Carmen Febres-Cordero de Ballén (1829–1893) was an Ecuadorian writer and poet.Calderón, Alba; Paz y Miño, Germania. "La pintura social como medio de acceso al campo artístico de tres mujeres en el Ecuador de la década de 1930" (in Spanish) p. 23. Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, 2017.

Biography

Carmen Febres-Cordero was born in

Guayaquil , motto = Por Guayaquil Independiente en, For Independent Guayaquil , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Ecuador#South America , pushpin_re ...

in 1829. She was the daughter of lieutenant colonel Joaquín Francisco Febres Cordero and of Maria de Jesus Montoya. She had four brothers. In 1853, she married Aurelio Ballén de Guzmán. They had three children. There are few known poems by this author, but they are all said to be of merit. According to Manuel Gallegos, they were written in her adolescence. She improvised the verses with a well-measured metric, her talent being well-cultivated. Examples of her works include, "A mi esposo ausente" (To my absent husband), that Jose Bernardine Suárez considers most notable, "A una flor" (To a flower) and "A mi madre" (To my mother), also quite outstanding, "Himno" (Hymn) and a poem dedicated to her friend Ángela Caamaño, which appeared in several poetic anthologies of the time, such as ''La guirnalda literaria '' (The literary garland) (1870) or ''Parnaso ecuatoriano'' (1879). In her poems, Febres-Cordero expresses tenderness and passion, but she also succumbs to the weight of disappointments. She collaborated with various newspapers such as ''La Esperanza'', along with other authors such as Dolores Sucre and Rita Lecumberri, in the liberal ''El espejo'', created in 1871, and in the magazine ''El Álbum'' in 1880. Febres-Cordero settled in Chile at least since 1879, and died in

Valparaíso Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...

in 1893. A street in the city of

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

is named in her honor.

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Febres-Cordero de Ballén, Carmen 1829 births 1893 deaths 19th-century Ecuadorian writers 19th-century Ecuadorian women writers 19th-century Ecuadorian poets Ecuadorian women poets Women hymnwriters Writers from Guayaquil