MARÍA MERCEDES CARRANZA: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE, WORKS, PHRASES - BIOGRAPHIES - 2025

María Mercedes Carranza (1945-2003) was a Colombian writer, poet, short story writer and journalist, who also stood out for her literary criticism and for promoting culture. Her work was part of the Disenchanted Generation, a trend characterized by denouncing the policies of the time and the mistreatment of students and peasants.

Carranza's literature stood out for being deep and thoughtful. The author gave her writings a certain philosophical character and some questions about life. Topics related to life, the end of existence, love, disappointment and women were common in her work.

Image car Julián Lineros via www.elespectador.com/html/i_portals/index.php

The literary work of this writer was not extensive and was mostly oriented to poetry. The most prominent titles were: I am afraid, Hello, loneliness; Pods, Ways of heartbreak and The song of the flies. María Mercedes Carranza had an important participation in the printed media of Colombia.

Biography

Birth and family

María Mercedes was born on May 24, 1945 in Bogotá, and came from a cultured family with a good socioeconomic position. Her father was the writer and poet Eduardo Carranza Fernández and her mother was named Rosa Coronado. She had two brothers, Ramiro and Juan Carranza Coronado.

Childhood and studies

Carranza lived his first six years of life in his native Colombia and in 1951 he went to live in Spain with his family, since his father obtained the position of cultural ambassador. There he studied primary school, began to interact with literature and grew up listening to the stories of his great aunt, the writer Elisa Mujica.

Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, study place of María Mercedes Carranza. Source: Leandro Neumann Ciuffo, via Wikimedia Commons

At thirteen years of age he returned to Colombia to continue his secondary and high school education. It is necessary to note that Carranza's adaptation process was not easy. Then he went to Madrid to study philosophy and letters, but completed his university career at the Universidad de los Andes, in Bogotá.

First tasks

Logo of El Nuevo Siglo, current name of the newspaper El Siglo, where Carranza published. Source: See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons

María Mercedes Carranza entered the world of work and literature in her early youth. In 1965 she began working at the newspaper El Siglo as coordinator of the literary content page “Vanguardia”. The publication was a window for new writers to expose their texts and achieve recognition.

Carranza and love

Carranza met journalist and lawyer Fernando Garavito in the mid-sixties and they began a love affair. At the beginning of the seventies they got married, but only for civil matters, that is how María Mercedes broke with the family rule of religious marriage. The couple had a daughter whom they named Melibea.

Professional growth

The professional life of María Mercedes Carranza developed notably. Together with her husband Fernando, in 1975, she was the director of the Estravagario magazine of the newspaper El Pueblo de Cali. Later, she went to work in the Nueva Frontera publication in charge of the editorial department.

The literary vein of this intellectual led her to publish her poetic works. That was how in 1983 she released I am afraid and four years later Hello, loneliness came to light. Both works were expressive and intense and their contents were based on reflections on existence.

Other activities of the writer

Carranza dedicated her life to promoting Colombian culture, so she carried out different activities to reach a wide audience. One of her greatest achievements as a cultural activist was her participation in the creation of the Casa de Poesía Silva in 1986. There she served as director until the end of her days and organized literary workshops.

Flag of the M-19 party, where Carranza was active. Source: Jolle, via Wikimedia Commons

The writer knew how to effectively and vigorously develop her work as a journalist, cultural promoter and writer. Between 1988 and 1991 he published Poemas, anthology; Personal Anthology, Poetic Anthology and Complete Work. It was at the beginning of the nineties when she participated in the National Constituent Assembly after being elected by the M-19 Democratic Alliance.

Last years and death

The author always remained consistent in her literary vocation. Among her latest publications were: Ways of heartbreak, Love and heartbreak and The song of the flies. Carranza and his family suffered the kidnapping of their brother Ramiro by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

From that tragic event, the physical, psychological and emotional health of the writer began to deteriorate. She fell into a deep depression and consequently had to be medicated. On July 11, 2003, María Mercedes Carranza committed suicide after ingesting an overdose of antidepressants.

Style

Carranza's literary style was characterized by the use of a cultured, intense and lively language. His poems were loaded with expressiveness and philosophical content, which led the reader and the poet herself to reflect and ask questions about life, the end of existence, love and loneliness.

The ironic tone was a predominant feature in his works, a nuance for which he hooked many of his readers.

Plays

Poetry

- Vaina and other poems (1972).

- I'm afraid (1983).

- Hello, loneliness (1987).

- Pods, anthology (1987).

- Poems, anthology (1988).

- Personal Anthology (1989).

- Poetic Anthology (1990).

- Complete work (1991).

- Ways of heartbreak (1993).

- Love and heartbreak (1994).

- Of love and heartbreak and other poems (1995).

- The song of the flies (1998).

- María Mercedes Carranza (1999).

- In memoriam María Mercedes Carranza 1945-2003 (posthumous edition, 2003).

- The homeland and other ruins (posthumous edition, 2004).

- Complete poetry and five unpublished poems (posthumous edition, 2004).

- Complete poetry (posthumous edition, 2010).

Other publications

- New Colombian poetry (1972).

- Seven young storytellers (1972).

- Estravagario (1976).

- Anthology of Colombian children's poetry (1982).

- Carranza by Carranza (1985).

Brief description of some of his works

Vaina and other poems

It was the first work she published and in it she left the poetic mark that accompanied her throughout her literary career. The author portrayed her perception of life and the country, doing so with precise, reflective language and added sarcasm and sometimes pessimism to the verses.

Hi loneliness

This work was the third published by Carranza. Through the poems in this book, he invited readers to immerse themselves in a journey where good and bad had a place. With his customary cultured, precise and concise language, he penetrated the depths of loneliness, absence, failure and love.

Of love and heartbreak

It was one of the best known publications of María Mercedes Carranza, in which she used a language devoid of rhetoric and a lot of expressiveness. As the title indicates, the verses were related to the arrival of love and the transience with which it could vanish. There were experiential features.

The song of the flies

It was considered one of the most profound and philosophical works of the Colombian writer. The fundamental theme was the end of life, which he developed through comparisons, questions and metaphors. The writings were characterized by being brief and by the use of symbols such as wind, water, earth and loneliness.

Fragments of some of his poems

"I'm scared"

Look at me: fear dwells in me.

After serene eyes, in this body that loves:

the fear.

The fear of dawn because inevitable

the sun will rise and I have to see it, when it gets dark because it may not come out tomorrow.

I keep an eye on the mysterious noises in this house

that collapses, and the ghosts, the shadows surround me and

I'm scared.

I try to sleep with the light on

and I do how I can with spears, armor, illusions.

… Nothing calms me down or calms me down:

neither this useless word, nor this passion of love, nor the mirror where I already see my dead face.

Hear me well, I say it out loud:

I'm scared".

"Here between us"

"One day I will write my memoirs, Who does not respect disrespect?

And there it will be all.

The nail polish will be scrambled

with Pavese and Pavese

with needles and a

than another market account…

Where you have to score the most

important I will remember a lunch

anyone arriving at

heart of an artichoke, sheet by sheet.

And the rest, I will fill the missing pages

with that memory that awaits me between candles, many flowers and rest in peace ”.

"Homeland"

"… As if nothing, people come and go

through the ruined rooms,

they make love, dance, write letters.

Often they whistle bullets or is it the wind

that whistles through the gouged ceiling.

In this house the living sleep with the dead, they imitate their customs, they repeat their gestures

and when they sing, they sing their failures.

Everything is ruin in this house

the embrace and the music are in ruins, fate, every morning, laughter is ruins;

the tears, the silence, the dreams.

The windows show destroyed landscapes, flesh and ash blend in the faces,

in the mouths the words stir with fear.

In this house we are all buried alive ”.

"Poem of heartbreak"

"Now in the hour of heartbreak

and without the rosy lightness that desire gives.

His steps and gestures float.

The sleepwalking smiles, almost without a mouth, those words that were not possible.

The questions that only buzzed like flies

and his eyes, a cold piece of blue meat…

Dreams, always dreams.

How dirty is the light of this hour,

how cloudy the memory of the little that remains

and how petty the imminent oblivion! ”.

"Words are unnecessary"

"By traitor I decided today

Tuesday, June 24, murder some words.

Friendship is doomed

to the stake, for heretic;

the gallows is convenient

to love for illegible;

the vile club would not be bad, for apostate, for solidarity;

the guillotine like lightning, must strike brotherhood;

freedom will die

slowly and painfully…

Esperanza has already died;

faith will suffer the gas chamber…

I will mercilessly shoot civilization

for its barbarism; hemlock will drink happiness… ”.

"Put your head in"

"When I stop to contemplate

her status and look at her face

dirty, pegochenta, I think word that

it is time that I do not lose

plus the one who has lost so much.

If it is true that someone

said let the word be spoken and you became a liar,

bitch, stubborn, it's time

to remove her makeup

and start naming… ”.

"Strangers in the Night"

"Nobody looks anyone in the face, from north to south mistrust, suspicion

between smiles and careful courtesies.

Cloudy the air and fear

in all the hallways and elevators, in the beds.

A lazy rain falls

like a flood: city of the world

who will not know joy.

Soft smells that memories seem

after so many years that they are in the air.

Half-done city, always about to look like something

like a girl starting to menstruate, precarious, without any beauty.

19th century patios with geraniums

where old ladies still serve chocolate;

tenant patios

in which grime and pain dwell… ”.

Phrases

- "The word" I "remains, for that one, sad, because of her atrocious loneliness, I decree the worst of sorrows: she will live with me until the end.

- “The fable of my childhood is woven with its legends and stories; with her I discovered the power of the word ”. (Affirmation of the poet in relation to her maternal grandmother Elisa Mujica).

- "Time passes, a kiss is nothing more than a kiss."

- "… To die as the great ones die: for a dream that only they dare to dream…".

- "… And my steps will always be within the labyrinth that yours trace."

- "How dirty is the light of this hour, how cloudy the memory of what little remains and how petty the imminent oblivion!"

- “They met beyond the skin, for a moment the world was exact and kind, and life was something more than a desolate story. Then and before and now and forever. It was all a game of enemy mirrors ”.

- "In the tight darkness of his heart, where everything arrives already without skin, voice, or date, he decides to play at being his own hero…".

- “When I came back I was still playing with dolls and I didn't know how babies were born. I had left Spain and my childhood, and I felt a terrible cultural nostalgia that I faced with the decision to belong to Colombia ”.

- "This house with thick colonial walls and a courtyard of azaleas very nineteenth-century has collapsed for several centuries…".

References

1. Cobo, Juan. (S. f.). Maria mercedes. Colombia: Other Party Corporation. Recovered from: otraparte.org.
2. Bermúdez, G. (2009). On the song of the flies by María Mercedes Carranza. Colombia: Vandarte. Recovered from: leerliteraturacolombia.blogspot.com.
3. Maria Mercedes Carranza. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.
4. Maria Mercedes Carranza. (2017). Colombia: Banrepcultural. Recovered from: encyclopedia.banrepcultural.org.
5. Maria Mercedes Carranza. (2016). (N / a): Writers. Recovered from: writers.org.