ROSALÍA DE CASTRO: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - HISTORY - 2025

Rosalía de Castro (1837-1885) was a 19th century Spanish poet and novelist. She published works in both Castilian and Galician, which was controversial at that time because Galician was considered a language with some disrepute and not appropriate for literature.

She had a difficult life for being the illegitimate daughter of a priest, for the circumstance of writing in a language discredited by then and for her delicate health condition, with recurring diseases throughout her life.

Rosalía de Castro. Source: Luis Sellier, via Wikimedia Commons

After her death, Rosalía de Castro became a symbol of Galician culture. In life she was the main standard-bearer of the Galician Rexurdimento (Galician Resurgence), a cultural movement that sought to vindicate the Galician language as a means of expressing the social, cultural and political identity of this Spanish region.

His collection of poems Cantares gallegos is considered the emblematic work of this movement. Poets such as Manuel Curros Enríquez, Manuel Murgía, Valentín Lamas Carvajal and Eduardo María Pondal also belonged to this current.

Fight for Galician cultural identity

Rosalía de Castro's work is linked both to this struggle for the recognition of Galician cultural identity and to romantic poetry. She was, together with Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, one of the most emblematic figures of Spanish poetry of the 19th century and a precursor of modern meter.

Several years after his death, his work was studied and popularized throughout Spain and America by the so-called generation of 98. Among his scholars, Miguel de Unamuno and José Martínez Ruiz, better known as Azorín, stand out.

In recent studies, her work has been observed as a very important antecedent of feminism in Castilian and Galician letters, since there is in her a constant questioning of the role of women within society and the contempt for her knowledge and abilities.

Biography

Birth and family

Rosalía de Castro was born in Camiño Novo (New Way), on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela, the capital city of Galicia, Spain, on February 24, 1837.

His mother was Doña María Teresa de la Cruz Castro y Abadía, belonging to a family of nobles, but with limited financial resources. Her father was José Martínez Viojo, who had been ordained a priest, a circumstance for which she was unable to give her her surname or legally recognize it.

She was introduced and baptized shortly after by María Francisca Martínez, sent by her mother, as the daughter of unknown parents with the name of María Rosalía Rita.

Childhood

During his childhood he was in the care of his paternal aunt, Mrs. Teresa Martínez Viojo, in his family's house in the town of Castro do Ortoño. However, he maintained a close relationship with his mother, with whom he moved to Santiago de Compostela in 1850.

Her family context, and the deep love she felt for her mother, who decided to take care of Rosalía despite social pressure and loss of prestige, were reflected in her later works.

In the same way, the life of the Galician peasants is reflected, with whom he was in contact and was able to observe carefully during his childhood in Ortoño.

Life in Santiago de Compostela

In Santiago de Compostela he began to attend the Liceo de la Juventud where he received training in music and drawing, according to the customs of the time for the education of young women.

In addition, he studied acting and took part in plays at this educational institution. She played the main role in the play Rosamunda, by the Spanish playwright Antonio Gil y Zárate.

In these activities she met several young Galician intellectuals, such as the poets Aurelio Aguirre, Eduardo María Pondal and Manuel Murguía, who became her husband some years later. These influences prompted him to dedicate himself to literary activity with a marked romantic and regionalist tendency.

Family life and early works

In 1856 Rosalía traveled to Madrid and settled there for a time at the residence of Mrs. María Josefa Carmen García-Lugín y Castro, a relative of her mother.

There he published in 1857 his first collection of poems entitled La flor, which was published as a serial. This work received very good reviews in Madrid and was reviewed by the historian and poet Manuel Murguía, with whom Rosalía began a sentimental relationship. The couple married the following year, on October 10, 1858, in the Church of San Idelfonso, in Madrid.

The couple had six children: Alejandra (1859), Aura (1868), Ovidio y Gala (1871), Amara (1873) and Adriano Honorato (1875), who died at the age of one and a half as a result of a fall. They had a seventh daughter who died at birth. These tragic events affected Rosalía emotionally and psychologically.

Publication of his first novel

In 1859 the first novel by Rosalía de Castro was published, entitled La hija del mar. This work, written in Spanish, was dedicated by the author to her husband. It has a particularly famous prologue in which the right of women to dedicate themselves to literature and knowledge is defended, a controversial issue for the time.

Stays in Madrid, La Coruña and Santiago de Compostela

During the following years the family alternated their residence in Madrid, La Coruña and Santiago de Compostela, facing notable economic difficulties and the health problems that accompanied Rosalía throughout her life.

Due to the work commitments of Manuel Murgía, they also spent seasons in Andalusia, Extremadura, Levante and Castilla la Mancha. The poet dedicated herself to raising her family and writing, leading a home life most of the time.

Publication of two of his poems

In 1863, the poems Cantares gallegos and A mi madre were published, in Galician and Spanish respectively. The latter was published after the death of her mother, which occurred on June 24, 1862, a very painful and significant event in the life of the poet.

Four years later he published En las orillas del Sar, a compendium of poems in Spanish written in previous years. Thanks in part to this work, Bécquer is equated in importance within Hispanic romantic and post-romantic poetry. During these years he also published some works in prose, also in Spanish.

His last years were spent in the parish of Iria Flavia, in Padrón, in a farm called La Matanza. It is known that the author felt a special fascination for the sea and that she traveled during these years to the town of Santiago del Carril in Pontevedra.

Development of uterine cancer and death

From 1883 on, Rosalía's fragile health gradually declined, suffering from uterine cancer. She died at her residence La Matanza surrounded by her children. She was buried according to her own request in the Adina cemetery, in the town of Iria Flavia.

Tomb of Rosalía de Castro. Source: Certo Xornal, via Wikimedia Commons

Later, on May 15, 1891, the body was moved to Santiago de Compostela, to rest in the Visitation Chapel of the Santo Domingo de Bonaval Convent, in a mausoleum sculpted by Jesús Landeira, in the Panteón de Gallegos Ilustres.

Plays

Poemarios in Galician and social context

Rosalía de Castro's work is situated in a social and cultural context to which it is necessary to pay attention.

The emergence of the Galician-Portuguese lyric in the Middle Ages had been far behind. The centuries that elapsed from then until the 19th century were so scarce in terms of Galician publications that they are known as Séculos Escuros (Dark Centuries).

While this was happening, Spanish became established as an official language, of regular and accepted use for scientific publications, treatises, history books and poetry, among others. However, Galician continued to be the language of common use throughout Galicia.

Cultural movements that strengthened Castro's work

During the 19th century there were a series of cultural movements that sought to revalue the regional identity and the unofficial languages ​​of the different Spanish provinces. Among these, one of the most relevant has been Rexurdimento.

Galician songs

Hence the importance of the publication of Cantares gallegos and Follas novas, notable collections of poetry for this revival of Galician literature. The date of publication of Cantares Gallegos, May 17, 1863, happened to be chosen a century later by the Royal Galician Academy as the Day of Galician Letters.

This collection of poems was published by the Vigo printer Juan Compañel at the request of Manuel Murgía. It consists of thirty-six poems, the first being a prologue and the last an epilogue, which are respectively an invitation to sing to Galicia and an apology for not doing it in the most beautiful way. The rest of the poems deal with traditional themes of life in Galicia to intimate and loving themes.

You fuck novas

Rosalía de Castro Theater. Source: UnknownUnknown author, via Wikimedia Commons

Follas novas, published in Madrid in 1880, was a kind of continuation of Cantares gallegos. Although this represents a middle point between love and costumbrista poetry and the much more reflective themes around death that he deals with in his later works. It consists of five parts and consists of a compilation of previous works.

It has a pessimistic tone that explores Galician melancholy or saudade. It is full of dark and harrowing allegories and symbols. Many critics have considered it the best of her works.

Works in Spanish

On the banks of the Sar continues to explore the pessimistic theme and saudade. It was published in Spanish in 1884, a year before the death of its author. It also investigates the themes of love disappointment, loneliness, life and death.

Parallel to his poetic work, he published prose stories, which stand out for their tormented female characters. In addition to the difficulties faced by Rosalía when publishing important works in Galician, her condition as a woman caused that she was often belittled as an author in comparison to her male colleagues.

During her life, Spanish and Galician societies considered women to be an inferior figure to men, incapable of achieving excellence in literary or scientific work. It was for this reason that her novels are considered very important in nineteenth-century Spanish literature.

As for poetry, his work is mainly made up of: La Flor (1857), A mi madre (1863), Cantares gallegos (1863), Follas novas (1880) and On the banks of the Sar (1884).

Regarding narrative: The daughter of the sea (1859), Flavio (1861), El Cadiceño (1863) Contos da miña terra (1864), Ruins (1866), The literatas (1866) The gentleman with the blue boots (1867), The first madman (1881), Palm Sunday (1881), Padrón and the floods (1881) and My tía la de Albacete (1882).

References

1. Rosalía de Castro. (2018). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org/
2. Rosalía de Castro. (S. f.). (N / a): Biographies and Lives, the online biographical encyclopedia. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com
3. De Castro, Rosalía. (S. f.). (N / a): Escritores.org. Recovered from: writers.org
4. Rexurdiment. (S. f.). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org
5. Rosalía de Castro. (S. f.). Spain: Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library. Recovered from: cervantesvirtual.com