Angelina Acuña Explained

Angelina Acuña
Birth Name:María Angelina Acuña Sagastume
Birth Date:31 January 1904
Birth Place:Jutiapa, Guatemala
Death Place:Jutiapa, Guatemala
Occupation:Writer, educator
Years Active:1938–1999

María Angelina Acuña Sagastume de Castañeda (31 January 1905 – 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 in Jutiapa[3] to Francisco Acuña and Adela Sagastume de Acuña.[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 taught as a visiting professor at Florida Southern College (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 due to the then-prevalent 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, she 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 and was a member of the Academia Guatemalteca de la Lengua.[1]

In 1944, she joined with a group of women including Elisa Hall de Asturias, Berta Corleto, Gloria Méndez Mina de Padilla, Rosa de Mora, Irene de Peyré, and Graciela Quan to form the Unión Femenina Guatemalteca Pro-ciudadanía (Union of Guatemalan Women for Citizenship) favoring recognition of their civil rights, including suffrage for literate women. After the Guatemalan 1944 coup d'état the new Constitution, promulgated on 1 March 1945 granted the right to vote to all literate citizens, including women.[13]

Death

Acuña died at the age of 101 in her home in her native Jutiapa, Guatemala.[14]

Awards

Selected works

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Gonzalez. Ana Lucia. Angelina Acuña: maestra del soneto. 30 May 2015. Prensa Libre. 9 February 2014.
  2. News: Angelina Acuña. 29 June 2015. de Guate. 12 September 2004. Guatemala. Spanish.
  3. Web site: Nag. Leidy Maria. Angelina Acuña. Buenas Tareas. Buenas Tareas. 29 June 2015. Guatemala. Spanish. 17 March 2011.
  4. Web site: Angelina Acuna Castaneda. Leo Prensa Libre. Leo Prensa Libre. 29 June 2015. Guatemala. Spanish. 8 August 2011.
  5. Finzer. Erin S.. Poetisa Chic: Fashioning the Modern Female Poet in Central America, 1929-1944. Dissertations Department of Spanish and Portuguese. August 2008. 174. 29 June 2015. University of Kansas.
  6. "Finzer (2008)", p 175
  7. "Finzer (2008)", p 176
  8. Web site: Quirante. Gabriela. Investigación sobre Semilla de mostaza (1938) de Elisa Hall. Investigacion Semilla de mostaza. ¿Quién dudó y quién duda?. 19 June 2015. Guatemala. Spanish. 12 December 2014.
  9. Web site: Presentan "Semilla de Mostaza y Mostaza". El Guatemalteco. El Guatemalteco. 19 June 2015. Guatemala. Spanish. 13 February 2013.
  10. "Finzer (2008)", p 183
  11. "Finzer (2008)", pp. 200-01
  12. "Finzer (2008)", p 60
  13. Rodríguez de Ita. Guadalupe. Participación Política de las Mujeres en la Primavera Democrática Guatemalteca (1944-1954). Participación política, persecución y exilio femenino al sur de la frontera mexicana (En la segunda mitad del siglo XX). March 2001. Chapter 8. 19 June 2015. Universidad de Costa Rica. San Jose, Costa Rica. Spanish. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160305122555/http://historia.fcs.ucr.ac.cr/articulos/esp-genero/2parte/CAP8Guadalupe.htm. 5 March 2016.
  14. https://www.prensalibre.com/revista-d/angelina-acuna-maestra-del-soneto-poetisa-guatemalteca-0-1079892194/ Obituary
  15. News: Angelina Acuña Castañeda. 29 June 2015. El Diario Del Gallo. 2 February 2008. Guatemala. Spanish.
  16. "Finzer (2008)", p 92