Born: 25 May 1925, Mexico
Died: 7 August 1974
Country most active: Mexico
Also known as: Rosario Castellanos Figueroa
The following was written by Laila Rivera for iFeminist and is republished with permission.
As one of Mexico’s leading literary voices in the twentieth century, Rosario Castellanos has become a great influence to many. Castellanos’s openness about women’s and cultural issues has exposed many important issues to Mexican society, prompting essential changes.
Born on May 25, 1925, in Mexico City, Castellanos was raised near a ranch owned by her family in Comitán, located in the southern state of Chiapas near the border of Guatemala. Though her family owned a big portion of land, most of it was lost once land reform and peasant emancipation policies were implemented by President Lázaro Cárdenas in 1941. As a result, Castellanos, at the age of 15, and her parents moved back to Mexico City. Unfortunately, her parents passed away within a month of returning, forcing her to fend for herself.
After her parents’ death in 1948 and the publishing of a poem called Endless Death by José Gorostiza, Castellanos was inspired to become a poet. She enrolled at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where she studied law, literature, and philosophy. After initially going into law to please her parents, she later abandoned this occupation for a master’s degree in philosophy that aligned more with her interests. She also joined the National Indigenous Institute, whose mission is to guarantee the rights of Afro-Mexican and indigenous people through cultural policies and programs. Here, she began writing scripts for puppet shows, promoting literacy to those in less fortunate areas. The institute was coincidentally founded by the person that took her own family’s land away—President Cárdenas.
Around this time, Castellanos wrote a weekly column for the newspaper named Excélsior. It included details about her daily life living in the city, her literary hobbies, and her different cultural identities. After graduating from the UNAM, she transferred to the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, where she began to spend a lot more time with Nicaraguan, Guatemalan, and other Mexican writers. Afterwards, this would be referred to as “The 1950 Generations.” It was also in 1950 that Castellanos earned her master’s degree in philosophy.
Eight years later in 1958, Castellanos married Ricardo Guerra Tejada, who was a professor of philosophy. A few years later in 1961, they had a son, Gabriel Guerra Castellanos, who as of now is a political scientist. Thirteen years after her marriage with Guerra, they divorced due to unfaithfulness on his behalf. Her heart had already suffered a lot, including depression from multiple miscarriages, but she didn’t allow it to interfere with her work. After her divorce, Castellanos decided it was time to turn to a new page and march on with her head held high. She started voicing her opinions in her articles about defending women’s rights, while also writing poems and keeping her column in the newspaper up to date. While she was a part of the National Indigenous Institute, the government recognized her as an important part of the group, and, together, they planned and provided services and resources to Native communities. Castellanos’s work eventually caused her to be named the ambassador of Mexico to Israel in 1971. All of this helped in her journey to becoming a symbol of importance for Latin American feminists.
In her writings, Castellanos imbues her writing with many Catholic themes. She was very passionate about religion from reading the works of Saint Teresa of Ávila, a 16th century Spanish religion activist and author, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a 17th-century Mexican nun and poet. Reading from them inspired her to write more religion based works. Her poetry depicts the social injustice of the ruling class for women and Indians, discussing how both groups were treated as less than human. Her most famous novel, written in 1962, called Oficio de tinieblas (The Book of Lamentations) is regarded as her most moving piece by readers. Recreating an event that happened in the city called San Cristóbal de las Casas, the novel was made to recreate an Indian rebellion set in the twentieth century, specifically the 1930s, which is around the same time in which her own family was affected by land reforms during the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.
This all came to an untimely halt, however, when she passed away on August 7, 1974, in Tel Aviv, Israel. She was only forty-nine when the reported accidental death occurred of an electric shock from a broken table lamp. She was rushed to the Meyer Hospital, sadly dying an hour later. Some speculate that her death might not have been an accidental electrocution, but a suicide. Mexican writer and friend of Castellanos, Martha Cerda says, “I believe she committed suicide, though she already felt she was dead for some time.”
Although Castellanos may be gone, her legacy lives on. As one of Mexico’s most influential writers, Castellanos’s stories have continued to inspire Mexican women for years to come.
The following is republished with kind permission from the Enciclopedia de la Literatura en México.
Rosario Castellanos (1925-1974) es una de las escritoras mexicanas más reconocidas a nivel nacional e internacional. Combinó su labor creadora con la promoción cultural, la docencia, el periodismo y la diplomacia. Incursionó con éxito en la novela, el cuento, la poesía y la dramaturgia. Obras como Balún Canán, Oficio de tinieblas, Álbum de familia o Poesía no eres tú son indispensables en la literatura mexicana, pues dan cuenta de dos aspectos que hasta entonces no habían sido tratados literariamente o se habían trabajado con una perspectiva sesgada: la mujer y lo indígena. La escritora rehuyó las clasificaciones de indigenismo y feminista, pues su literatura abordaba ambas temáticas sin apegarse a un programa de ideas específico y sin idealizar a los personajes.
La autora cultivó con empeño y rigor la escritura creativa y periodística: dejó un sinnúmero de colaboraciones en periódicos y revistas. En su época no recibió la atención que merecía, sin embargo después de su muerte los estudios sobre su obra, el reconocimiento de sus ideas y compromisos, el interés de los lectores por sus libros ha ido en ascenso. Murió en Tel Aviv, mientras ostentaba el cargo de Embajadora de México. Sus restos fueron traídos a la Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres.
Rosario Castellanos (1925-1974) is one of Mexico’s most renowned writers, both nationally and internationally. She combined her creative work with cultural promotion, teaching, journalism, and diplomacy. She successfully ventured into novels, short stories, poetry, and plays. Works such as Balún Canán, Oficio de tinieblas, Álbum de familia, and Poesía no eres tú are essential to Mexican literature, as they address two aspects that, until then, had either not been explored in literature or had been approached from a biased perspective: women and indigenous peoples. The writer avoided the labels of indigenismo and feminism, as her literature addressed both themes without adhering to a specific set of ideas and without idealizing her characters.
The author cultivated creative and journalistic writing with dedication and rigor, leaving behind countless contributions to newspapers and magazines. In her own time, she did not receive the attention she deserved; however, after her death, studies of her work, recognition of her ideas and commitments, and reader interest in her books have steadily increased. She died in Tel Aviv while serving as Mexico’s Ambassador. Her remains were interred in the Rotunda of Illustrious Persons.