GERTRUDIS GÓMEZ DE AVELLANEDA: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (1814-1873) was a Spanish poet and writer of the Romantic period, famous for being the first to address the issue of the abolition of slavery in a novel, as well as being a precursor of the Spanish-American novel.

She was also one of the pioneers of modern feminism due to the special treatment she gave female characters in her novels. Her works were full of great strength in speech, as well as very incredible vitality in the women she gave life to.

Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda. Source: Federico de Madrazo and Kuntz

Likewise, she is considered one of the highest poets of the Castilian language and her dramaturgy is among the most perfect examples of the Spanish romantic period of the late nineteenth century. She is recognized for portraying the Caribbean in her novels, which in the European environment was seen as something very exotic, at times nostalgic, at times melancholic.

Biography

Birth and family

María Gertrudis de los Dolores Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga was born in Santa María de Puerto Príncipe, on March 23, 1814. This Spanish province today is known as Camagüey, Cuba.

His parents were Manuel Gómez de Avellaneda and Gil de Taboada, an officer of the Spanish naval force in Seville, and Francisca María del Rosario de Arteaga y Betancourt, a Creole daughter of Basques. The couple had 5 children, but only two survived: Manuel and Gertrudis.

Death of his father and soon marriage of his mother

When the eldest daughter was nine years old, the father died, and Francisca, the mother, married that same year with Gaspar Isidoro de Escalada and López de la Peña, a Galician soldier with whom the mother had 3 other children.

Breakdown of Arranged Marriage and Exclusion of Inheritance

Gertrudis was not good at dealing with her stepfather, who she said was extremely harsh. Her grandfather arranged a marriage for the girl when she was just 13 years old, but the little girl undid it at 15 and, for this reason, was excluded from the will. She decided to move to Santiago de Cuba.

Departure to Spain

The stepfather convinced Gertrudis's mother to put all her properties in Cuba up for sale and leave for Spain, which they ended up doing in 1836.

This move deeply saddened Gertrudis, who as a result wrote her first poem on the occasion of the trip, Al departing. The poem was about the painful separation from the familiar home. That marked, in a way, the rest of her literary production.

Arrival in France and transfer to Spain

After a two-month voyage across the Atlantic, they reached Bordeaux, France, where they toured tourist sites. They then went to La Coruña, where they visited relatives of the stepfather. In that place the young Gertrudis had a brief affair that ended soon, because the young man, Mariano Ricafort, did not see with good eyes that she dedicated herself to literature.

From La Coruña they went to Andalusia, where Gertrudis published her first verses (La aureola de Cádiz, El cisne de Sevilla), under the pseudonym “La peregrina”. The poems were hugely successful and popular. The author was barely 25 years old by then.

Arrival in Seville and clash with an unrequited love

In 1839 he finally arrived in Seville and it was there that he met who was a great love in his life: the jurisprudence student Ignacio de Cepeda y Alcalde. The young man never reciprocated and the relationship she had with him was completely stormy. At that time she wrote her first dramatic text, Leoncia.

Establishment in Madrid: rejection and success

The following year Gertrudis settled in the capital of Spain where she promptly began to publish the first compilations of her poetic work. He also met new personalities from the literary world.

Between 1841 and 1844 he wrote his first novels, which earned him a lot of rejection due to the topics he addressed: women who decided to divorce due to an unwanted marriage, feminism and complaints from the Spanish judicial and penitentiary system. His second play gave him, on the other hand, a sudden and unsuspected success.

Heartbreak with Gabriel García and the birth of his son

At that time he met the poet Gabriel García Tassara, with whom he had a rather harmful relationship (the man did not actually love her, but he was interested in what such a “conquest” meant to him). She became pregnant with him, but never recognized her son.

Gertrudis ended up without marrying, being a single mother who saw how her life changed and without a partner in that trance. However, she ended up winning prizes at the Liceo de Artes y Letras in Madrid, which meant a change in favor in her luck.

First marriage and widowhood

Literary Works of Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda. Source: http://catalogo.bne.es/uhtbin/cgisirsi/0/x/0/05?searchdata1=bimo0000923748, via Wikimedia Commons

After that romance, Tula, as she was affectionately called, was married twice. One with Don Pedro Sabater, in 1846, who was governor of Madrid and a wealthy, but sickly man. The man died that same year, plunging Gertrude into a dedication to religious life.

Second marriage and return to Cuba

In 1856 she married Domingo Verdugo and Massieu, colonel. Two years later he was injured after an incident at the premiere of a Gertrudis play. That is why they decided to return to Cuba, where she was received with all imaginable honors.

Death of Gertrudis and her husband

In 1863 her husband died and, some time later, after a tour of the USA, France and Spain, Gertrudis died in Madrid in 1873.

Work

Among Gertrude's theatrical work, mention should be made of those on biblical themes, which gave him the greatest fame: Saúl and Baltasar, for the romantic treatment he made of the characters. In her work, feminism is present in novels, above all, and in various essays. These include:

- Sat (1841)

- Two women (1842-43)

- The Baroness de Joux (1844)

- Espatolino (1844)

- The Prince of Viana (1844)

- Guatimozín, last emperor of Mexico (1846)

- Dolores (1851)

- Flavio Recaredo (1851)

- The donation of the devil or The evening of the fern (1852)

- The daughter of flowers or Everyone is crazy (1852)

- The truth conquers appearances (1852)

- The Hand of God (1853)

- The Adventurer (1853)

- Errors of the Heart (1853)

- Sympathy and Antipathy (1855)

- Oracles of Talía or The goblins in the palace (1855)

- The Angel Flower (1857)

- The three loves (1857)

- Leoncia (1858)

- The White Aura (1859)

- The Boatman Artist or The Four June Five (1861)

- New and complete devotional in prose and verse (1867)

References

1. Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda. (S. f.). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org
2. Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda. (S. f.). (N / a): Writers. Recovered from: Escrras.com
3. Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda. (S. f.). (N / a): Writers. Recovered from: writers.org
4. Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (S. f.). Spain: Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library. Recovered from: cervantesvirtual.com
5. Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (S. f.). (N / a): Women in history. Recovered from: mujeresenlahistoria.com