Adela Zamudio (1854-1928), Bolivian feminist firebrand who spoke unspeakable truths in poetry and prose.

"Adela Zamudio was a Bolivian poet, essayist, novelist, teacher, and school director. She was also an activist and an advocate of women’s higher education. In her early years, her poems were published under the pseudonym “Soledad”. Throughout her life, well into her sixties, Zamudio fought for divorce laws, secularization, women’s labor movements, and other feminist liberal causes.

"She was also a painter, though most of her paintings are lost. Zamudio wrote a long narrative poem, “Loca de hierro” ‘Iron madwoman.’ She was one of the founding members of Feminiflor, a Bolivian feminist magazine.

"Her publications include: Ensayos poéticos (1887); Ensayos politicos (1887); Intimas (1912); Peregrinando (1912); Ráfagas (1912); and Cuentos breves (1921). Her books were published in Bolivia, Paris, and Buenos Aires. Íntimas was a romantic epistolary novel about and for women, meant to expose the hypocrisy of the upper classes.

"Her poems, romanticist and controversial, were called “virile” and “rationally masculine” by her contemporaries; they considered her a “mujer-macho” (Cajías Villa Gómez 38). She read and admired Byron, de Musset, Becquer, José Zorrilla, and José Espronceda. The all-male La Paz Literary Circle, who considered themselves to be romanticists, elected her an honorary member in 1888.

"An entry in the Diccionario de Mujeres Celebres of 1959 lists her as a leader of the women poets and novelists of Bolivia, who included: Hercilia Fernández de Mujía (“la ciega Mujía”), Lindaura Anzoátegui, Mercedes Belzu, Sara Ugarte, and Amelia Guijarro. In 1926 she was given a medal by the president of Bolivia (Sáinz de Roblez 1200). October 11th, her birthday, is Bolivian Women’s Day.

"There are biographies of Zamudio written by Gabriela de Villarreal, Alfonsina Paredes, Augusto Guzmán, and Sonia Montaño. *Much of her work remains unpublished.*

"She compiled a spelling book in Quechua for use in schools, and composed many poems in Quechua, among them “Wiñaypaj Wiñayninkama” ‘Para siempre / Forever’ (Taborga de Villarroel 181). ...

“Nacer Hombre,” her most famous short poem, was published in 1887. It is a poem “pie quebrado,” ‘broken meter,’ with verses of octosyllabic lines and one line shortened to four or five syllables, and thus is de arte menor, in a popular form for poetry and folk song."

See below for her stunning poem of female rebellion.

https://bookmaniac.org/poetry/antologia/adela-zamudio/

Her classic critique of male privilege, "To be born a man"

She works so hard

to make up for the sloth

of her husband, and in the house

(Pardon my surprise.)

he’s so inept and pompous,

that of course he’s the boss

because he’s a man!

If some poems get written,

a person must have written them,

but she just transcribed them.

(Pardon my surprise.)

If we’re not sure who’s the poet,

why assume it was him?

Because he’s a man!

A smart, classy woman

can’t vote in elections,

but the poorest felon can.

(Pardon my surprise.)

If he can just sign his name

even an idiot can vote

because he’s a man!

He sins and drinks and gambles

and in a backwards twist of luck

she suffers, fights, and prays.

(Pardon my surprise.)

That we call her the “frail sex”

and him the “strong sex”

because he’s a man!

She has to forgive him

when he’s unfaithful;

but he can avenge himself.

(Pardon my surprise.)

In a similiar case

he’s allowed to kill her

because he’s a man!

Oh, privileged mortal

you enjoy lifelong

honor and perfect ease!

For this, to get all this,

it’s enough for you

to be born a man.

Photo of Zamudio later in life.