We continue on our path to recover the memory of those characters who gave prominence to our education and culture, and whose names today identify streets, squares and educational institutions throughout the national territory, despite the fact that the general public is unaware of its existence and value. For this reason, today we offer you this biographical review of an educator and writer who revolutionized the art of storytelling not only in our country but throughout Latin America. Her novels, essays and newspaper articles transcended her time and are currently repositories of female knowledge, in an age dominated by men. Let's learn more about Clorinda Matto de Turner … Who was she? Spill Magisterial tells you about it in his biographical series...
Clorinda Matto de Turner she is one of the most representative and transcendent Peruvians of our national identity. Together with Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera and Teresa González de Fanning, she belongs to the first group of enlightened women in Peru. She was an outstanding writer, whom she considers to be the founder of the indigenous novel. Likewise, she was the forerunner of the Latin American novel, with Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera, Juana Manso, Mercedes Marín, Rosario Orrego, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Julia López de Almeida, Juana Manuela Gorriti, among others. Born and raised in Cusco, she felt very identified with the Inca culture, which inspired most of her works.
Grimanian Martina Matto Usandivaras de Turner He was born in the district of Calca, province of the same name, in the Cusco region, on November 11, 1852. On his parents' farm, he observed rural life, the drama of the peasants and workers - with whom he identified forever. - and learned Quechua. She studied primary school at the Colegio Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes (Educandas), in Cusco, which she interrupted after the death of her mother, assuming the care of her younger brothers:Ramón Segundo, Ramón Daniel and Ramón Hermenegild. She wanted to go to the United States to study medicine, but her father did not allow her.
In 1871 she married the English doctor, merchant and landowner Joseph Turner, and she went to live with him in the Andean-Cusco town of Tinta. When her husband died 10 years after her, she faced serious economic problems, since corrupt lawyers and judges made her lose a large part of her inheritance.
In 1876 she founded the magazine El Recreo, in which famous authors of her time, such as Juana Manuela Gorriti, Ricardo Palma, Rufino José Cuervo and Fernán Caballero, published. She left the project a year later, for health reasons, and moved to Arequipa. In 1877 she participated in one of Juana Manuela Gorriti's social gatherings, the famous Literary Evenings that she continued. She served as Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper La Bolsa (1884-85). In 1884 she published Elements of literature according to the Regulation of Public Instruction for the use of the fair sex.
That same year he premiered, in the White City, his tragedy Ima Súmac, also known as The Secret of the Incas, a historical drama in three acts, which had little success and was only it performed once again, in Lima, in 1888, where it was established in 1886. In the Peruvian capital it was incorporated into the most important cultural institutions, such as the Ateneo and the Círculo Literario.
In 1886 she saw the light of her biographical study Doctor Lunarejo, about Juan de Espinosa Medrano, El Lunarejo, from Cusco, who published dramas in Quechua in the 17th century. In 1889 she held the Editorial Office of El Perú Ilustrado, in Lima, almost at the same time that her first novel appeared, Aves sin nido, which made her so justly famous.
Aves sin nido is a brilliant work not only for its literary value, but above all because it confronted, from literature, the disastrous idiosyncrasies of that time, which considered "normal" the atrocious injustices against the Indians and the aberrant social abysses and moral prejudices. The book narrates the love story between a white man and a beautiful mestizo woman, who could not marry when they discovered that they were brothers, children of the same father, a womanizing priest; and also the immorality of the priests at that time.
As a result of her novel, and the allegedly sacrilegious account of a Brazilian writer in El Perú Ilustrado, the Catholic Church unleashed a perverse campaign against Clorinda Matto de Turner , for which she was excommunicated, and then numerous people manipulated by the clergy ransacked her house and burned her books, which were banned. In these very difficult times very few publicly defended and supported her. She especially mentions three of her, to whom she dedicated her novel Indole, thus:"To my dear friends and colleagues Ricardo Palma, Emilio Gutiérrez de Quintanilla and Ricardo Rossel." He appeared before the Chamber of Deputies to express his strongest protest against the abuses committed against Clorinda and her family:
In 1891 she resigned her position so that the censorship against El Perú Ilustrado would be lifted, and went abroad for some time, visiting the World's Fair in Chicago, in USA. In 1892 she founded, in Lima and with her brothers, the printing press La Equitativa, where only women worked and the newspaper Los Andes was published. From its pages, Clorinda defended the Government of Andrés A. Cáceres. In 1895, the troops of President Nicolás de Piérola occupied Lima, destroying the house and printing house of the Matto brothers.
On April 25, 1895, she left Lima and went into exile in Buenos Aires, passing through Valparaíso, Santiago de Chile and Mendoza. She earned her living teaching classes at the Escuela Normal de Profesoras, as well as at the Escuela Comercial de Mujeres, and working as a journalist. She founded the Búcaro Americano magazine, in which writers such as Ricardo Palma, Amado Nervo, Rubén Darío or Leopoldo Lugones published, and she collaborated in other media, such as La Nación, El Tiempo and La Razón. She was the first woman who entered the Ateneo de Buenos Aires, in 1895.
Clorinda Matto de Turner She became very popular for her literary works, in which she presented the Indians in a humane and positive way, against the prevailing racism, which she never accepted or even tolerated. Her writings were also part of a campaign to improve women's education. She belonged to a wide circle of writers and thinkers, which included Juana Manuela Gorriti, Carolina Freyre de Jaimes, Teresa González de Fanning, Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera and Aurora Cáceres, who worked together in Lima, organizing gatherings, publishing magazines and establishing schools, until Clorinda had to go into exile because of that infamous clerical attack, in 1895.
In Buenos Aires she helped the young Zoila Aurora Cáceres, the daughter of President Andrés Avelino Cáceres, expelled from the country in 1895. Clorinda was a friend of the Sorcerer of the Andes since the War of Pacific (1879-1883). She and she also had professional ties with the two most influential writers of that time:Ricardo Palma, who inspired the traditional genre, and Manuel González Prada, with whom she shared her rebellious, modern and innovative ideology.
Among numerous literary and cultural deliveries, she also translated the New Testament into Quechua; but her peak work is, without a doubt, Aves sin nido, always up-to-date despite time, imperishable due to her masterful humanism. Towards the end of her life, she undertook trips to Spain, France, Italy, Germany and England, where she did joint work with representatives of various feminist organizations. Clorinda Matto de Turner She died in Buenos Aires on October 25, 1909. Her remains were repatriated in 1924, by Resolution of the Congress of the Republic, and buried in the Presbítero Maestro Cemetery.