María de Montserrat Albareda (August 4, 1913 – August 23, 1995) was a

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

an writer who was a member of Generación del 45.

Biography

Together with Paulina Medeiros,

Armonía Somers Armonía Liropeya Etchepare Locino (7 October 1914 – 1 March 1994) was a Uruguayan feminist, pedagogue, novelist and short story writer. She was sometimes referred to as Armonía Etchepare de Henestrosa or, by her pseudonym, Armonía Somer (some ...

, Clara Silva and Selva Márquez, Montserrat was one of the most important female voices of what

Emir Rodríguez Monegal Emir Rodríguez Monegal (28 July 1921 – 14 November 1985), born in Uruguay, was a scholar, literary critic, and editor of Latin American literature. From 1969 to 1985, Rodríguez Monegal was professor of Latin American contemporary literatur ...

called Narrativa Uruguaya of the Middle Century. She was born in

Camagüey Camagüey () is a city and municipality in central Cuba and is the nation's third-largest city with more than 321,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province. It was founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe in 1514, by S ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, but her parents settled in

two years later. At age 17, she published ''Arriates en flor'', a book of poems where some influence of Juana de Ibarbourou can be discovered but where most shone was in the very short story. Among this production is the story "Portrait in pencil" that the critic Ruben Cotelo selected for his anthology "Uruguayan Narrators". There, Cotelo says: "she has tried to pick up a Montevideo that is leaving and some Montevidean that disappear" in reference to the sensitivity of the author to unravel "the thick tangle of relationships that binds the family group within the upper middle class, some in decadence". In 1951 a theatrical her work, ''Intermitencias'', directed by

Margarita Xirgu Margarita Xirgu Subirá (18 June 1888, Molins de Rei, Barcelona, Spain – 25 April 1969, Montevideo, Uruguay), also Margarida Xirgu, was a Spanish stage actress, who was greatly popular throughout her country and Latin America. A friend of ...

was released. Between February 24, 1976 and until the date of her death, she occupied the chair " Bartolomé Hidalgo" at the

Academia Nacional de Letras The Academia Nacional de Letras (English: "National Academy of Letters") is an association of academics and experts on the use of the Spanish language in Uruguay. It was founded in Montevideo on February 10, 1943. Among the first members were Cardi ...

. In 1999, in Volume No. 174 of his "Collection of Uruguayan Classics", the Biblioteca Artigas has published ''El País Secreto'', written in 1977. Montserrat was awarded the Candelabro Gold Award by the

B'nai B'rith B'nai B'rith International (, from he, בְּנֵי בְּרִית, translit=b'né brit, lit=Children of the Covenant) is a Jewish service organization. B'nai B'rith states that it is committed to the security and continuity of the Jewish peopl ...

Uruguay. She was the mother of the historian Marta Canessa, the former

First Lady of Uruguay First Lady of Uruguay (Spanish: ''Primera Dama de Uruguay'') is the unofficial and protocol title of the wife of the President of Uruguay, and hostess of Suarez Residence. The first lady is not an elected position, carries no official duties and bri ...

and wife of the Uruguayan former president Julio María Sanguinetti.

Works

Poem

* ''Arriates en flor'' (1932)

Short stories

* ''Tres relatos'' (1942) * ''Cuentos mínimos'' (1953) * ''Con motivo de vivir'' (Editorial Alfa, Montevideo, 1962) * ''Los lugares'' (Editorial Alfa, 1965) * ''El sonido blanco y otros cuentos'' (Ediciones del Aleph, 1979) * ''Los juegos'' (Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, Montevideo, 1993)

Novels

* ''Los habitantes'' (Editorial Alfa, 1968) * ''La casa quinta'' (Ediciones de la Banda Oriental) * ''El País Secreto'' (Colección de Clásicos Uruguayos, Biblioteca Artigas, Montevideo, 1999)

Theatre

* ''Intermitencias'' (1951)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montserrat, Maria de 1913 births 1995 deaths Uruguayan women short story writers Uruguayan short story writers Uruguayan women novelists Uruguayan novelists Members of the Uruguayan Academy of Language 20th-century Uruguayan women writers 20th-century Uruguayan writers Cuban emigrants Immigrants to Uruguay People from Camagüey