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 Lucila Godoy Alcayaga (; 7 April 1889 – 10 January 1957), known by her pseudonym Gabriela Mistral (), was a Chilean poet-diplomat, educator and humanist. In 1945 she became the first Latin American author to receive a Nobel Prize in Li ...

Biography

María Angelina Acuña Sagastume de Castañeda was born in

Jutiapa Jutiapa is a city and a municipality in the Jutiapa department of Guatemala. Located 124 km from the city of Guatemala City, at an altitude of 892 m (2,926 ft),

to Francisco Acuña and Adela Sagastume de Acuña. She moved to

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...

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). She taught as a visiting professor at

Florida Southern College Florida Southern College (Florida Southern, Southern or FSC) is a private college in Lakeland, Florida. In 2019, the student population at FSC consisted of 3,073 students along with 130 full-time faculty members. The college offers 50 undergradu ...

(

Lakeland, Florida Lakeland is the most populous city in Polk County, Florida, part of the Tampa Bay Area, located along Interstate 4 east of Tampa. According to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau release, the city had a population of 112,641. Lakeland is a principal ci ...

). 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. She participated in many poetry contests, winning numerous awards, as a means to open the door to publishing"Finzer (2008)", p 175 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."Finzer (2008)", p 176 Unlike some of her fellow Guatemalan female writers, like Elisa Hall de Asturias who gave up writing due to the then-prevalent misogyny, or Magdalena Spínola who faced ostracism during the dictatorship of

Jorge Ubico Castañeda Jorge Ubico Castañeda (10 November 1878 – 14 June 1946), nicknamed Number Five or also Central America's Napoleon, was a Guatemalan dictator. A general in the Guatemalan army, he was elected to the presidency in 1931, in an election where ...

, Acuña was able to manipulate language and use poetic forms to address the culture without appearing to be a threat."Finzer (2008)", p 183 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."Finzer (2008)", pp. 200-01 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 Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

's first women's poetry collection, both written and published by women."Finzer (2008)", p 60 She founded and directed for several literary journals throughout her career and was a member of the

Academia Guatemalteca de la Lengua The Academia Guatemalteca de la Lengua (Spanish for ''Guatemalan Academy of the Language'') is an association of academics and experts on the use of the Spanish language in Guatemala. It was founded on June 30, 1887. It is a member of the Associati ...

Death

Acuña died at the age of 101 in her home in her native Jutiapa, Guatemala.Obituary
prensalibre.com. Accessed 28 April 2022.

Awards

*1960 Woman of the Americas by the Pan American Union of Women in New York *1960 Order of Quetzal *1974 Order of Francisco Marroquín * Distinction of Emeritus of Merit by the Faculty of Humanities at the University of San Carlos of Guatemala *2005 Quetzal of the Jade Maya, the highest honor of the Quetzal and first ever given to a woman

Selected works

* ''La gavilla de Ruth'' (1938)"Finzer (2008)", p 92 * ''Ofrenda Lirica a Guatemala'' (1939) * ''Para que duerma un indito'' (1952) * ''Fiesta de Luciérnagas'' (1953) * ''Madre Américas'' (1960) * ''El llamado de la cumbre'' (1960) * ''Canto de amor en latitud marina'' (1968) * ''Elogio del soneto'' (1999)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Acuna, Angelina 1900s births 2006 deaths People from Jutiapa Department 20th-century Guatemalan poets Guatemalan women poets Guatemalan centenarians 20th-century Guatemalan women writers Women centenarians