An exploration of women's involvement in the Latin American Wars of Independence

José Mármol

Click on the image below to see the full-size image

José Mármol

Gender:Male

Ethnic origen: White

Events:

Connections:

Biography:
1818-1881 Argentina. A novelist born in 1818, he was a member of the "Generation of 37", who was opposed to Rosas. According to Katra, this was an opposition that was linked to racial superiority typical of their class at that time: Rosas’s popularity among the mestizos, pardos and blacks was seen as distasteful, the barbarian element that kept him in power. This was not a major cause, but had an impact on their attitude towards Rosas. (Katra, 30.)

His novel, Amalia, was serialised in 1844. (Pratt, 54-57.)

Knaster claims that his main interest seems to have been in women's love affairs. (Knaster, 79.)

He was imprisoned by Rosas as a conspirator around 1838. His novel, Amalia, was about Rosas's crimes and the vulgarity of Buenos Aires women. In one scene, Rosas makes his daughter kiss a drunken black man to prove his democratic ideals. The book was popular in Europe. He also wrote El Peregrino, a long poem, and two plays, El Cruzado and El Poeta. He was listed among the "romantic" exiled Argentine community in Montevideo. (Coester, 114-116)

References:

Bergmann, Emilie; Masiello, Francine; Miller, Francesca; Pratt, Mary Louise; Greenberg, Janet. (editor). (1990) Women, Culture and Politics in Latin America
Coester, Alfred (1919) The Literary History of Spanish America
Franco, Jean R.O. Jones (editor). (1973) Spanish American Literature Since Independence
Katre, William H. (1996) The Argentine Generation of 37, Echeverría, Alberdi, Sarmiento, Mitre
Knaster, Meri (1977) Women in Spanish America: An Annotated Bibliography from Pre-Conquest to Contemporary Times