Lesbia Soravilla
{{Short description|Cuban writer, feminist and activist}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Lesbia Soravilla
| image = Lesbia Soravilla reconocida esceitora, novelista y periodista cubana.jpg
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_name = Lesbia Soravilla
| birth_date = {{birth date|1906|05|22|df=y}}
| birth_place = Camagüey, Cuba
| death_date = January 1989 (aged 82)
| death_place =
| occupation = Writer
| language = Spanish
| education =
| alma_mater =
| period = 1920s and 1930s
| genre = Poetry, novels
| subject =
| movement = Feminist
| notableworks =
}}
Lesbia Soravilla (22 May 1906 – January 1989{{Cite web|url=http://www.mocavo.com/Lesbia-Soravilla-1906-1989-Social-Security-Death-Index/13482551075510217305|title=Lesbia Soravilla (1906–1989) |access-date=15 April 2015|publisher=Mocavo.com}}) was a Cuban writer, feminist and activist, prominent in the feminist movement of the 1920s and 1930s.{{Sfn|Bejel|2001|p=43}} Her work, including poetry and novels, dealt with feminist issues. Her novels include El dolor de vivir (1932) and Cuando libertan los esclavos (1936).
Biography
Born in Camagüey, Soravilla worked as a journalist for El Mundo.{{Sfn|Pichardo|1991|p=643}} As an activist, Soravilla participated in the founding of several organizations for the rights of women such as the Club Femenino de Cuba (Women's Club of Cuba) and the Unión Nacional de Mujeres (National Union of Women), along with other writers such as Ofelia Rodríguez Acosta, Berta Arocena de Martínez Márquez, Julieta Carreta and Tete Casuso. With Acosta, she belonged to the group of the first exponents of the so-called "cuento caribeño" ("Caribbean story"), a group of Caribbean writers who sought to defend the rights of women in their respective countries.{{cite web|url=http://hemisferiozero.com/2012/03/29/las-cuentistas-caribenas-feministas-de-su-tiempo/|title=Las cuentistas caribeñas, feministas de su tiempo|publisher=Hemisferiozero.com|access-date=14 April 2015|language=Spanish|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052057/http://hemisferiozero.com/2012/03/29/las-cuentistas-caribenas-feministas-de-su-tiempo/|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}} Along with Graziela Garbalosa, Soravilla was marginalized, leading to a discovery of personal freedom.{{sfn|Stoner|Pérez|2000|p=34}} She associated with additional activist writers of the time, such as Irma Pedroso, Dulce Maria Loynaz, and Flora Diaz Parrado.{{sfn|Scarano|Zamora|2007|p=134}}
Writing on the influence of Hollywood movies on women in Cuba, Soravilla noted that the effect was clearly seen among all sections of women, irrespective of their class distinction. It had an effect on the maids also who, in particular, during their break period from work, would present themselves with makeup in a charming and appealing way.{{Sfn|Pérez Jr.|2012|p=510}}
In her novel Cuando libertan los esclavos published in 1936, Soravilla has one of the female characters express her inability to break a marriage even though her husband was abusive, considering the negative approach in the society towards divorce, particularly because of the high status of her parents in the society.{{Sfn|Pérez Jr.|2005|p=274}}
In another novel titled El dolor de-vivir published in 1932, Soravilla has brought out, in a conversational mode between a female activist and her writer friend, the changing approach in a society women from a fashionable lady to a political activist whose writings about feminist movement made her very popular.{{Sfn|Unruh|2009|p=137}} In this feminist novel, she also incorporates the personage of Mariblanca Sabas Alomá into the fictional setting, a dialogue between a free love advocate and a writer.{{sfn|Unruh|2009|p=137}}
Married Oscar Ugarriza Had two sons: Ricardo Ugarriza, Oscar Ugarriza and daughter Carmenchú Ugarriza Vaillant
Divorced and later married Angel Manuel Egaña. Had a daughter. Amelie Egaña.
Grandchildren:
Charles Vaillant Ugarriza
Annette Vaillant Ugarriza
María Vaillant Ugarriza
Carmenchu Ugarriza
Lillian Ugarriza
Lourdes Ugarriza
Nicolle Ugarriza
Maité Goicouría
Tony Goicouría
Ana Amelia Goicouría
Marta Elena Goicouría
Selected works
- El dolor de-vivir (1932)
- Cuando libertan los esclavos (1936)
References
{{reflist}}
=Bibliography=
- {{cite book|last=Bejel|first=Emilio|title=Gay Cuban Nation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BNfVvuq7UzwC&pg=RA3-PA7|date=1 September 2001|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-04174-2}}
- {{cite book|last=Pérez Jr.|first=Louis A.|title=To Die in Cuba: Suicide and Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h74EAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT274|date=25 April 2005|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-1-4696-0874-7}}
- {{cite book|last=Pérez Jr.|first=Louis A.|title=On Becoming Cuban: Identity, Nationality, and Culture: Identity, Nationality, and Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u-VRqkpThREC&pg=PT510|date=1 September 2012|publisher=UNC Press Books|isbn=978-1-4696-0141-0}}
- {{cite book|last= Pichardo |first=Roberto Daniel Agramonte y |title=Las doctrinas educativas y políticas de Martí|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nbB0Lik5QkoC&pg=PA643|date=1 January 1991|publisher=La Editorial, UPR|isbn=978-0-8477-2497-0|language=Spanish}}
- {{cite book|last1=Scarano|first1=Francisco Antonio|last2=Zamora|first2=Margarita|title=Cuba: contrapuntos de cultura, historia y sociedad|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9le6kTm-_rgC&pg=PA134|date=1 January 2007|publisher=Margarita Zamora|isbn=978-1-881748-60-1}}
- {{cite book|last1=Stoner|first1=K. Lynn|last2=Pérez|first2=Luís Hipólito Serrano|title=Cuban and Cuban-American Women: An Annotated Bibliography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tn8s-vvxanoC&pg=PA34|date=January 2000|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8420-2643-7}}
- {{cite book|last= Unruh |first=Vicky |title=Performing Women and Modern Literary Culture in Latin America: Intervening Acts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LZIMuq71b7YC&pg=PA137|date=3 June 2009|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-77374-5}}
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Category:Cuban women activists
Category:Cuban women novelists
Category:Cuban women's rights activists
Category:Cuban women journalists
Category:20th-century Cuban novelists
Category:20th-century Cuban poets