Exploring Spanish Literature

       This is one of Urrea's most famous poems and I was wanting to read it because of the reference to God in its name. I am currently taking an Honors Philosophy of Religion course and wanted to see if there was any connection to that subject in any way.       For some context, this poem was his opening piece in his 2015 collection The Tijuana Book of the Dead which describes the challenges associated with the U.S border.  The poem paints a portrait of lives affected by transient work, fragmented family structures, and the pursuit of dignity in the midsts of systemic neglect.        The titular "distracted God" symbolizes the feelings of abandonment experienced by marginalized communities. Urrea weaves threads of resilience and hope, acknowledging the enduring human spirit that persists despite adversity . He confronts the idea of faith in a world full of poverty, neglect, and violence. He describes the feelings and in...

 Luis Alberto Urrea was born in 1955 in Tijuana, Mexico. I chose to research about him because Tijuana is so close to San Diego, and I feel like I don't know enough about literature from Tijuana! First off, he received the Edgar Award for Best Short Story for his story "Amapola" in 2009. He was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist.  His life : Urrea's parents worked in San Diego and his parents eventually moved to Logan Heights because he had tuberculosis. He attended UCSD: The University of California, San Diego and went to graduate school at University of Colorado at Boulder. His mother encouraged him to write at a young age. He wrote an essay in 1977 about the grief in his life after his father was killed in his hometown where he was trying to get funds for his son's education. He was a relief worker in Tijuana and taught at San Diego's Mesa College, where he focused on Hispanic Studies.  He taught at many other colleges throughout the U.S and wrote his first nov...

 La Loca De la Casa is one of Rosa Montero's most popular novels in the form of an autobiography published in 2003. It heavily explores artistic creativity and the extent of the imagination. It presents the reader with a positive and loving relationship between the author and her mind. It explores fantasies and mystery's that are relevant to her life. The title, meaning "the Madwoman of the house", is very relevant of the plot as it reveals the crazy extents that her mind is able travel to. The main themes include gender and identity. She is not afraid to reveal the chaos of the mind and the craziness that each of us as individuals possess. It flows between narrative and essay and discusses the complications of womanhood and the complex ideas revolving around femininity. Throughout the book, there are also elements of mystery and surrealism, as the narrator occasionally blurs the lines between reality and imagination. This creates a space for reflection on the nature ...

 I decided to look into another Spanish author and writer in today's blog post. Rosa Montero was born in Madrid in 1951 and is currently 74 years old. She is most known for her contemporary fiction. She attended Madrid University's School of Philosophy and Arts and was later admitted into the School of Journalism. She was an active participant in theatre groups while working towards her writing career. She started off as a journalist, working for companies like El País.   She was the first woman to ever receive the "Manuel de Arco" prize for her work as a journalist. She published La Función Delta and a series of her interviews for El País . She also wrote children's books including El Nido de Los Sueños and Bella y Oscura.  In my next post, I will select one of her published works and talk about it in more detail. See you then!

 If you do a quick google search on the most famous poems of all of Spanish literature, "Romance Sonámbulo" by Federico García Lorca pops up right away. It got me wondering, why is this poem so famous and who is the author that came up with it? After reading the poem, I immediately noticed how romantic it was and how beautiful the words flowed together when reading it in Spanish. The title translates to "Sleepwalking Ballad" in english. Lorca uses the word "verde" or "green" to describe romance and destiny. The poem leaves you with a sense of awe at it's beauty. Similar to song lyrics, the poem has phrases that it repeats throughout, like "Verde que te quiero verde" or "Green how I love you green." The poem also had a chorus, where a series of lines are repeated at the beginning middle and end, making it even more lyrical. So, after reading and analyzing this poem and its popularity, I decided to find some information on t...

 Isabel Allende is a Chilean-American writer known for her use of magical realism in novels. She is most famous for writing "The House of the Spirits" and "City of the Beasts." She was born in Lima, the capital of Peru in 1942. She is so special because she is considered one of the first successful female novelists of Latin America.  Her story helped empower other women to write and publish their work. When she was young, she worked as a journalist in Chile but then was forced to flee to Venezuela due to the assassination Salvador Allende, who is her second cousin and a socialist politician. Her first novel evolved from a letter she wrote to her sick grandfather and was titled " La Casa de Los Espirítus " (The House of Spirits). Throughout many of her novels like Eva Luna or El Plan Infinito, she overlaps realistic fiction with fantasy and magic. She analyzes the roles women play in Latin American society. She also earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom ...

 My father used to read me books in Spanish as a child before bed, which inspired me to research some Spanish writers who had published Children's books. Gloria Fuertes, born in 1917, was one of the first women to pop up on my quick google search. She was from Madrid and was known for her Spanish poetry, children's books, and frequent appearances in various television shows. Her mother was a seamstress/maid and her father was a beadle. She started writing stories of her own at just the age of 5! Translated into English, her most famous pieces are titled: " Prayer", "I Write Poetry, Gentlemen!", and "Now." In the 1940s and 50s, her works were beginning to be published in magazines, books, and newspapers targeted towards younger audiences. With other women and strong poets, she founded "Verses in Skirts"in 1951. Verses in Skirts was group of writers who organized concerts, poetry readings at local places throughout their community, and even...

 I have been so busy, so I have been unable to post for a couple of months, but one poet I recently stumbled upon is Carlos Castro Saavedra. He was born 1924 in Medellín, Colombia and died at only 64 years of age. One of his most famous pieces is titled Amistad, meaning friendship in English. He describes friendship as "un mano que un otro mano apoya su fatiga, y siente que el cansancio se mitiga y el camino se vuelve más humano." In English, this most directly mean "a hand that another hand supports your fatigue, and you feel that the tiredness is mitigated and the path returns more human-like." I was curious as to what inspired Castro to write a poem about friendship, so I also found some things about his personal life. He is also commonly known as "the poet of peace." He attended the University of Antioquia and started writing and publishing poems at a very young age. His first book was published in 1946 and titled "Fusiles y Luceros" meaning ...

 As I explored the famous monuments and buildings of Valencia and re-united with many family members in the small town outside of Valencia Benetússer this summer, I was inspired to dig deeper into the roots of Valencian literature. All roots of my family remain in Valencia, making me intrigued to learn more about the history. One famous individual who stood out was Ausiàs March, a famous medieval knight and poet born in Valencia during the 15th century. He was deeply associated with "Siglo de Oro Valenciano", meaning the Valencian Golden Age. The Golden Age began when Isabelle and Ferdinand got married, which united the kingdoms of Aragon and Castille. It was a time of economic prosperity,  expansion in trade and artistic motivations. Not only did this era contribute to the fame of March, but also all of his poetry was written in Catalan, a dialect of the Spanish language.  When he was young, he fought as a Knight in towns throughout Italy, eventually getting his inspirat...