Teresa Wilms Montt Explained

Teresa Wilms Montt
Birth Name:María Teresa de las Mercedes Wilms Montt
Birth Date:8 September 1893
Birth Place:Viña del Mar, Chile
Death Place:Paris, France
Nationality:Chilean
Other Names:Tebal, Teresa de la Cruz
Occupation:Writer

María Teresa de las Mercedes Wilms Montt (8 September 1893  - 24 December 1921; pseudonyms Tebal and Teresa de la Cruz), also known as Thérèse Wilms Montt, was a Chilean writer, poet, and anarcha-feminist. Described as "embodying sexual aberrance and social prophesy",[1] she was a friend of the writers Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Enrique Gómez Carrillo, Joaquín Edwards Bello, Víctor Domingo Silva, and Ramón Valle-Inclán.

Biography

A scion of the Montt family, she was born in Viña del Mar, Chile, to Luz Victoria Montt y Montt and Federico Guillermo Wilms y Brieba. She was the couple's second daughter, and she had seven sisters. Educated by governesses and private tutors,[2] she married Gustavo Balmaceda Valdés at the age of 17, against the will of her family. They had two children, Elisa "Chita" (1911-2005) and Sylvia Luz (1913-1999).

In Santiago, she joined the city's active cultural life.

Between 1912 and 1915, they resided in Iquique because of her husband's work.[3] It was here that she began her relationship with feminists, trade unionists, and even Masons,[4] and became associated with nascent reformist movements. She used the pseudonym Tebal when she was first published in the Iquique newspaper.[5] After her husband returned to Santiago he discovered the affair which Wilms Montt had with his cousin, Vicente Zañartu Balmaceda. Because of it, the men of the Balmaceda Valdés family held a 'family court' in 1915, and decided Wilms Montt's punishment would be to spend time at the Convento de la Preciosa Sangre.[6] Here, she kept a diary and, depressed, made her first suicide attempt on March 29, 1916.

In June 1916, Vicente Huidobro helped her escape from the convent and she fled with him to Buenos Aires.[7] The city's cosmopolitan intellectual circle had a positive effect on her, she became acquainted with writers Victoria Ocampo, Jorge Borges, and feminist-fashionista "Pele" Pelegrina Pastorino. The following year, she published Inquietudes Sentimentales, which was followed by Los Tres Cantos, where she explored eroticism and spirituality. After an admirer, Horacio Ramos Mejía, committed suicide in Wilms Montt's home, she left for New York City during World War I, but, after being accused of being a German spy, she was deported to Spain.[8] Here, she became the muse of Julio Romero de Torres, who introduced her to the writers Gómez de la Serna, Gómez Carrillo, and Ramón Valle-Inclán. In Madrid, using the pseudonym Teresa de la Cruz, she published "En la Quietud del Mármol" and "Anuarí".[9] [10] Her travels took her to London and Paris, but she resided in Madrid. She was reunited with her daughters in Paris in 1920 after 5 years of separation through the efforts of her father, who was on a diplomatic mission. However, the pain of separating from them again when they returned to Chile led to a terrible depression.[11]

She committed suicide in the Hôpital Laennec in Paris on 24 December 1921, from an overdose of Veronal at the age of 28 years.[12] She is buried in the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery.[13]

Legacy

Her life is remembered in the 2009 film Teresa: Crucificada por amar by director Tatiana Gaviola.[14]

Published works

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Richards, Keith John. Themes in Latin American Cinema: A Critical Survey. 20 July 2011. McFarland. 978-0-7864-8918-3. 181. 5 March 2021. 26 January 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200126141343/https://books.google.com/books?id=tl0A8D4HvucC&pg=PA181. live.
  2. Book: Marcas identitarias. Editorial Cuarto Propio. Spanish. 978-956-260-392-8. 97. 2021-03-05. 2020-01-26. https://web.archive.org/web/20200126141350/https://books.google.com/books?id=WFeax2EUhD0C&pg=PA97. live.
  3. Book: Subercaseaux, Bernardo. Historia de las ideas y de la cultura en Chile. 1 January 1997. Editorial Universitaria. Spanish. 978-956-11-1707-5. 109. 5 March 2021. 21 June 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200621170636/https://books.google.com/books?id=AuK2JIs0LHkC&pg=PA109. live.
  4. Book: Gazmuri R., Cristián. Histografía chilena (1842 - 1970) II. 11 January 2012. Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Chile. 978-956-347-127-4. 267–. 5 March 2021. 15 December 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191215224348/https://books.google.com/books?id=k9eTYzEz-mUC&pg=PT267. live.
  5. Book: Steenhuis, Aafke. La travesía del salitre chileno: de la pampa a la tierra holandesa. 2007. LOM Ediciones. Spanish. 978-956-282-942-7. 46. 2021-03-05. 2020-06-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20200621170636/https://books.google.com/books?id=w2zalkQufYgC&pg=PA46. live.
  6. News: May. Catalina. La encantadora aristócrata que se pasó a su clase por la raja. 2 October 2014. The Clinic. 21 June 2009. 6 October 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141006165928/http://www.theclinic.cl/2009/06/21/la-encantadora-aristocrata-que-se-paso-a-su-clase-por-la-raja/. live.
  7. Book: González-Vergara, Ruth. Teresa Wilms Montt: un canto de libertad : biografía. 1 January 1993. Grijalbo. Spanish. 122. 9789562580298. 5 March 2021. 15 February 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170215023114/https://books.google.com/books?id=x0sdAQAAIAAJ. live.
  8. Web site: Garlitz. Virginia Milner. The Last Muse of the Marqués de Bradomín ?. elpasajero.com. 2 October 2014. 23 September 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150923235704/http://www.elpasajero.com/ventolera/garlitz.html. live.
  9. Web site: También para ellos. letrasdechile.cl. 2 October 2014. 11. Spanish. 4 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304040637/http://www.letrasdechile.cl/Joomla/images/Teresa-Wilms-Montt.pdf. dead.
  10. Web site: Cuentos para los hombres que son todavía niños [microform] (1919)]. Bs. Aires : Otero & Co.. 2 October 2014.
  11. Web site: Narran la Historia de la Escritora Teresa Wilms Montt. Chile.com. 1 October 2014. 6 October 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141006104852/http://www.chile.com/secciones/ver_seccion.php?id=110119. live.
  12. Book: Lamperein. Lina Vera. Vieira. Ana María. Molina. Paz. Presencia femenina en la literatura nacional: una trayectoria apasionante, 1750-2005. 2008. Editorial Semejanza. Spanish. 978-956-7590-46-9. 80. 2021-03-05. 2017-04-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20170417155813/https://books.google.com/books?id=SFEWAQAAIAAJ. live.
  13. http://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/colecciones/BND/00/RC/RC0021110.pdf - Biblioteca Nacional de Chile
  14. Web site: Teresa: Crucificada por amar. IMDb. 2 October 2014. 2 April 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150402060604/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1467411/. live.

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