Biography rosario belberg summary

Mexican writer who published many volumes of poetry and two novels, which are part of her "Chiapas Cycle" of fiction. Became deeply aware of both the suffering of the Indian population of Chiapas province and the subordinate position of women in a culture dominated by the concept of machismo; educated in Mexico City and became a member of the literary "Generation of Although she enjoyed an excellent reputation in her own country as a poet and novelist in her lifetime, it is only since her accidental death in that Rosario Castellanos has become known to the world as not only one of Mexico's major writers but as its strongest and most persuasive feminist voice.

Despite her position in the privileged landowning oligarchy of Chiapas province, the young girl was burdened in her earliest years by a somber family environment. Her father was melancholy and introverted, her mother remote and emotionally unresponsive. Typical of Mexico's machismo culture, her parents clearly favored her brother Benjamin.

On one occasion, her mother told her, "Your father and I love you because we're obliged to. Sensitive and highly observant, Rosario remained in the background of the Castellanos clan, learning about the world not from her parents but from her nurse and maid, Rufina. An uneducated peasant woman of Indian blood, Rufina not only took care of Rosario but loved her.

Instructing her in the myths, legends and folk wisdom that constituted her own world, Rufina provided her young charge with an alternative environment that was then supplemented by literature.

Synopsis of fire weather: a true story from a hotter world

In , the government program of agrarian reform resulted in the appropriation of her family's land. Rosario and her parents moved to Mexico City, where she began her studies at the National University. Her literary interests blossomed, and she joined a group of. Castellanos' master's degree in philosophy, "On Feminine Culture" , is now seen as a landmark in the history of Mexican feminism.

Given the confinements for women in Mexican culture, feminist ideals were profoundly subversive of the existing social and gender structure, but Castellanos was determined to explore new areas of thinking whatever the cost. Never afraid to probe her own despair, in the early s a bout with tuberculosis inspired another book of poetry.