Although the arts flourished in Spain in the early years of the 20th century, works by Spanish women during that period have largely been overlooked by critics and scholars. An exception is the poetry of three women—Ernestina de Champourcin, Josefina de la Torra and Concha Mendez—who are the subject of an academic project by BMCC student Mariana Soto.
Soto’s study, “Three Forgotten Poets: Women of the Generation of 1927,” was recognized at the CUNY Women’s and Gender Studies Recognition Day, sponsored by the CUNY Women’s Studies Council and the CUNY Women’s Center Council. Soto was one of two BMCC students selected by the BMCC Women’s Studies Project and Women’s Resource Center to present their work at the May 1 event; the other was Wioleta Jaworska, who will be featured in a separate story.
Challenging society’s rules
“All three poets produced extraordinary work but were marginalized because they were women,” says Soto, a Liberal Arts major who will graduate next semester. Apart from her coursework at BMCC, Soto, who is an accomplished singer and guitarist, attends the Julliard School. Upon graduation from BMCC, she hopes to major in music, and has a special interest in ethnomusicology.
“Even today,” Soto says, “many people remain unaware that women made such a significant artistic contribution to the arts in Spain—as poets, musicians, and visual artists.” The three poets on whom her study focused “were true pioneers who stepped outside the role of women as it was defined by society’s standards.” Importantly, their contributions were not confined to poetry, she adds.
“Josefina de la Torra was also a gifted actress and musician,” she notes. “And Mendez was involved in promoting and publishing some of the most important literary work of the period, including the plays and poems of Federico García Lorca.”
All three women figured importantly in The Generation of 1927, an influential group of avant garde poets, writers, dramatists and artists.
Creating art in a turbulent time
The careers of the three women extended into the 1930s, a time of turbulence, repression and civil war in Spain. “I believe that a full historical account of Spanish art in the 20th century must include the women who played such a key part in it,” Soto says. As both an academic and an artist herself, she adds, “I feel a kinship with Champourcin, de la Torra and Mendez. Learning about them has been incredibly inspiring to me.”
