President Cárdenas, who had taken away her family's land. She also wrote a weekly column for the newspaper Excélsior.
In addition to her literary work, Castellanos held several government posts. In recognition for her contribution to Mexican literature, Castellanos was appointed ambassador to Israel in 1971.
On 7 August 1974 Castellanos died in Tel Aviv from a freak electrical accident, when she tried to plug a lamp into a wall socket.
Work
Throughout her career, Castellanos wrote poetry, essays, one major play, and two novels: the semi-autobiographical Balún Canán and Oficio de tinieblas (translated into English as The Book of Lamentations) depicting a Tzotzil indigenous uprising in Chiapas based on one that had occurred in the 19th century. Despite being a ladino – of European, not indigenous descent – Castellanos shows considerable concern and understanding for the plight of indigenous peoples.
Selected bibliography
- Balún-Canán (1957)
- Poemas (1953-1955) (1957)
- Ciudad Real: Cuentos (1960)
- Oficio de tinieblas (1962)
- Album de familia (1971)
- Poesía no eres tú; Obra poética: 1948-1971 (1972)
- Mujer que sabe latín . . . (1973)
- El eterno femenino: Farsa (1973)