Aurora de Albornoz
Encyclopedia
Luarca
Luarca is one of 15 parroquias and the capital in the municipality of Valdes, in Asturias, Spain. Situated at an elevation of above sea level, it has a population of 5,354 , and an area of . The village is from the capital, Oviedo. The Nobel laureate for medicine in 1959, Severo Ochoa, was...
, Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. As a youth, she lived in Luarca with her parents, sister, and extended family, throughout the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
from 1936 to 1939— an event that inspired her later poetry.
Early life
Her family was a noted family of poets and politicians. Her grandfather and father were well known local poets. Her father’s uncle, Álvaro de Albornoz, was the minister of the Department of Justice of the Republican government of SpainSecond Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
until the Civil War. Eventually, he became the president of the Republican government of Spain in exile in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
that was superseded by Franco's
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
dictatorship. In 1959, her uncle, Severo Ochoa de Albornoz (who had fled Spain on a Republican passport) while living and working in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine with Arthur Kornberg for deciphering RNA
RNA
Ribonucleic acid , or RNA, is one of the three major macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life....
.
Her family had been involved in business in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
since the 1890s. In 1944, 18 years old de Albornoz moved with the de Albornoz household to San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
. There she began her formal academic education which led to an MA
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
from the University of Puerto Rico
University of Puerto Rico
The University of Puerto Rico is the state university system of Puerto Rico. The system consists of 11 campuses and has approximately 64,511 students and 5,300 faculty members...
. At that time, she was studying under the tutelage of the Andalucian Nobel Laureate, Juan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. One of Jiménez's most important contributions to modern poetry was his advocacy of the French concept of "pure poetry."-Biography:Jiménez was born in Moguer, near Huelva, in...
.
In August 1950, de Albornoz married Jorge Enjuto Bernal, from Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
, in Puerto Rico. Like de Albornoz, Bernal was from a Republican family living outside Spain. His father, Federico Enjuto Ferrán, was the Republican magistrate of justice who was involved in the trial of General José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquis of Estella , was a Spanish lawyer, nobleman, politician, and founder of the Falange Española...
, the founder of the Falange
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
, the fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
party in Spain. (After living together in Puerto Rico and for a short time in Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, the marriage was dissolved in 1967.)
Career
Also at this time she began teaching. In 1955, she was awarded a scholarship to study comparative literature at the SorbonneSorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
in Paris.
From 1955 to 1957, de Albornoz returned to Europe to continue her studies in Paris with José Bergamín
José Bergamín
José Bergamín Gutiérrez was a Spanish writer, essayist, poet, and playwright. His father served as president of the canton of Málaga; his mother was a devout Catholic...
, a celebrated Spanish poet and critic living in exile. She then proceeded to Spain, to complete her doctorate at the University of Salamanca
University of Salamanca
The University of Salamanca is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the town of Salamanca, west of Madrid. It was founded in 1134 and given the Royal charter of foundation by King Alfonso IX in 1218. It is the oldest founded university in Spain and the third oldest European...
. De Albornoz’s scholarly work was committed almost exclusively to the escritores exiliados of Spain.
Among other publications, in 1961, de Albornoz published, in Puerto Rico, Poesías de Guerra de Antonio Machado a compilation of Antonio Machado
Antonio Machado
Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz, known as Antonio Machado was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation of '98....
’s war poems which was a banned work not allowed to be published in Franco’s Spain. (Machado himself had died in exile in 1939 in Collioure
Collioure
Collioure is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.It lies on the Mediterranean and was a part of the ancient Roussillon province....
, France).
Upon receiving her degree in 1966, she returned to Puerto Rico to become a professor at the University of Puerto Rico.
Around 1968, de Albornoz returned to Madrid where she taught at the Universidad Autónoma
Autonomous University of Madrid
The Autonomous University of Madrid is one of the top university of Spain and commonly known by its Spanish initials UAM or as "la Autónoma"...
(Department of Humanities) and at the University of New York in Spain. Besides being a professor and poet, Albornoz was by now a celebrated scholar. She had become a critical authority on the works of Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher.-Biography:...
, Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
, Cesar Vallejo
César Vallejo
César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza was a Peruvian poet. Although he published only three books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century in any language. Thomas Merton called him "the greatest universal poet since Dante"...
, Rosalía de Castro
Rosalía de Castro
María Rosalía Rita de Castro , was a Galician romanticist writer and poet.Writing in the Galician language, after the Séculos Escuros , she became an important figure of the Galician romantic movement, known today as the Rexurdimento , along with Manuel Curros Enríquez and Eduardo Pondal...
, Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
and particularly Antonio Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. One of Jiménez's most important contributions to modern poetry was his advocacy of the French concept of "pure poetry."-Biography:Jiménez was born in Moguer, near Huelva, in...
, and José Hierro. As already stated, her interest naturally extended into the work of exiled Spanish poets such as José Bergamín
José Bergamín
José Bergamín Gutiérrez was a Spanish writer, essayist, poet, and playwright. His father served as president of the canton of Málaga; his mother was a devout Catholic...
in Paris, Rafael Alberti
Rafael Alberti
Rafael Alberti Merello was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27....
in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, and León Felipe
León Felipe
León Felipe Camino Galicia was a Spanish poet.Felipe was born in Tábara, Zamora, Spain, while his parents were on travel. His father was a notary public, and consequently very well off. His family established in Santander. Later on, Felipe would study pharmacy and start a business as a...
and Juan Rejano in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
She was a permanent member on the board of judges for the International Antonio Machado Prize awarded every year in Collioure, France.
Throughout Spain—and in America, as well—de Albornoz taught many courses, participated in many congresses, colloquiums, and writers’ meetings; she collaborated toward cultural activities that dealt with scholarship and writing—such as the founding of journals, magazines, newspapers, radio programs, awards, and literary groups.
De Albornoz was called upon to introduce, preside, or read with emerging Spanish voices such as Claudio Rodríguez, José Manuel Caballero Bonald, José Ramón Ripoll, Fanny Rubio, Álvaro Salvador, the Cuban scholar José Olivio Jiménez, Juan Macías, Dionisio Cañas, and Luis García Montero.
On June 6, 1990, Aurora de Albornoz, at 64 years old, died in her apartment in Madrid. She was struck down by a cerebral hemorrhage.
Besides a vast amount of critical work in books, anthologies, and newspapers, de Albornoz had published eleven books of poetry. She was an innovative poet who incorporated prose poems, collage, and other modernistic techniques into her work. Her style has connections to the general movement of Spanish writing toward “fantastic realism.” Her work is of particular interest as she spans through the Civil War, the Generation of ‘50, and the following generations giving voice to the experience of the exiliados… the exiles.
Works of Aurora de Albornoz
Original works- Brazo de niebla, Santander, Hermanos Bedia, 1957. (1ª edición más breve, San Juan de Puerto Rico, Coayuco, 1955).
- Prosas de París, San Juan de Puerto Rico, (s.n.), 1959.
- Poemas para alcanzar un segundo, Madrid, Rialp, 1961.
- Por la primavera blanca. Fabulaciones, Madrid, Ínsula, 1962 (reedición Granada, Traspiés, 2005, con prólogo de Concepción González-Badía Fraga).
- Poemas (Verso y prosa)», Cuadernos hispanoamericanos, 189 (septiembre 1965), pp. 283-290.
- En busca de esos niños en hilera, Santander, La isla de los ratones, 1967.
- Palabras desatadas, Málaga, Guadalhorce, 1975.
- Palabras reunidas (1967-1977), Madrid, Ayuso, 1983.
- «Aventura», Turia, 12 (1989), pp. 39-41.
- Canciones de Guiomar, Madrid, Torremozas, 1990.
- Al sur del sur. Poemas, Cádiz, Ayuntamiento de San Roque, 1991.
- Cronilíricas. Collage, Madrid, Devenir, 1991.
- Pequeños poemas en prosa (inéd.).
Critical works
1) Studies
- La prehistoria de Antonio Machado, Puerto Rico, Universidad, 1961.
- Poesías de guerra de Antonio Machado, San Juan, Asomante, 1961.
- La presencia de Miguel de Unamuno en Antonio Machado, Madrid, Gredos, 1967.
- "Poesía de la España peregrina. Crónica incompleta", in El exilio español de 1939, vol. IV, Madrid, Taurus, 1977, pp. 11-108.
- Hacia la realidad creada, Barcelona, Península, 1979. [Includes: «Unos años de historia y literatura. Un libro de Alfonso Sastre», «de la España peregrina. Un libro de Lorenzo Varela», «La mirada de Juan Rejano», «Aproximación a la obra poética de José Hierro», «José Manuel Caballero Bonald: la palabra como alucinógeno», «Antonio Machado: De mi cartera, teoría y creación», «El “collage-anuncio” en Juan Ramón Jiménez», «En torno a un “nuevo libro” de Juan Ramón Jiménez», «La íntima lógica de César Vallejo (Trilce, LVIII)» and «Por los caminos de Rafael Alberti»] José Hierro, Madrid, Júcar, 1982.
- "Presencias de Antonio Machado en la España peregrina", Actas del Congreso Internacional “Antonio Machado hacia Europa”, Madrid, Visor, 1993, pp. 233-241.
2) Prologues and editions
- "Prólogo", in Alfonso Sastre, Las noches lúgubres, Madrid, Júcar, 1973.
- Jiménez, Juan Ramón, Nueva antolojía, estudio preliminar y selección de Aurora de Albornoz, Barcelona, Península, 1973.
- "Un cuento de Gabriel García Márquez: El ahogado más hermoso del mundo", en VVAA, El comentario de textos 2. De Galdós a García Márquez, Madrid, Castalia, 1974, pp. 283-316.
- Jiménez, Juan Ramón, En el otro costado, 1ª edición preparada y prologada por Aurora de Albornoz, Madrid, Júcar, 1974.
- Machado, Antonio, Antología de su prosa, edición de Aurora de Albornoz, Madrid, Cuadernos para el diálogo, 1979.
- Hierro, José, Antología, selección e introducción de Aurora de Albornoz, Madrid, Visor, 1980.
- Neruda, Pablo, Poesías escogidas, prólogo de Aurora de Albornoz, Madrid, Aguilar, 1980.
- "Prólogo", en Jiménez, Juan Ramón, Arias tristes, Madrid, Taurus, 1981, pp. 9-45.
- Jiménez, Juan Ramón, Espacio, edición de Aurora de Albornoz, Madrid, Editora Nacional, 1982.
- Juan Ramón Jiménez, Madrid, Taurus, 1983. (Includes, además de una selección de artículos de autores diversos, su trabajo «El “collage-anuncio” en Juan Ramón Jiménez»)
- Alberti, Rafael, Trece bandas y cuarenta y ocho estrellas, estudio preliminar de Aurora de Albornoz, Madrid, Espasa Calpe, 1985.
3) Editions with other people
- ANDRÉS, ELENA, Chile en el corazón: homenaje a Pablo Neruda, Barcelona, Península, 1975.
- RODRÍGUEZ-LUIS, JULIO, Sensemayá: la poesía negra en el mundo hispanohablante (antología), Madrid, Orígenes, 1980.
- TORRE, GUILLERMO DE, Antonio Machado. Poesía y prosa, Buenos Aires, Cuadernos para el diálogo, 1964.
Works about de Albornoz
- ANÓNIMO, "Juan Ramón Jiménez. Nueva antolojía", Ínsula, 320-321 (Jul-Aug 1973), p. 33.
- CABALLERO BONALD, JOSÉ MANUEL, "Justicia de la memoria", La Torre, 21 (Jan-Mar 1992), pp. 5-8.
- CAMPOS, JORGE, "Balance y exposición de la poesía negra", Ínsula, 409 (Dec 1980), p. 11.
CANO, JOSÉ LUIS, "Aurora de Albornoz: hacia la realidad creada", Ínsula, 400-401 (Mar-April 1980), pp. 20-21.
- _____, "Aurora de Albornoz: la poesía de José Hierro", Ínsula, 427 (June 1982), pp. 8-9.
- DÍAZ QUIÑONES, ARCADIO, "La tradición del exilio. Sobre Aurora de Albornoz", in La memoria rota, San Juan de Puerto Rico, Huracán, 1993, pp. 101-107.
- FERNÁNDEZ DE ALBORNOZ, JOSÉ LUIS, "Bibliografía de Aurora de Albornoz", La Torre, 21 (Jan-Mar 1992), pp. 175-177.
- GONZÁLEZ-BADÍA FRAGA, CONCEPCIÓN, "Desde la realidad creada. La narración fabulada en Aurora de Albornoz", in Aurora de Albornoz, Por la primavera blanca, Granada, Traspiés, 2005, pp. 7-14.
- GULLÓN, RICARDO, "Aurora con Puerto Rico al fondo", in Aurora de Albornoz, Palabras reunidas (1967-1977), Madrid, Ayuso, 1983, pp. 9-13.
- HIERRO, JOSÉ, "Presentación", in Aurora de Albornoz, Canciones de Guiomar, Madrid, Torremozas, 1990, pp. 11-14.
- IFACH, MARÍA GRACIA, "Aurora de Albornoz: Por la primavera blanca", Ínsula, 216-217 (Nov-Dec 1964), p. 20.
- JIMÉNEZ, JOSÉ OLIVIO, "Aurora de Albornoz: crítica y bolero", Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, 20 (1993), pp. 27-38.
- _____, "El negrismo poético en la tradición hispánica", Cuadernos hispanoamericanos, 367-368 (enero febrero 1981), pp. 381-387.
- LÓPEZ-SURIA, VIOLETA, "Aroma quieto de Aurora a Joshe", La Torre, 21 (Jan-Mar 1992), pp. 9-11.
- LUIS, LEOPOLDO DE, "Poemas para alcanzar un segundo", Papeles de Son Armadans, Madrid-Palma de Mallorca, April 1962, pp. 107-109.
- MIRÓ, EMILIO, "Aurora de Albornoz: En busca de esos niños en hilera", Ínsula, 257 (1968), p. 6.
- _____, "La recuperación de Juan Rejano", Ínsula, 395 (octubre 1979), p. 6.
- _____, "Arte y vida en la poesía de Aurora de Albornoz", Ínsula, 463 (junio 1985), p. 6.
- PÉREZ SÁNCHEZ, JOSÉ ANTONIO, "Aurora de Albornoz (1926-1990)", Luarca, Ayuntamiento de Valdés, 2007.
- PRAT, IGNACIO, "Juan Ramón Jiménez: En el otro costado", Ínsula, 342 (1974), p. 8.
- RODRÍGUEZ PADRÓN, JUSTO, "Aurora de Albornoz: una relectura de Espacio", Ínsula, 450 (mayo 1984), p. 18.
- RUBIO, FANNY, "Ante Canciones de Guiomar de Aurora de Albornoz", La Torre, 21 (Jan-Mar 1992), pp. 79-83.
- SALVADOR, ÁLVARO, "Palabras reunidas para Aurora de Albornoz", in Letra pequeña, Granada, Cuadernos del Vigía, 2003, pp. 101-106.
- SÁNCHEZ TORRE, LEOPOLDO, "Aurora de Albornoz: hacia la realidad creada", El eco de Luarca, 905 (julio 2000), pp. 22-23.
- UGALDE, SHARON KEEFE, "The poetry of Aurora de Albornoz and Gendered Poetic Traditions", Letras peninsulares, 11.2 (1998), pp. 569-583.
- VILLA PASTUR, JESÚS, "Aurora de Albornoz: Poemas para alcanzar un segundo", Archivum, XIII (1963), pp. 368-370.
- ZAVALA, IRIS, La otra mirada del siglo XX. La mujer en la España contemporánea, Madrid, La esfera de los libros, 2004, pp. 311-313 y passim.