Clara Isabel Alegría Vides (May 12, 1924 – January 25, 2018), also known by her pseudonym Claribel Alegría, was a Nicaraguan-Salvadoran poet, essayist, novelist, and journalist who was a major voice in the literature of contemporary
Central America
Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...
. She was awarded the 2006
Neustadt International Prize for Literature
The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial award for literature sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and its international literary publication, ''World Literature Today''.
It is considered one of the more prestigious int ...
.
Biography
Alegría was born in
Estelí
Estelí (), officially Villa de San Antonio de Pavia de Estelí is a city and Municipalities of Nicaragua, municipality within the Estelí Department, Estelí department. It is the 8th largest city in Nicaragua due to the high urbanization of its ...
, Nicaragua, to a Nicaraguan father, Daniel Alegría, and a Salvadoran mother, Ana María Vides. Her cousin was activist
Leonel Gómez Vides. When Claribel was nine months old, her father was sent into exile for protesting human rights violations occurring during the
United States occupation of Nicaragua; as a result, Claribel grew up in
Santa Ana, a city in western
El Salvador
El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...
, where her mother came from. Claribel Alegría considered herself to be Nicaraguan-Salvadorean. Although she was too young to read or write, she began composing poetry at the age of six and dictated them to her mother, who would write them down. Alegría consistently cited
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...
's "
Letters to a Young Poet
''Letters to a Young Poet'' (original title, in German: ''Briefe an einen jungen Dichter'') is a collection of ten letters written by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) to Franz Xaver Kappus (1883–1966), a 19-year- ...
" as the impetus for becoming a poet. At the age of seventeen, she published her first poems in
Repertorio Americano, a Central American cultural supplement. Soon after, Mexican educator
José Vasconcelos
José Vasconcelos Calderón (28 February 1882 – 30 June 1959), called the "cultural " of the Mexican Revolution, was an important Mexicans, Mexican writer, philosopher, and politician. He is one of the most influential and controversial pers ...
arranged for Alegría to attend finishing school in
Hammond, Louisiana
Hammond is the largest city in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States, located east of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge and northwest of New Orleans. Its population was 20,019 in the 2010 United States census, 2010 U.S. census, and 21 ...
. In 1943, she moved to the United States and in 1948 received a
B.A. in Philosophy and Letters from
George Washington University
The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...
.
Alegría was committed to nonviolent resistance. She had a close association with the
Sandinista National Liberation Front
The Sandinista National Liberation Front (, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistan ...
(FSLN), which overthrew
Anastasio Somoza Debayle
Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle (; 5 December 1925 – 17 September 1980) was a Nicaraguan politician who served as the 53rd President of Nicaragua from 1967 to 1972 and again from 1974 to 1979. As head of the National Guard (Nicaragu ...
and took control of the Nicaraguan government in 1979. Alegría returned to Nicaragua in 1985 to aid in the reconstruction of Nicaragua.
Alegría later lived in
Managua
Managua () is the capital city, capital and largest city of Nicaragua, and one of the List of largest cities in Central America, largest cities in Central America. Located on the shores of Lake Managua, the city had an estimated population of 1, ...
, Nicaragua.
She died on 25 January 2018, aged 93.
Career
Alegría's literary work reflects the style of the popular literary current in Central America during the 1950s and 1960s, "la generacion comprometida" (the committed generation). Like many other poets of her generation who are critical of their societies, she made claims for rights using a language which is often counter-literary.
Alegría published many books of poetry: ''Casting Off'' (2003), ''Sorrow'' (1999), ''Umbrales'' (1996), and ''La Mujer del Río'' (1989). She also published novels and children's stories, as well as testimonies (often in collaboration with her husband, DJ "Bud" Flakoll), such as ''They Won't Take Me Alive''.
Awards
* 1978 Cuban-sponsored
Casa de las Américas for ''Sobrevivo'' ("I Survive"), a poetry collection. She was awarded this prize alongside
Gioconda Belli.
* 2006
Neustadt International Prize for Literature
The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial award for literature sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and its international literary publication, ''World Literature Today''.
It is considered one of the more prestigious int ...
.
* 2017 XXVI
Premio Reina Sofía de Poesía Iberoamericana by the
Universidad de Salamanca
The University of Salamanca () is a public research university in Salamanca, Spain. Founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX, it is the oldest university in the Hispanic world and the fourth oldest in the world in continuous operation. It ha ...
and the Spanish
Patrimonio Nacional.
Works
* ''Anillo de silencio'' (1948)
* ''Suite de amor, angustia y soledad'' (1950)
* ''Vigilias'' (1953)
* ''Acuario'' (1955)
* ''Tres cuentos'' (1958)
* ''Huésped de mi tiempo'' (1961)
* ''Vía única'' (1965)
* ''Cenizas de Izalco'' (1966)
* ''Aprendizaje'' (1970)
* ''Pasaré a cobrar y otros poemas'' (1973)
* ''Sobrevivo'' (1978, Premio Casa de las Américas de Poesía)
* ''La encrucijada salvadoreña'' (1980)
* ''Nicaragua: la revolución sandinista'' (1980)
* ''Flores del volcán; Suma y sigue'' (1981)
* ''No me agarran viva: la mujer salvadoreña en lucha'' (1983)
* ''Para Romper El Silencio: Resistencia Y lucha en las cárceles salvadoreñas'' (1983)
* ''Álbum familiar'' (1984)
* ''Despierta, mi bien, despierta'' (1986)
* ''Luisa en el país de la realidad'' (1987)
* ''Cenizas de Izalco'' (1989)
* ''Thresholds/Umbrales: Poems'' (1996)
* ''El Nino Que Buscaba A Ayer'' (1997)
* ''Soltando Amarras'' (2003)
In English translation
* ''Death of Somoza'' (1996)
* ''Family Album'' (1991)
* ''Fugues'' (1993)
* ''Flowers from the Volcano,'' trans. Carolyn Forché (Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, 1983)
* ''Luisa in Realityland'', trans. Darwin J. Flakoll (New York: Curbstone Press, 1987)
* ''Sorrow'', trans. Carolyn Forché (New York: Curbstone Press, 1999)
* ''Soltando Amarras/Casting Off: Poems by Claribel Alegría,'' trans. Margaret Sayers Peden (Willimantic: Curbstone Press, 2003)
* ''They Won't Take Me Alive: Salvadoran Women in Struggle for National Liberation'' (1990)
* ''Tunnel to Canto Grande'' (1996)
* ''Woman of the River (Pitt Poetry Series)'' (1989)
In anthology
* ''Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology'' (University of Georgia Press, 2018)
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Claribel Alegría gana premio internacional
Encuentro-Taller con Claribel Alegría
Academy of American Poets
Claribel Alegria at Curbstone Press
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alegria, Claribel
1924 births
2018 deaths
Columbian College of Arts and Sciences alumni
Nicaraguan essayists
Nicaraguan journalists
Nicaraguan women essayists
Nicaraguan women journalists
Nicaraguan women poets
Nicaraguan translators
People from Estelí Department
People from Santa Ana Department
Salvadoran journalists
Salvadoran poets
Salvadoran translators
Salvadoran women writers
Nicaraguan women children's writers
Nicaraguan children's writers
Salvadoran women children's writers
Salvadoran children's writers
Salvadoran women journalists
20th-century essayists
20th-century Nicaraguan poets
20th-century novelists
20th-century translators
21st-century essayists
21st-century novelists
21st-century poets
21st-century translators
21st-century Nicaraguan poets
20th-century Nicaraguan women writers
21st-century Nicaraguan women writers
20th-century Salvadoran women writers
21st-century Salvadoran women writers
Pseudonymous women writers
Nicaraguan emigrants to El Salvador
Salvadoran expatriates in the United States
20th-century pseudonymous writers
21st-century pseudonymous writers