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Concepción de Estevarena
BornRafaela María de la Concepción de la Trinidad Estevarena Gallardo
(1854-01-10)10 January 1854
Seville, Spain
Died11 September 1876(1876-09-11) (aged 22)
Jaca, Huesca, Spain
Notable worksÚltimas flores (1877)

Concepción de Estevarena (Seville 10 January 1854 - Jaca 11 September 1876) was a spanish romantic poet. Her short life (22 years) was marked by fatality. Her mother died of cholera when Concepción was barely two years old, and her father in 1875 only months before she contracted the tuberculosis disease that caused her early death. All the authors who have analysed her work clearly inscribe her in Sevillian romanticism indebted to the work of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer. According to Kirkpatrick [1] "this poet does not reproduce any ideal self: neither the masculine, tamer of the <<rebellious, mean language>>, nor the feminine, sweet and monochrome angel of the home". On the contrary, "What marks the lyrical voice of the Sevillian poet is the problem of a subject who does not find any safe and supported position in her society, which she writes from the doubt of her social existence."

Biography

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The surviving data on her life come almost exclusively from the prologue written by her friend José de Velilla y Rodríguez[2] in the posthumous edition of her work "Últimas Flores". Thus, José de Velilla affirms that her father curtails her vocation as a poet, forbidding herself to write verses. She promises not to but when her father is away she writes poetry on the walls, memorizes the rhymes and erases them. The Velilla family gathering on Calle de Manteros (now Calle General Polavieja) in Seville, was undoubtedly a space for creative freedom, where she met the best of the young intelligentsia of the time, among others the poet Luis Montoto[3]. After the death of her father, she found provisional accommodation in the Velilla house, before leaving to Jaca, picke up by her uncle Juan Nepomuceno Escacena, cantor of the Cathedral of Jaca. There she falls ill, but hid his illness until three days before she died. On September 5, she arrived home at half past six and was unable to climb the stairs. She was carried in arms and there she wrote her last letter to her friend Mercedes on the 10th. On the 11th at half past two she died of phthisis pulmonalis. The record stated that she "died single at the age of 22 dedicated to domestic occupations". The friendship between Concepción de Estevarena and Mercedes de Velilla (sister of José de Velilla) is manifested not only by her prologue to "Últimas Flores", but also by Luis Montoto in the prologue of the posthumous edition of Mercedes de Velilla's work in 1918. Montoto wrote: "Something from Mercedes' heart went out with the gentle friend. Her farewell was eternal. Concepción de Estevarena, all warmth, all enthusiasm, died later, deprived of the vision of the sky of Seville, wounded by the cold of the North consumed by perpetual snow". After her death, in the cultural and artistic gathering of the Baronesa de las Cortes in Madrid, poems by Estevarena were read, and pianist and composer Isaac Albéniz played some pieces in her memory (Madrid newspaper "La Época" of November 8, 1876). From that gathering came the initiative for the publication of her work that would finally be carried out by José de Velilla. This author did not hide his discomfort at the indifference of the city of Seville for the disappearance of the young poet. In 2006, the city dedicated a street to her in the Parque Alcosa neighbourhood.

Her work

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Concepción de Estevarena did not publish any collection of poems in his lifetime, although his production is estimated at 100 poems, leaving only sporadic collaborations in the magazines of the time, such as "La Esfera" in Madrid, where he published "Past and Future" (1873 ), and even reading some of his poems at public events ("Forward" at the Liceo de Sevilla, in 1875). After his death, a group of friends among whom are the brothers José and Mercedes de Velilla, promoted the posthumous edition of his work, together with a "Poetic Crown" in which poets from all over Spain collaborated (such as Susana Lacasa, Juan Antonio Cavestany, José Lamarque de Novoa, etc.) together with people who greatly appreciated her, such as the mother of the Velilla brothers, Dolores Rodríguez de Velilla. Although her name has never disappeared from Spanish literature, as evidenced by the inclusion of his poems in "La Literatura Española" by Father Francisco Blanco (1910), the "Universal Library" (1922), or the entry that dedicates the "Espasa Calpe Encyclopedic Dictionary" (1905/1930), the truth is that the recovery of her work comes hand in hand with a rereading of Spanish literary production related to the feminist movement. Among the authors who have carried out a critical analysis of her work, we find Father Francisco Blanco (1910), Diana Ramírez de Arellano (1979), and Susan Kirkpatrick (1992). Of his poems, the most celebrated, not only for its literary quality but also for its ideological content, is "Libertad", as the original source of thought, light and feeling:

¡Libertad, lazo de amor
Talismán que honra y escuda
La humanidad te saluda
Como a su gloria mejor!

(Liberty, a bond of love / Talisman that honours and shields / Humanity greets you / As to its best glory!)

Publications of her work

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  • Últimas flores y Corona poética. Sevilla 2017. Imprenta Gironés y Orduña.
  • Mujeres Célebres Sevillanas. Con prólogo de Luis Montoto. Sevilla (1917). Imprenta de F. Díaz y Compañía.
  • Poetas románticos desconocidos: Concepción de Estevarena, 1854-1876. Con estudio estilístico de la doctora Diana Ramírez de Arellano. Madrid: Librería Internacional de Romo. 1979. ISBN 84-8500-309-8.
  • Antología Poética de Escritoras del Siglo XIX. Edición, Introducción y Notas de Susan Kirkpatrick. Madrid: Castaglia / Instituto de la Mujer. 1992. ISBN 84-7039-662-5.
  • Concepción de Estevarena. Álbum Poético y Fotográfico. Jaca 1999. Colección Recopilaciones Jaquesas n.º 4. Asociación Cultural Jacetana. D.L. Hu-403-1999.
  • Últimas flores. Edición preparada por Luz María Jiménez Faro. Madrid: Colección Torremozas / Ediciones Torremozas. 2005. ISBN 84-7839-336-6.
  • Silenciosa es la noche (10 poemas). Introducción: Luigi Maráez, epílogo 'La poeta que murió en Jaca': José Luis Melero. Colección Papeles de Trasmoz, Olifante Ediciones de Poesía. 2012. ISBN 978-84-92942-40-4.
  • La misma rama. Madrid: La Bella Varsovia. 2019. ISBN 978-84-948412-0-0.

Notes

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  1. ^ Antología Poética de Escritoras del Siglo XIX. Edición, Introducción y Notas de Susan Kirkpatrick. Madrid: Castaglia / Instituto de la Mujer. 1992. ISBN 84-7039-662-5.
  2. ^ "Poetas andaluces: José de Velilla". Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  3. ^ "Poetas andaluces: Luis Montoto". Retrieved 1 February 2023.
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