Angelina Acuña

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Acuña and the second or maternal family name is Sagastume.
Angelina Acuña
Born María Angelina Acuña Sagastume
(1904-01-31)31 January 1904
Jutiapa, Guatemala
Died 14 June 2006(2006-06-14) (aged 101)
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Nationality Guatemalan
Occupation writer, educator
Years active 1938–1999

María Angelina Acuña Sagastume de Castañeda (Jutiapa, 31 January 1905 - Jutiapa, 14 June 2006) was a Guatemalan writer of prose and poetry. A major poetry figure in her country, she was especially known for her rigor in managing classical verse within the sonnet. The writer Margarita Carrera called Acuña the "sister in spirit of Gabriela Mistral".[1]

Biography

María Angelina Acuña Sagastume de Castañeda[2] was born on 31 January 1905[3] to Francisco Acuña and Adela Sagastume de Acuña in Jutiapa, Guatemala.[4] She moved to Guatemala City where she studied to become a teacher of Primary Education. She earned a Bachelor of Science and Letters at Instituto Normal Central para Señoritas Belén. After graduating, she worked in teaching institutes such as Instituto Normal Central para Señoritas Belén and the Instituto Nacional Centroamérica (INCA).[1] She also taught as a visiting professor at Universidad Popular and Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida.[4]

Acuña began publishing poetry in the 1930s and was one of the most prolific women poets in Guatemala, publishing in the newspaper El Imparcial, the leading woman's magazine Nosotras, as well as in bound collections.[5] She participated in many poetry contests, winning numerous awards, as a means to open the door to publishing[6] and her skillful use of language helped her succeed and gain recognition a society which still mostly believed that men's intelligence was superior to women's.[7][8] Unlike some of her fellow Guatemalan female writers, like Elisa Hall de Asturias who gave up writing because of the prevailing misogyny,[9] or Magdalena Spínola who faced ostracism during the dictatorship of Jorge Ubico Castañeda, Acuña was able to manipulate language and use poetic forms to address the culture without appearing to be a threat.[10] Rather than promoting the heroic fatherland united under "Father God", Acuña celebrated her nationalism by employing imagery of mother earth's fertility to evoke both pride in her homeland and address the patriarchy of her times without explicit confrontation.[11] In 1938, Acuña participated in an anthology called Colección lila with Olga Violeta Luna de Marroquín, María del Pilar de Garcia, and Magdalena Spínola which was Central America's first women's poetry collection, both written and published by women.[12]

She founded and directed for several literary journals throughout her career[4] and was a member of the Academia Guatemalteca de la Lengua.[1] Acuña died at the age of 101 in her home next to the parish church of Jutiapa, Guatemala.

Awards

Selected works

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gonzalez, Ana Lucia (9 February 2014). "Angelina Acuña: maestra del soneto". Prensa Libre. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Angelina Acuña" (in Spanish). Guatemala: de Guate. 12 September 2004. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  3. 1 2 Nag, Leidy Maria (17 March 2011). "Angelina Acuña". Buenas Tareas (in Spanish). Guatemala: Buenas Tareas. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 "Angelina Acuna Castaneda". Leo Prensa Libre (in Spanish). Guatemala: Leo Prensa Libre. 8 August 2011. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  5. ↑ Finzer, Erin S. (August 2008). "Poetisa Chic: Fashioning the Modern Female Poet in Central America, 1929-1944" (PDF). Dissertations Department of Spanish and Portuguese. University of Kansas: 174. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  6. ↑ "Finzer (2008)", p 175
  7. ↑ "Finzer (2008)", p 176
  8. ↑ Quirante, Gabriela (12 December 2014). "Investigación sobre Semilla de mostaza (1938) de Elisa Hall". Investigacion Semilla de mostaza (in Spanish). Guatemala: ¿Quién dudó y quién duda?. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  9. ↑ "Presentan "Semilla de Mostaza y Mostaza" de Elisa Hall de Asturias (La Hora)". El Guatemalteco (in Spanish). Guatemala: El Guatemalteco. 13 February 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  10. ↑ "Finzer (2008)", p 183
  11. ↑ "Finzer (2008)", pp 200-201
  12. ↑ "Finzer (2008)", p 60
  13. ↑ "Angelina Acuña Castañeda" (in Spanish). Guatemala: El Diario Del Gallo. 2 February 2008. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  14. ↑ "Finzer (2008)", p 92

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.