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This is a Spanish name; the first family name is Castro and the second is Murguía. Rosalía Castro de Murguía, better known as Rosalía de Castro (Santiago de Compostela, 24 February 1837 – 15 July 1885), was a Galician romanticist writer and poet. Writing in the Galician language, after the Séculos Escuros (Dark Centuries), she became an important figure of the Galician romantic movement, known today as the Rexurdimento ("renaissance"), along with Manuel Curros Enríquez and Eduardo Pondal. Her poetry is marked by 'saudade', an almost ineffable combination of nostalgia, longing and melancholy.  She married Manuel Murguía, member of the Galician Academy, historian, journalist and editor of Rosalía's books. The couple had seven children: Alexandra (1859-1937, unmarried), Aura (1868-1942), twins Gala (1871-1964) and Ovidio (1871-1900, without having married nor descendants), Amara (1873-1921), Adriano (1875-1876) and Valentina (stillborn, 1877). Though Aura married in 1897 and Gala in 1922, they left no children and thus today there are no living descendants of Rosalía de Castro and her husband. Her son Ovidio was a good painter, but his early death cut his career short. The date she published her first collection of poetry in Galician, Cantares gallegos ("Galician Songs"), May 17, 1863, is commemorated every year as the Día das Letras Galegas ("Galician Literature Day"), an official holiday of the Autonomous Community of Galicia, and dedicated to an important writer in the Galician language since 1963. Relative poverty and sadness marked her life, although she had a strong sense of commitment to the poor and to the defenseless. She was a strong opponent of abuse of authority and defender of women's rights. She suffered from cancer of the womb and died of this illness. Her contemporary was Emily Dickinson, an American, who also wrote poetry. Her image appeared on the 500 peseta Spanish banknote.
[edit] Dichotomy of response in Galician societyRosalía de Castro is today the unquestioned Poet Laureate of Galicia (Spain). Highly educated, expected to speak and write Spanish only, she took the bold, unconventional step of writing her early poems in the Galician language. Her defiance earned her the contempt and spite of that segment of the population for whom Galician was a dialect fit only for the illiterate and the churlish; but Rosalía's gallant gesture won her the love and admiration of the rest. Schools in Galicia,[1] in Spain[2] and abroad,[3] libraries at home,[4] in Spain[5] and abroad,[6] cultural associations at home,[7] in Spain[8] and abroad,[9] prizes at home,[10] in Spain[11] and abroad,[12] parks,[13] folklore groups,[14] choirs,[15] albums,[16] compositions of her poems,[17] a Galician polka,[18] sports teams,[19] monuments at home[20] and abroad,[21] a theater,[22] restaurants,[23] a label of white wine,[24] hotels,[25], rural lodgings,[26] a money bill formerly in circulation,[27] a postage stamp,[28] a FS98 Iberia Airbus A340,[29] a sea-rescue plane,[30] and streets in Galicia,[31] in Spain[32] and abroad[33] have all taken her name. [edit] International ReputationAlthough she remains relatively unknown outside Spain, her first volume of poetry was translated into Japanese by Takekazu Asaka in 2009[34] and is available from DTP Publishing (Tokyo). In the nineteen-nineties Katsuyo Ohata wrote two articles in the journal "The Review of Inquiry and Research" of Kansai Gaidai University (Osaka, Japan) on the Galician poet: "El inconsciente creativo de Rosalía de Castro"[35] and "En las orillas del Sar: El mundo íntimo de Rosalía de Castro." In 2007 Shearsman Books published a paperback of selected poems translated by Michael Smith.[36] In 2003 Folle Avoine published a French anthology of Galician poems translated by José Carlos Gonzalez.[37] In 1991 the State University of New York Press published an English anthology edited and translated by Anna-Marie Aldaz, Barbara N. Gantt and Anne C. Bromley.[38] [edit] Works[edit] In Galician
[edit] In Spanish
[edit] Sample of poetry from Cantares Gallegos: Adiós ríos, adios fontesTheme The poem recounts the drama of the farmer forced to leave his homestead by the crisis of 1850-1860. Historical background Apparently due to unusually cold winters throughout the decade of 1850-1860 and due to the prevalence of subsistence agriculture many family farms of Galicia went bankrupt. The weather of the decade is sometimes likened to a mini Ice-Age. In January 1850 there was notable snowfall over much of Spain and by February a large number of wolves roamed the countryside. In February 1853 the Galician port cities of Ferrol and A Coruña reported heavy snowfall, a highly unusual event. February 1854 was again very cold—on the fourteenth Madrid registered a nighttime temperature of -8°C. January 1855 was again very cold and snowy over Northern Spain. The winter of 1856-57 was especially hard,
To compound the problem the main domestic industry also went into crisis.
The economic downturn accelerated already-existing rates of emigration.
The proportion of people leaving was staggering. The census of 1857 gave a count of 1,776,879 inhabitants for the region.[42] Therefore, according to all these figures, over 12% of the population left Galicia during the period 1836-1880. The drama of emigration continued well into the twentieth century, and although noted Galician writer and politician Alfonso Castelao (b. 1886, d. 1950)—himself an expatriate twice, during his childhood and after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936—chose to see in emigration both an economic imperative and the affirmation of a dauntless spirit, the reality of leaving one's homeland was unpleasant for most, whether in the nineteenth or twentieth century, as the photographs of Manuel Ferrol attest.[43] Musical adaptation Troubadour and songwriter Amancio Prada (b. 1949) recorded a solo adaptation of this poem in 1975, and twenty-two years later he re-recorded it accompanied by the Galicia Symphony Orchestra.[44]
[edit] Sample of poetry from Follas Novas: Negra SombraTheme The poem reflects Rosalía's apprehension at the recurrence of sudden misfortune in her life. Historical background "Negra Sombra" was probably written shortly after the death of two of her babies, twenty-month-old Adrian who died from a fall in November of 1876 and Valentina who was stillborn three months later.[46] Musical adaptation The Provincial Museum of Lugo holds the score of the musical adaptation of "Negra Sombra"; the sheet of music dates from 1890-1892. Its author was Juan Montes Capón (b. 1840, d. 1899) who composed twenty other pieces, among them another adaptation of a Rosalian poem, Doce Sono.[47]
Classic choral renditions of "Negra Sombra" are particularly moving.[50] Other outstanding interpretations include those of Luz Casal and Carlos Nuñez[51] and of Amancio Prada and the Galicia Symphony Orchestra.[16]
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