Juana Manuela Gorriti (July 15, 1818 – November 6, 1892)
was an
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
writer with extensive political and literary links to
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
and
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
. She held the position of
First Lady of Bolivia from 1848 to 1855.
With the publication of ''La quena'' (1845), Gorriti became recognized as the earliest novelist in what would become Argentina. In ''La quena,'' Gorriti challenged the notion of poverty, ignorance, tyranny, and the oppression of women, writing, "A day shall come in which man's science will discover those treasures; but by then men will be free and equal, and they shall use wealth to serve humanity! The reign of worries and despotism will have ended, and only man's genius will rule the world, it reside upon the head of a European, or upon that of an Indian."
Gorriti’s commitment to women’s issues sparked the interest of both women and men, including
Abel Delgado. His essay, ‘''La educación social de la mujer''’, ("The Social Education of Woman," 1892) discussed male and female spheres and justified women's participation in law and politics.
Biography
Juana Manuela Gorriti was born in
Rosario de la Frontera
Rosario de la Frontera is a city in the center-south of the province of Salta, Argentina. It has 26,174 inhabitants as per the , and is the head town of the Rosario de la Frontera Department. It is located on National Route 9, by the Horcones R ...
, in the province of
Salta
Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Argentine province of the same name. With a population of 618,375 according to the 2010 census, it is also the 7th most-populous city in Argentina. The city serves as the cultural and economic ce ...
, in the north of Argentina. She came from a wealthy upper-class family and attended a convent school when she was eight. She was born to José Ignacio Gorriti and Feleciana Zuviria. Her father,
José Ignacio de Gorriti, was a politician and soldier, and signed the
Argentine Declaration of Independence
What today is commonly referred as the Independence of Argentina was declared on July 9, 1816, by the Congress of Tucumán. In reality, the congressmen who were assembled in Tucumán declared the independence of the United Provinces of Sou ...
on July 9, 1816.
She was also the niece of the infamous guerrilla Jose Francisco "Pachi" Gorriti. Her family was liberal, and supported the
Unitarians during a time when
Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rosas (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877), nicknamed "Restorer of the Laws", was an Argentine politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confederation. Althoug ...
ran the country. De Rosas was a conservative Governor of Buenos Aires Province from 1829 to 1832 who used promoted violent measures to dispossess indigenous people and pave the way for expansion. In 1831, when Gorriti was thirteen, the federal
caudillo
A ''caudillo'' ( , ; osp, cabdillo, from Latin , diminutive of ''caput'' "head") is a type of personalist leader wielding military and political power. There is no precise definition of ''caudillo'', which is often used interchangeably with " ...
Facundo Quiroga
Juan Facundo Quiroga (November 27, 1788 – February 16, 1835) was an Argentine caudillo (military strongman) who supported federalism at the time when the country was still in formation.
Early years
Quiroga was born in San Antonio, La Ri ...
forced Gorriti and much of her family into exile.
Goritti's family settled in
Tarija
Tarija or San Bernardo de la Frontera de Tarixa is a city in southern Bolivia. Founded in 1574, Tarija is the largest city and capital and municipality within the Tarija Department, with an airport (Capitán Oriel Lea Plaza Airport, (TJA)) offe ...
, Bolivia, where she met her future husband,
Manuel Isidro Belzú, who was a captain in the
Bolivian Army
The Bolivian Army ( es, Ejército Boliviano) is the land force branch of the Armed Forces of Bolivia.
Figures on the size and composition of the Bolivian army vary considerably, with little official data available. It is estimated that the arm ...
at the time. They married when she was fifteen, and they had three daughters. As his career advanced, their marriage suffered, and he abandoned her in 1842 after nine years together. Gorriti did not receive the divorce papers until fourteen years later, after his assassination. After her return to Argentina she died November 6, 1892, in Buenos Aires, Argentina at the age of 74.
The Salons
In Lima, the coastal city where she lived, she developed a name as an influential journalist and started to host ''tertulias'' on a regular basis. These salons would be attended by fashionable and mostly well-educated men and women, such as
Ricardo Palma
Manuel Ricardo Palma Soriano (February 7, 1833 – October 6, 1919) was a Peruvian author, scholar, librarian and politician. His magnum opus is the ''Tradiciones peruanas''.
Biography
According to the official account, Manuel Ricardo Pa ...
and
Manuel González Prada
Jose Manuel de los Reyes González de Prada y Ulloa (Lima, January 5, 1844 – Lima, July 22, 1918) was a Peruvian politician and anarchist, literary critic and director of the National Library of Peru. He is well remembered as a social cr ...
,
Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera
Mercedes Cabello Llosa de Carbonera ( Moquegua, February 7, 1845 – Lima, October 12, 1909) was a Peruvian writer. Influenced by positivism and naturalism, she was one of the main the initiators of literary realism
Literary realism is a lit ...
,
Clorinda Matto de Turner
Clorinda Matto de Turner (11 November 1852 in Cusco – 25 October 1909) was a Peruvian writer who lived during the early years of Latin American independence. Her own independence inspired women throughout the region as her writings sparked ...
and
Teresa González de Fanning
Teresa González de Fanning ( Nepeña District, Ancash Region, Peru, 12 August 1836 - Miraflores District, Lima, 7 April 1918) was a Peruvian writer and journalist notable for her activism in the education of women. She founded the Liceo Fannin ...
. They would meet to discuss literature and social progress, themes that Gorriti felt passionate about and would include in much of her literature.
By organizing and hosting her ''tertulias'', Gorriti provided a great opportunity for female writers to come together and discuss literature, progress, and the progress of women.
Many of the attendees would later go on to write more about these subjects, including
Teresa González de Fanning
Teresa González de Fanning ( Nepeña District, Ancash Region, Peru, 12 August 1836 - Miraflores District, Lima, 7 April 1918) was a Peruvian writer and journalist notable for her activism in the education of women. She founded the Liceo Fannin ...
, who founded an enlightened women's movement.
Women's Rights
Gorriti was an ardent feminist before the term itself was invented, and her dedication to women’s rights showed in many of her journals. Through her writings, she instructed and inspired women to take on the gender roles more commonly found in Europe and North America. She wanted women to be heard, to educate themselves, and to not be afraid to go against social norms.
First Lady of Bolivia
Manuel Isidoro Belzú, husband to Gorriti, went on to become president of Boliva in 1848. He survived an assassination attempt two years later and ruled for a further five years until retiring in 1855, having sponsored his son-in-law,
Jorge Córdova
Jorge Córdova (23 April 1822, in La Paz – 23 October 1861) was a Bolivian general and politician who served as the 12th president of Bolivia from 1855 to 1857.
Early life
Childhood
Jorge Córdova was born on April 23, 1822, in the city ...
, to succeed him.
Jorge Córdova
Jorge Córdova (23 April 1822, in La Paz – 23 October 1861) was a Bolivian general and politician who served as the 12th president of Bolivia from 1855 to 1857.
Early life
Childhood
Jorge Córdova was born on April 23, 1822, in the city ...
was overthrown in a coup d’état two years later and was succeeded by
José María Linares
José María Linares Lizarazu (10 July 1808 – 23 October 1861) was a Bolivian lawyer and politician who served as the 13th president of Bolivia from 1857 to 1861.
Early life and education
He was born in Tical, Potosí, in his family's hacie ...
, who in turn was ousted by his Minister of War,
José María de Achá
José María de Achá Valiente (8 July 1810 – 29 January 1868) was a Bolivian general who served as the 14th president of Bolivia from 1861 to 1864. He served in the battles of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation and conspired against longtime ...
in 1861. Achá survived for three years until replaced, through another coup, by
General Mariano Melgarejo. Belzú raised an army against Melgarejo who, according to unconfirmed rumours, invited him to the presidential palace and shot him during a fake embrace. He died on 23 March 1865.
Battlefield Nurse
In 1866, the Spanish Navy shelled ports on Peru's and Chile's coastlines, including the port of Lima, where Gorriti served as a battlefield nurse.
Gorriti received a military honor from Peru for her heroic acts of saving injured Peruvian soldiers. She also risked her life evacuating the wounded when the Spanish surrendered at Callao. For her heroism, and
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during t ...
-like actions, Gorriti was seen as a Peruvian freedom fighter and was awarded the Second Star of May by the Peruvian government. She wrote about these events in numerous articles and short stories, later collected and published in the ''Album of Lima'' founded by herself and her friend and fellow writer
Carolina Freyre de Jaimes.
Return to Argentina
In 1878, Gorriti returned to Argentina. Even after having faced numerous scandals in her life such as divorce, exile, and Belzu having a child out of wedlock, she was still seen as an exceptional woman who brought great pride to her country. Gorriti became a mother to two daughters, Edelmira Belzu and Mercedes Belzu de Dorado. Her daughter Mercedes became sick in Peru in 1879, but Gorriti could not go to her because of the war between Chile and Peru over the provinces of Tanca and Arica. Mercedes died later that year. Gorriti also founded the newspaper ''The Argentina Dawn'', in which she published many articles on the rights and education of women. When she died, Argentines hailed her as a famous, instructive, influential journalist in her day.
Literary Contributions
Gorriti left Bolivia for Peru, where her literary life would take off. When she initially arrived in Peru she had no financial support or resources. Gorriti founded an all girls school in Bolivia, where she dedicated her life to teaching and writing.
She was an ardent feminist, and it showed in many of her journals. Gorriti wrote several short novels and numerous short stories. Her novels include ''El Pozo de Yocci (The Yocci Well)'', a love story, ghost story and Gothic horror rolled into one, set in one of the most critical periods in the history of the Argentine Republic, contrasting the idealistic patriotism behind the War of Independence with the savagery of the civil wars that followed. This was followed by ''La oasis de la vida (The Oasis of Life)'', a melodramatic novel written in the 1880s. ''La tierra natal (The Native Land)'', her last major work, published in 1889, relates a physical journey through northern Argentina, back to the places where she had lived over the course of her lifetime, as well as a voyage back through her memories of the people and events she had known and experienced along the way. Two of her most famous short stories are ''La hija del mazorquero'' and ''El lucero de manantial''; both are melodramatic tales with a strong anti-Rosista political message.
Gorriti also founded the newspaper ''The Dawn of Argentina'' (''La Alborada Argentina)'' with fellow poet Numa Pompilio Yona.
Her intermittent three-year stay in Lima resulted in the publication of ''La Quena'', a short but influential novella, in the prestigious newspaper ''El Comercio''. Later, as Peruvian politics began to stabilize, she contributed to the ''Revista de Lima''with stories like ''El Angel Caido'' and ''Si haces mal no esperes bien''.
Gorriti's stories are finely crafted and bear witness to trends in South American literature of the 19th century.
Principal works
Novels
* ''El pozo de Yocci'' (1869)
* ''Oasis en la Vida'' (1888)
* ''La tierra natal'' (1889)
Novellas, short stories, and miscellaneous writings
* ''Sueños y realidades'' (1865)
* ''Panoramas de la vida'' (1876)
* ''Misceláneas'' (1878)
* ''El mundo de los recuerdos'' (1886)
English translations of her work
* ''Dreams and Realities'' translated by Sergio Waisman
* ''The Yocci Well'' translated by Kathryn Phillips-Miles
* ''Our Native Land'' translated by Kathryn Phillips-Miles
References
External links
*Berg, Mary
"Juana Manuela Gorriti: narradora de su epoca"Loyola University Maryland
20 March 2007. 18 March 2007
*Sylvester, Santiago
"Exile and property."Iruya
8 March 1997. 17 March 2007
*Fernandez, Maria Cristina.
ttp://www.portaldesalta.gov.ar/salta.htm Portal Informativo de SALTA 3 March 2007. 17 March 2007
*Ward, Thomas
"Ficción histórica peruana: Las escritoras comprometidas"
''Labrys: études féministes/estudos feministas'', No. 11 "Femenismos en el Perú" (janvier/juin 2007-janeiro/junho 2007).
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gorriti, Juana
1818 births
1896 deaths
19th-century Argentine women writers
19th-century Argentine writers
19th-century Peruvian women writers
19th-century Peruvian writers
Argentine feminists
First ladies and gentlemen of Bolivia
People from Salta