Ofelia de la Concepción Rodríguez Acosta García (9 February 1902, in

Pinar del Río Pinar del Río is the capital city of Pinar del Río Province, Cuba. With a population of 139,336 (2004) in a municipality of 190,332, it is the List of cities in Cuba, 10th-largest city in Cuba. Inhabitants of the area are called ''Pinareños'' ...

– 28 June 1975, in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

or Mexico) was a Cuban writer, journalist, radical feminist, and activist. She wrote feminist chronicles, stories, essays, novels, and a play. She is considered one of Cuba's most famous

social reformer A reform movement or reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary move ...

Early life

Rodríguez's father was a writer and intellectual. She attended the Institute of Havana and later received a grant to study in Europe and Mexico. At the age of 12, Rodríguez wrote the novel ''Evocaciones'', which was published in 1922.

Career

Rodríguez was one of the most prolific writers of the 1920s and 1930s, publishing novels, stories, a play, and many magazine articles. Together with

Mariblanca Sabas Alomá Mariblanca Sabas Alomá (February 10, 1901 – July 19, 1983) was a Cuban feminist, journalist and poet. A political activist, she was also a Minister without portfolio in the Cuban government under Ramón Grau and Carlos Prio. Her writing was dev ...

, Rodríguez became one of the most influential writers who attracted attention to the feminist cause in Cuba during the first half of the 20th century. Rodríguez had an active political life during that period, and wrote for ''Bohemia'' (1929–32) where she "developed radical psychological challenges to the prescribed behavior of Cuban women". She founded and directed the journal ''Espartana'' (1927). With titillating content, which provoked public outrage, her novel ''La Vida Manda'' (1927) was the most controversial of her works. She touched on lesbianism in the novel ''Happy Breed'' (1929). Rodriguez felt that women need to liberate themselves by enjoying free love and rejecting the religious, social and sexual strictures of society. She felt that women would continue to remain dependent on men until they took personal charge of their own liberation. Rodríguez was among the group of women and intellectuals who belonged the Women's Club of Cuba, where Rodríguez served as librarian. She also belonged to the Women's Labor Union. Rodríguez lived in Europe in 1935–1939 but eventually settled in Mexico. The circumstances surrounding her death are ambiguous. By one account, she suffered a mental breakdown, spent time in a mental institution, and died in a Mexican lunatic asylum, while another report states she died at the Santovenia nursing home in Havana.

Selected works

* ''Apuntes de mi viaje a Isla de Pinos'' (1926). * ''La tragedia social de la mujer'' (1932). * ''En la noche del mundo'' (1940). * ''Diez mandamientos cívicos (cinco éticos y cinco estéticos)'' (1951). * ''Hágase la luz. La novela de un filósofo existencialista'' (1953). * ''La muerte pura de Martí'' (1955). * ''Algunos cuentos (de ayer y de hoy)'' (1957).

Chronicles

* ''Evocaciones'' (1922). * ''Europa era así'' (1941).

Novels

* ''El triunfo de la débil presa'' (1926). * ''La vida manda'' (1929; 1930). * ''Dolientes'' (1931.) * ''Sonata interrumpida'' (1943). * ''La dama del Arcón'' (1949).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez Acosta, Ofelia 1902 births 1975 deaths Cuban activists Cuban women activists Cuban feminists Cuban journalists Cuban women journalists Cuban women novelists Cuban LGBT novelists People from Pinar del Río 20th-century Cuban women writers 20th-century Cuban novelists 20th-century journalists 20th-century Cuban LGBT people