Carmen Marai is the pen name of Carmen María Bassa Rodríguez, a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

Writing

The central themes in her poems are primarily sorrow, betrayal, a mother's love, the struggle for life, and anti-violence, though she has also written humorous works. Her novels, a blend of historic fact and politics with the supernatural, do not necessarily fall into the category of

magical realism Magical is the adjective for magic. It may also refer to: * Magical (horse) Magical (foaled 18 May 2015) is an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse who excelled over middle distances and was rated in the top twenty racehorses in the world in 2018 and ...

in that the fantastical elements are not presented as normal occurrences, but fall upon the realm of the real from identifiably unnatural sources. Her work will at times intertwine religious and mythical motifs with unconventional interpretations. In June 2009, after the

protests A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...

and political flurry of the Iranian elections, Marai vocally supported the newly created

Iranian Green Movement The Iranian Green Movement ( fa, جنبش سبز ایران) or Green Wave of Iran ( fa, موج سبز ایران), also referred to as the Persian Awakening or Persian Spring by the western media, refers to a political movement that arose after ...

, writing her poem "Llamas Verdes" ("Green Flames"). She also played a significant role in the translation into Spanish of '' Persepolis 2.0'', a 2009 online graphic novel created by Iranian-born artists Payment and Sina.

Early life

Bassa was born in the major port of

San Antonio, Chile San Antonio is a Chilean port city, commune and the capital of the San Antonio Province in the Valparaíso Region. In the twenty-first century San Antonio has surpassed Valparaíso in freight volume handled, becoming the main freight port of ...

, but spent much of her youth in the capital,

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

. She is of

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

and Mallorcan descent, her mother being one of the

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

refugees of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

. She attended the

Primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s Sara Cruchaga and Las Carmelitas. She and both her siblings, Jaime and Montserrat, displayed precociousness in languages and the liberal arts, though she was the only one to later pursue a literary career. Her brother later became a commercial engineer and her sister became a lawyer in the

Senate of Chile The Senate of the Republic of Chile is the upper house of Chile's bicameral National Congress, as established in the current Constitution of Chile. Composition According to the present Constitution of Chile, the Senate is composed of forty-t ...

Personal life

In the mid-sixties, she married the engineer Rafael Mercado Aced, after which the newly wed couple moved among several small cities of the Norte Chico, later settling in the capital,

. After the arrival of the Unidad Popular and the unrest of this period, they decided to emigrate with their daughter to the United States, where they lived for several years. The marriage ultimately broke up there and she returned with their child to

, where she began her literary pursuits in earnest, joining the Sociedad de Escritores de Chile. She currently resides in Santiago.

Notable works

* ''El alba de la mandragora''. Published 1985 by Isla de Pascua, Santiago, Chile. Written in Spanish. Library of Congress MLCS 86/12372 (P)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marai, Carmen Latin American literature Chilean literature Living people Chilean women writers Year of birth missing (living people)

Writing

Early life

Personal life

Notable works

See also

References