MERCEDES PINTO: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

Mercedes Pinto Armas de la Rosa y Clos (1883-1976) was a Spanish writer, playwright, journalist and speaker. From an early age she gained recognition due to the publication of her poems, and later for her feminist thoughts and political actions.

Pinto's work was characterized by social concerns and concerns that he had with regard to women. Her ideas were expressed with force and maximum expressiveness from all the literary genres that she developed. The poet always sought sincerity and leave an indelible mark.

Image source: marivi-hypatia.blogspot.com

The personal experiences of the author were a source of inspiration to write many of her works. Writings like Him, and the conference Divorce as a Hygienic Measure, caused a stir in a society that lived on appearances and moral and religious facades.

Biography

Birth and family

Mercedes was born on October 12, 1883 in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, into a family of intellectuals. Her parents were the writer Francisco Pinto de la Rosa and Ana María Armas Clos. Her talent, along with the influence of her parents, had a lot to do with her success.

Education

The fact that Mercedes Pinto was born into a cultured and educated family, allowed her maximum intellectual development. From a very young age she began to write verses, and at the age of fourteen she was already known in her hometown as the "Canarian poet", due to her lyrical qualities.

Mercedes' first marriage

Mercedes was married for the first time in 1909, when she was 26 years old, to Juan de Foronda y Cubillas, a navy captain. The couple had three children: Juan Francisco (who died as a teenager), Ana María and María de las Mercedes.

Married life presented some inconveniences due to the husband's health problems. Foronda suffered from mental disorders that forced Pinto to hospitalize him, later she went with her children to live in the Spanish capital, and the couple disintegrated.

Life in Madrid and first jobs

The life of the writer in Madrid connected her with the greatest intellectuals of the time; she met José Ortega y Gasset, Miguel de Unamuno and Carmen de Burgos. It was also in the 1920s that she met her second husband, Rubén Rojo.

In those years he began working in prestigious print media such as Prensa Gráfica and La Acción. In 1921 he finalized the publication of his first collection of poems, Brisas del Teide. In addition, the Canarian poet began her lecture season at the International Women's League.

A conference led her into exile

On November 25, 1923, Mercedes Pinto gave a lecture at the Central University of Madrid. The conference was titled Divorce as a Hygienic Measure, this caused great displeasure to the government. After the attacks, the poet made the decision to go to Uruguay with her family.

Central University of Madrid. Source: JL de Diego, via Wikimedia Commons

Literary and professional activities in distant lands

Pinto's life in exile meant growth at the literary level, social and political activities. In Latin American countries, he consolidated his fight for the rights of women and the less favored, and also worked to achieve a new educational system.

Mercedes Pinto's political activity consisted of important positions in the Uruguayan government. She also had the initiative to found the House of the Student, the Canarian Association of Montevideo and the magazine Vida Canaria, and some time later she created a theater company.

Last years of life

Pablo Neruda, friend of the poet Mercedes Pinto. Source: Unknown (Mondadori Publishers), via Wikimedia Commons

Mercedes lived for a time in Chile, there she met Pablo Neruda, who was amazed by his unique personality. In 1934 her novel Ella came to light, the following year she traveled to Cuba, where she lived for eight years. There she acted as a defender of the Spanish Republic and in favor of Jews fleeing the Nazis.

In 1943, when her husband Rubén Rojo died, she permanently resided in Mexico. In Aztec land, she encouraged her children to continue their careers as actors, while she sometimes traveled to Spain. She died, due to reasons of advanced age, on October 21, 1976 in Mexico, at the age of 93.

Style

Mercedes Pinto's literary style was characterized by being forceful and frontal. Always with a precise and direct language, in such a way that the readers and their different audiences could understand it, in addition her works expressed her most personal feeling due to her experiences.

The author's writing was full of energy and strength. Its main goal was to offer useful and beneficial content that will multiply. Sincerity, creativity and realism were constant in her works, in addition her vitality, rebellion and modernism were reflected in her literary activity.

Plays

Poetry

- Brisas del Teide (1921).

- Songs of many ports (1940).

- Higher than the eagle (1968).

Brief description of the most significant poetic work

Brisas del Teide

It was Pinto's first collection of poems, the verses were conceived between 1921 and 1924. The poems in this work were a reflection of the personal circumstances of the author, in many of them she felt bitterness and anguish; but also the happiness of her years in Tenerife.

Fragment of "Your name"

"Bring this book the closing of your sonorous name, strange and presumptuous as the finishing touch

holding on to the mantle of an oriental magnate.

Of that name of music and a thousand times dear

that resounds incessantly like a bell in my ear, awakening my soul from a lethal morass ”.

Novels

- Him (1926).

- She (1934).

- The great soul of little Juan (1950).

Brief description of the most representative novel

He

This novel by Mercedes Pinto was conceived within autobiographical nuances. The author narrated the story of a woman subjected to the violent attitudes of a psychologically ill husband, who against all opinion decided to get away and win her freedom.

Fragment

“It had been a few days since he and I had spoken to each other. A minor setback caused one of his outbursts of anger, and later his resentment and my fears sealed our lips.

In this situation, we were better off: quiet and sullen, the silence wove hallucinatory shadows around us, but the shrillness had no place in the house that was frayed by the parenthesis of restlessness… ”.

Theater

- Silence (1929).

- An ordinary man (1930).

- A woman, Ana Rosa (1932).

Test

- The emotion of Montevideo (1949).

Movie theater

- The Corpse Collector (1966).

- Days of old color (1967).

References

1. Mercedes Pinto. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: wikipedia.org.
2. Llarena, A. (2015). Mercedes Pinto. Spain: Archipelago of letters. Recovered from: academiacanarialengua.org.
3. Brief biography of Mercedes Pinto. (2009). (N / a): Women who Make History - Brief Biographies. Recovered from: mujeresquehacenlahistoria.blogspot.com.
4. He, by Mercedes Pinto. (2011). (N / a): Ladder. Recovered from: escaletra.blogspot.com.
5. Biography of Mercedes Pinto Armas, Spanish writer, speaker and journalist from the Canary Islands. (2017). Spain: Canaries in the world. Recovered from: canariosenelmundo.com.