Chilean-American writer
Marjorie Agosin
(born June 15, 1955) is a
Chilean-American
writer. She has gained notability for her outspokenness for women's rights in
Chile
.
[1]
The
United Nations
has honored her for her work on
human rights
.
[2]
The Chilean government awarded her with the Gabriela Mistral Medal of Honor for Life Achievement in 2000.
[3]
She is a recipient of the
Belpre Medal
. In the United States, she has received the Letras de Oro, the Latino Literary Prize, and the
Peabody Award
, together with the United Nations Leadership Award in Human Rights.
[4]
Life
[
edit
]
Agosin was born in 1955 to Moises and Frida Agosin in
Bethesda, Maryland
, before quickly moving to
Chile
, where she lived with her Jewish family in a German community.
[5]
While she was raised to appreciate her Jewish heritage, her family also appreciated the dominant
Catholic culture
of Chile. Her aunt even organized
Easter Egg hunts
for her and her mother adored the beauty of the Catholic churches in Chile.
[6]
Agosin attended the Hebrew School in
Santiago
, Chile. After the
coup d'etat
of September 11, 1973, she left with her family to live in the United States.
[7]
Career
[
edit
]
Agosin studied in
Georgia
, and later attended
Indiana University Bloomington
, where she obtained her
PhD
in Latin American Literature.
[8]
After receiving her degree, her first job was as an assistant professor at
Wellesley College
, the same
Massachusetts
women's college at which, at the age of thirty-seven, she became one of the youngest women ever to obtain the rank of full professor in the history of the institution, and at which, after more than twenty years, she continues to teach.
[9]
She edited the anthology
These Are Not Sweet Girls: Poetry by Latin American Women
(White Pine Press, 1991), featuring newly translated poems by
Gabriela Mistral
,
Rosario Castellanos
,
Giannina Braschi
,
Olga Nolla
,
Julia de Burgos
,
Violeta Parra
,
Cristina Peri Rossi
, and other Latina poets.
[10]
Agosin began to write poetry in Spanish when she was ten years old, and although she speaks both English and
Yiddish
, she has written her extensive work in Spanish.
[11]
Agosin is a prolific author: her published books, including those she has written as well as those she has edited, number over eighty.
[12]
She has published several books of fiction, among them two collections of short stories:
La Felicidad
(1991) and
Las Alfarenas
(1994).
[13]
Agosin's series of memoirs began with a book about her mother's life in the south of Chile,
A Cross and a Star: Memoirs of a Jewish Girl in Chile
(1995).
[14]
The later two volumes related the story of her father's life,
Always from Somewhere Else
(1998), and Agosin's own story,
The Alphabet in My Hands
(2000).
[15]
In each of these books, the prevailing theme is that of the Jewish immigrant who is trying to find a place in Latin American society.
[16]
She contributed the piece "Women of smoke" to the 1984 anthology
Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology
, edited by
Robin Morgan
.
[17]
Her two most recent books are both poetry collections,
The Light of Desire / La Luz del Deseo,
translated by Lori Marie Carlson (Swan Isle Press, 2009), and
Secrets in the Sand: The Young Women of Juarez,
translated by Celeste Kostopulos-Cooperman (
White Pine Press
, 2006), about the
female homicides in Ciudad Juarez
.
[18]
She teaches
Spanish language
and
Latin American literature
at
Wellesley College
.
[19]
Selected published works
[
edit
]
- Conchali
, (Senda Nueva de Ediciones, 1980),
ISSN
0145-8973
- Brujas Y Algo Mas: Witches and Other Things
, (Latin American Literary Review Press, 1984),
ISBN
978-0-935480-16-0
- Violeta Parra: santa de pura greda : un estudio de su obra poetica
, (with Ines Dolz-Blackburn), (Planeta, 1988),
ISBN
9562470164
- La Felicidad
(Editorial Cuarto Propio, 1991)
ISBN
9781877727344
- Sargazo
(White Pine Press, 1993)
ISBN
978-1-877727-27-6
- La Alfareras
(Editorial Cuarto Propio, 1994)
ISBN
9789562600637
- Tapestries of hope, threads of love
, (University of New Mexico Press, 1996)
ISBN
0-8263-1692-1
- A Woman's Gaze: Latin American Women Artists
(White Pine Press, 1998)
ISBN
1-877727-85-7
- The Alphabet in My Hands: A Writing Life
, translated by Nancy Abraham Hall (Rutgers University Press, 2000)
- Always from Somewhere Else: A Memoir of My Chilean Jewish Father
, (Editor), (Feminist Press, 2000),
ISBN
1-55861-256-4
- Women, gender, and human rights: a global perspective
, (Rutgers University Press, 2001),
ISBN
0-8135-2983-2
- Secrets in the Sand: The Young Women of Juarez
(White Pine Press, 2006),
ISBN
1-893996-47-6
- The Light of Desire / La Luz del Deseo,
translated by Lori Marie Carlson (Swan Isle Press, 2010),
ISBN
978-0-9748881-7-0
- I Lived on Butterfly Hill
, (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2014)
ISBN
978-1-4169-5344-9
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Wellesley College Public Affairs Profile: Marjorie Agosin
Archived
May 14, 2008, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Wellesley College Public Affairs Profile: Marjorie Agosin
- ^
"OTORGA ORDEN AL MERITO DOCENTE Y CULTURAL
GABRIELA MISTRAL
EN GRADO DE GRAN OFICIAL A LA DOCTORA MARJORIE AGOSIN"
. Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile. July 24, 2000
. Retrieved
July 8,
2017
.
- ^
Oboler., Suzanne (2005).
The Oxford encyclopedia of Latinos & Latinas in the United States
. Gonzalez, Deena J. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
019518842X
.
OCLC
62270754
.
- ^
Memorial de una escritura: aproximaciones a la obra de Marjorie Agosin
- ^
Marjorie., Agosin (2000).
The alphabet in my hands : a writing life
. Hall, Nancy Abraham. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.
ISBN
081352704X
.
OCLC
41076239
.
- ^
Oboler., Suzanne (2005).
The Oxford encyclopedia of Latinos & Latinas in the United States
. Gonzalez, Deena J. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
019518842X
.
OCLC
62270754
.
- ^
Oboler., Suzanne (2005).
The Oxford encyclopedia of Latinos & Latinas in the United States
. Gonzalez, Deena J. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
019518842X
.
OCLC
62270754
.
- ^
Oboler., Suzanne (2005).
The Oxford encyclopedia of Latinos & Latinas in the United States
. Gonzalez, Deena J. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
019518842X
.
OCLC
62270754
.
- ^
"These Are Not Sweet Girls: Poetry by Latin American Women. - Free Online Library"
.
www.thefreelibrary.com
. Retrieved
October 26,
2020
.
- ^
Oboler., Suzanne (2005).
The Oxford encyclopedia of Latinos & Latinas in the United States
. Gonzalez, Deena J. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
019518842X
.
OCLC
62270754
.
- ^
Library of Congress Online Catalog > Marjorie Agosin
- ^
Oboler., Suzanne (2005).
The Oxford encyclopedia of Latinos & Latinas in the United States
. Gonzalez, Deena J. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
019518842X
.
OCLC
62270754
.
- ^
Oboler., Suzanne (2005).
The Oxford encyclopedia of Latinos & Latinas in the United States
. Gonzalez, Deena J. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
019518842X
.
OCLC
62270754
.
- ^
Oboler., Suzanne (2005).
The Oxford encyclopedia of Latinos & Latinas in the United States
. Gonzalez, Deena J. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
019518842X
.
OCLC
62270754
.
- ^
Oboler., Suzanne (2005).
The Oxford encyclopedia of Latinos & Latinas in the United States
. Gonzalez, Deena J. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
019518842X
.
OCLC
62270754
.
- ^
"Table of Contents: Sisterhood is global"
. Catalog.vsc.edu. Archived from
the original
on December 8, 2015
. Retrieved
October 15,
2015
.
- ^
Reinares, Laura Barberan (2010). "Globalized Philomels: State Patriarchy, Transnational Capital, and the Fermicides on the US- Mexican Border in Roberto Bolano's
2666
".
South Atlantic Review
.
75
(4): 51?72, on 69.
JSTOR
41635653
.
- ^
Wellesley College > Department of Spanish Faculty
Archived
May 17, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine
External links
[
edit
]
- Wellesley College page
- Jewish Women's Archive page
- Poems:
The International Literary Quarterly
> Issue 3, May 2008 > Poems by Marjorie Agosin translated by Roberta Gordenstein
- Poem:
poets.org
>
Secrets in the Sand (and the night was a precipice)
by Marjorie Agosin
- Review: Barnes and Noble Online >
Secrets in the Sand: The Young Women of Juarez
by Marjorie Agosin > Review by
Library Journal
- Vivancos Perez, Ricardo F. "Marjorie Agosin's Poetics of Memory: Human Rights, Feminism, and Literary Forms." Confronting Global Gender Justice: Women's Lives, Human Rights. Ed. Debra Bergoffen, Paula Ruth Gilbert, Tamara Harvey, and Connie L. McNeely. Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2010. 112?25.
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