| Romelia Alarcón Folgar | |
| Birth Name: | Romelia Alarcón Barrios |
| Birth Date: | 27 October 1900 |
| Birth Place: | Cobán, Alta Verapaz Department, Guatemala |
| Death Place: | Guatemala City, Guatemala |
| Other Names: | Romelia Alarcón de Folgar |
| Occupation: | journalist, writer |
| Years Active: | 1938-1971 |
Romelia Alarcón Folgar (1900 - 1971) was a Guatemalan poet, journalist and suffragette. Many of her themes had to do with the environment and women's rights. She is considered one of the most notable poets from Guatemala in the 20th century.
Romelia Alarcón Barrios was born on 27 October 1900 in Cobán, Alta Verapaz Department, Guatemala to María Barrios Noriega and Salvador Alarcón.[1] She married Domingo Folgar Garrido and had seven children. She did not begin writing until after raising her family and all of her works bear her married surname. Through her ties with intellectuals and artists, despite a lack of formal training, she was able to create a career in journalism and as a poet becoming "one of the most important Guatemalan poets of the 20th century". In 1945, inspired by successes in suffrage by women in England, France, and United States Alarcón joined with Laura Bendfeldt, María Albertina Gálvez, Clemencia de Herrarte, Gloria Menéndez Mina, Adriana de Palarea, Graciela Quan and Magdalena Spínola to form the Comité Pro-Ciudadanía to fight for Guatemalan women's suffrage.
Alarcón Folgar worked as a journalist for radio and sometimes for newspapers, also publishing pieces in magazines. She founded the Revista Minuto and as the editor of the Revista Pan-Americana, traveled internationally. She published thirteen books during her lifetime and after her death, one of her daughters published two more books. She began publishing poems in 1938 with the book entitled Llamaradas (Blaze). In it, she speaks as an early environmentalist and the obligation to preserve nature as a means of protecting the mestizo population. Unlike later poems, known for their social commentary, the collection in Llamarades are united by the central theme of protecting the great Maya tree. Some of her early works focus on domestic topics that were not within the confines of what was expected in poetry of the day. Others discussed the struggle to create. Later works denounced women's place in society and lack of freedom[2] and her final works lamented her invisibility and discomfort that the world around her did not comprehend her, only the things that represent her.
Alarcón Folgar died on 19 July 1971 and was buried in the General Cemetery in Guatemala City.