María Teresa de las Mercedes Wilms Montt (8 September 1893 – 24 December 1921; pseudonyms Tebal and Teresa de la Cruz), also known as Thérèse Wilms Montt, was a Chilean writer, poet, and

anarcha-feminist Anarcha-feminism, also referred to as anarchist feminism, is a system of analysis which combines the principles and power analysis of anarchist theory with feminism. Anarcha-feminism closely resembles intersectional feminism. Anarcha-feminism ...

. Described as "embodying sexual aberrance and social prophesy", she was a friend of the writers

Ramón Gómez de la Serna Ramón Gómez de la Serna y Puig (3 July 1888 in Madrid – 13 January 1963 in Buenos Aires) was a Spanish writer, dramatist and avant-garde agitator. He strongly influenced surrealist film maker Luis Buñuel. Ramón Gómez de la Serna was esp ...

Enrique Gómez Carrillo Enrique Gómez Carrillo (February 27, 1873 in Guatemala City – November 29, 1927 in Paris) was a Guatemalan literary critic, writer, journalist and diplomat, and the second husband of the Salvadoran-French writer and artist Consuelo Suncin d ...

Joaquín Edwards Bello Joaquín Edwards Bello (; May 10, 1887 – February 19, 1968) was a Chilean writer and journalist of British descent. Life Edwards Bello was born in Valparaíso, one of the most important ports in Chile. His family, the Edwards, is still one of ...

Víctor Domingo Silva Víctor Domingo Silva Endeiza (May 12, 1882, Tongoy, Elqui Province – August 20, 1960, Santiago) was a Chilean poet, journalist, playwright and writer. He was of Basque descent by mother's side. Silva was born into an educated family who ins ...

, and

Ramón Valle-Inclán Ramón or Ramon may refer to: People Given name * Ramon (footballer, born 1998), Brazilian footballer * Ramón (footballer, born 1990), Brazilian footballer *Ramón (singer), Spanish singer who represented Spain in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest ...

Biography

A scion of the

Montt family The Montt family of Chile, descended from Catalan immigrants to the country, includes a number of people who achieved political office and prominence in other fields: * José Anacleto Montt Goyenechea (1802–1867): lawyer and politician *Manuel ...

, she was born in

Viña del Mar Viña del Mar (; meaning "Vineyard of the Sea") is a city and commune on central Chile's Pacific coast. Often referred to as ("The Garden City"), Viña del Mar is located within the Valparaíso Region, and it is Chile's fourth largest city w ...

, Chile, to Luz Victoria Montt y Montt and Federico Guillermo Wilms y Brieba. She was the couple's second daughter, and she had seven sisters. Educated by governesses and private tutors, she married Gustavo Balmaceda Valdés at the age of 17, against the will of her family. They had two children, Elisa "Chita" (1911) and Sylvia Luz (1913). In

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, whose ...

, she joined the city's active cultural life. Between 1912 and 1915, they resided in

Iquique Iquique () is a port city and commune in northern Chile, capital of both the Iquique Province and Tarapacá Region. It lies on the Pacific coast, west of the Pampa del Tamarugal, which is part of the Atacama Desert. It has a population of 191,468 ...

because of her husband's work. It was here that she began her relationship with feminists, trade unionists, and even Masons, and became associated with nascent reformist movements. She used the pseudonym Tebal when she was first published in the Iquique newspaper. After her husband returned to Santiago he discovered the affair which Wilms Montt had with his cousin, Vicente Zañartu Balmaceda. Because of it, the men of the Balmaceda Valdés family held a 'family court' in 1915, and decided Wilms Montt's punishment would be to spend time at the Convento de la Preciosa Sangre. Here, she kept a diary and, depressed, made her first suicide attempt on March 29, 1916. In June 1916,

Vicente Huidobro Vicente García-Huidobro Fernández (; January 10, 1893 – January 2, 1948) was a Chilean poet born to an aristocratic family. He promoted the avant-garde literary movement in Chile and was the creator and greatest exponent of the literary m ...

helped her escape from the convent and she fled with him to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. The city's cosmopolitan intellectual circle had a positive effect on her, she became acquainted with writers

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, and feminist-fashionista "Pele"

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. The following year, she published ''Inquietudes Sentimentales'', which was followed by ''Los Tres Cantos'', where she explored eroticism and spirituality. After an admirer, Horacio Ramos Mejía, committed suicide in Wilms Montt's home, she left for

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during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, but, after being accused of being a German spy, she was deported to Spain. Here, she became the muse of

Julio Romero de Torres Julio Romero de Torres (9 November 1874 – 10 May 1930) was a Spanish painter. His brothers, Rafael and , also became painters. Biography He was the son of Rafael Romero Barros, a painter who served as Director of the Fine Arts Museum of ...

, who introduced her to the writers Gómez de la Serna, Gómez Carrillo, and

. In Madrid, using the pseudonym Teresa de la Cruz, she published "En la Quietud del Mármol" and "Anuarí". Her travels took her to London and Paris, but she resided in Madrid. She was reunited with her daughters in Paris in 1920 after 5 years of separation through the efforts of her father, who was on a diplomatic mission. However, the pain of separating from them again when they returned to Chile led to a terrible depression. She committed suicide at the Hotel Laenaec in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

on 24 December 1921, from an overdose of

Veronal Barbital (or barbitone), marketed under the brand names Veronal for the pure acid and Medinal for the sodium salt, was the first commercially available barbiturate. It was used as a sleeping aid (hypnotic) from 1903 until the mid-1950s. The chemic ...

at the age of 28 years. She is buried in the famous

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (french: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise ; formerly , "East Cemetery") is the largest cemetery in Paris, France (). With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Notable figures ...

.http://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/colecciones/BND/00/RC/RC0021110.pdf - Biblioteca Nacional de Chile Her life is remembered in the 2009 film ''Teresa: Crucificada por amar'' by director Tatiana Gaviola.

Published works

* ''Inquietudes sentimentales'', Buenos Aires, 1917, * ''Los tres cantos'', Buenos Aires, 1917 * ''En la quietud del mármol'', Casa Ed. Blanco, Madrid, 1918; translated as ''In the Stillness of Marble'', Snuggly Books, 2019 * ''Anuarí'', Casa Ed. Blanco, Madrid, 1919 * ''Cuentos para hombres que son todavía niños'', Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1919 * ''Lo que no se ha dicho'', antología, Editorial Nascimento, Santiago de Chile, 1922, * ''Obras completas'', compilada por Ruth González-Vergara, Editorial Grijalbo, Barcelona, 1994

Gallery

Teresa Wilms Montt divan.jpg, Teresa Wilms Montt. Teresa Wilms Montt en Iquique, 1914.jpg, Teresa Wilms Montt (1914). Julio-Romero-de-Torres-Retrato-de-Teresa-Wilms-Montt-Teresa-de-la-Cruz-1920.jpg, Portrait of Teresa Wilms Montt, by

. File:Teresa Wilms Montt (1893-1921).jpg, Portrait of Teresa Wilms Montt.

References

External links

Teresa Wilms Montt
@ Memoria Chilena, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilms Montt, Teresa 1893 births 1921 suicides People from Valparaíso Province Anarcha-feminists Barbiturates-related deaths Chilean agnostics Chilean anarchists Chilean people of Catalan descent Chilean people of German descent Drug-related suicides in France Montt family Women diarists Chilean women poets 20th-century Chilean poets 20th-century Chilean women writers 20th-century Chilean non-fiction writers Chilean feminist writers 20th-century diarists