Arte para la gente: Alfonsina Storni

In honor of International Women’s Day this past Monday we continue out look at women in the Americas with one of the region’s greatest poets.

Born in Switzerland and raised in Argentina, Alfonsina Storni was inspired by her own personal experiences to write poems on gender inequality, love, and death. Works like “Hombre pequeñito” (“Little Man”) and “Tú me quieres blanca” (“You Want Me Pure”) blasted male hypocrisy and the oppression of women, respectively. Storni has reached near mythical status in the over seven decades since her suicide and her work have influenced writers throughout the Americas.

“Voy a dormir” ("I'm going to sleep") was Storni’s last poem before she killed herself in 1937. It is, undoubtedly, one of her finest works:

Online Sources- YouTube, poesia-inter.net (translated), Wikipedia

Today’s Video: Isabel Allende

We end this week’s video theme of Latin American women and literature with Chilean author Isabel Allende.

“The House of the Spirits”, “Of Love and Shadows”, and “City of the Beasts” are just a few of the novels written by Allende who is certainly one of the best-known novelists in all the Americas. In 1996 Allende created a foundation in honor of her daughter, and Allende became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2003.

The video is from Allende’s appearance at the 2007 TED conference; her impassioned speech calls for us to stop the injustices against women and to become more active in changing the world for the better.

(Video link):

Previous videos this week:

• Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni
• Mexican "Renaissance woman" Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
• Dominican author Julia Alvarez

Sources- isabelallende.com, Wikipedia, Google Video, Isabel Allende, TED

Today’s Video: Alfonsina Storni

Last Saturday was International Women’s Day (IWD), a day in which to reflect on the accomplishments of women worldwide and to correct the wrongs committed against them. Several events took place on the 100^th anniversary of IWD including a protest in Ciduad Juarez, Mexico calling for justice in the over 400 women killed since 1993. Many famous women have made their mark throughout Latin American history and this will be the theme for this week’s videos.

Today we feature Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni; much of her work focused on the repression of women by men and can be categorized as feminist. In the video clip below, Argentine singer Mercedes Sosa sings Alfonsina y el Mar ("Alfonsina and the sea"), a heart-wrenching tune based on Storni’s 1938 suicide when she walked into the ocean.

(Video link):

Sources- internationalwomensday.com, AFP, famouspoetsandpoems.com, Wikipedia