Bella Dama Sin Piedad y Otros Poemas (Lecturas Mexicanas)

by Rosario Castellanos

Moderate shelf wear and yellowing commensurate with its age. Purchased in a rare bookstore in Mexico City.

Genres: Poetry

155 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1990

About the author

Rosario Castellanos Figueroa (25 May 1925 – 7 August 1974) was a Mexican poet and author. Along with the other members of the Generation of 1950 (the poets who wrote following the Second World War, influenced by César Vallejo and others), she was one of Mexico's most important literary voices in the last century. Throughout her life, she wrote eloquently about issues of cultural and gender oppression, and her work has influenced feminist theory and cultural studies. Though she died young, she opened the door of Mexican literature to women, and left a legacy that still resonates today.

Throughout her career, Castellanos wrote poetry, essays, one major play, and three novels: the semi-autobiographical Balún Canán and Oficio de tinieblas (translated into English as The Book of Lamentations) depicting a Tzotzil indigenous uprising in Chiapas based on one that had occurred in the 19th century. Despite being a ladino – of mestizo, not indigenous descent – Castellanos shows considerable concern and understanding for the plight of indigenous peoples. "Cartas a Ricardo," a collection of her letters to her husband Ricardo Guerra was published after her death as was her third novel, Rito de iniciación. Rosario Castellanos said of the collection of her letters in Cartas a Ricardo that she considered them to be her autobiography. Rito de iniciación is in the bildungsroman tradition about a young woman who discovers her vocation of a writer.
Castellanos' poem, "Valium 10," is in the confessional mode, and is a great feminist poem comparable to Sylvia Plath's "Daddy."

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Dayana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me gustó mucho esta selección de poemas, porque va guiando al lector por los diferentes estilos que la autora dominaba. Cada una de las secciones y temáticas nos muestra, con un magistral uso del lenguaje y de herramientas retóricas, un sentimiento que emerge de entre las letras y traspasa las líneas para revelar estados de ánimo, pensamientos, desesperación, impotencia, injusticia y, sobre todo, soledad.
Algunos de mis favoritos son "Destino", "Lecciones de cosas" y "Autorretrato", porque desnudan por completo su sentir, su contexto y la forma más bella en la que condensaba su dolor: las letras.

[Julio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matamos lo que amamos. Lo demás
no ha estado vivo nunca.

Que preciosa compilación de poesía de una de mis escritoras favoritas. Es graciosa, melancólica, introspectiva y bien sensible para crear mundos enteros en unas cuantas frases. Un montón de favoritos.