Adela Zamudio

Birthday, October 11th, is a national holiday in Bolivia to honor all working women.

• Name — Adela Zamudio • Birth Name — Paz Juana Plácida Adela Rafaela Zamudio Rivero • Born — 11 October 1854 • Birthplace — Cochabamba, Bolivia • Died — 2 June 1928 • Place of death — Cochabamba, Bolivia • Other Names — Soledad • Known for — Bolivia's most famous poet, founder of the feminist Bolivian movement. • Occupation — Poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, teacher, activist

Adela Zamudio was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 1854, to upper-class parents. Her father, Don Adolfo Zamudio, was an engineer of Basque ancestry who had emigrated to Bolivia from Argentina. Her mother, Doña Modesta Rivero de Zamudio, was the daughter of a wealthy La Paz mine owner, José Claudio Rivero, who employed Adolfo. Zamudio was first taught by a Londoner, Elizabeth Gové, who ran a small school in Coro Coro. After Zamudio's maternal grandfather, José Claudio Rivero died, and her father Adolfo Zamudio lost his job at Rivero's copper mines, the family's economic situation quickly fell. Zamudio attended the public elementary school El Beaterio de San Alberto for two years (a charity school for orphans, Indigenous children, and poor whites such as herself). Her formal education stopped in the third grade, as was the policy for girls. Zamudio was also tutored by her parents, a London English tutor (before her wealthy grandfather died), and was self taught, reading great quantities of literature, including feminist works.. • Illustration — Zamudio in the 1870s

Zamudio published her first poem, Two Roses, when she was 15, but did not publish her first book until 20 years later. In 1926 she was awarded the Bolivian Crown of Distinction award. Zamudio's first book of poetry was published in Buenos Aires in 1887. The next year, the La Paz Literary Circle named her an honorary member, along with Manuela Gorriti de Belzu. Over the next several years, Zamudio began painting, wrote and directed theatrical productions, published the humorist newspaper El alegre carneval (The Happy Carnival), and continued to write and publish major works. She used a pseudonym, Soledad (English: Solitude), to reflect her often lonely and misunderstood self, who sought to escape conservative Bolivian society. In 1899, Zamudio began her teaching career at El Beaterio de San Alberto (where she had attended public school) as an art teacher. In 1901, she founded a women's art academy where she taught painting and drawing. In 1905, she became the principal of a new school for young women, the Escuala Fiscal de Señoritas (Public School for Young Women), which began women's education past adolescence in Bolivia. Zamudio further contributed to educational methodology by writing and publishing pedagogical materials about critical teaching skills. Zamudio went on to found Bolivia's first school of painting for women, Ávila, in 1911. Zamudio conducted literary campaigns in mining communities, where rich mine owners (like her own grandfather had been) kept indigenous miners and their families illiterate. Her biographer Taborga de Villarroel credits this work with contributing the solidarity that helped them in future insurrections and with training the next generation of great Bolivian thinkers. In 1912, Zamudio's sister Amalia died, and Zamudio stepped in to take care of her children. In 1913, Zamudio was awarded with a gold pen by Bolivia's leading intellectuals in honor of her essays, which sparked national discourse regarding the moral failings of the local Bishop and Catholic Church. She also published her poetry collection Ráfagas in Paris, and her only novel, Íntimas. Zamudio's writings critiquing World War I gained popularity and were published multiple times. Her 1914 allegorical story "La reunión de ayer / Yesterday's Meeting" was very popular and published many times. Her animal trope to critique society was later used by George Orwell in Animal Farm (1945). • Illustration — Zamudio crowned in gold laurels at the 1926 ceremony in her honor. In 1920, Zamudio's call for girls' education was answered with the opening of the first public high school for women, which was later named Liceo Adela Zamudio. Zamudio was appointed principal. Zamudio continued teaching, training teachers, and promoting women's communities until she was forced to retire in 1925. In 1926, the president of Bolivia crowned Zamudio with gold laurel leaves to honor her as a thinker in a large ceremony. Zamudio died on June 2, 1928, in Cochabamba.

Throughout her teaching career, Zamudio conducted literary campaigns in Quechua-speaking mining communities, where rich mine owners (like her own grandfather had been) kept indigenous miners and their families illiterate. Her biographer and grand-niece Gabriela Taborga de Villarroel credits this work with contributing the solidarity that helped them in future insurrections and with training the next generation of great Bolivian thinkers. Her poetry and fiction dealt primarily with the social struggles of Bolivia, often with a romantic feeling invoked towards revolution. Non-religious, her writing was highly intellectual. Her work Quo Vadis, caused a stir amongst upper-class women and clerics, increasing animosity towards her work. Her struggles with religion caused her to choose to no longer teach religion at the school she directed and the League of Catholic Women publicly condemned her. Zamudio also wrote articles for publications and newspapers, promoting democratic reforms and women's rights, including the legalization of divorce.

• Ensayos poéticos (Poetic Texts) (1887) • Violeta o la princesa azul (Violeta or the Blue Princess) (1890) • El castillo negro (The Black Castle) (1906) • Intimas (Close Friends) (1913) • Ráfagas (Squalls) (1914) • Peregrinando (Travelling) (1943) • Cuentos breves (Short Novels) (1943) • Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose, translated from the Spanish by Lynette Yetter, bilingual edition (Fuente Fountain Books 2022) (2023 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, finalist)