Emilia Bernal Agüero

Great lady of Cuban literature, poet who cultivated other genres such as essay, translation, and autobiographical novel.

Born in Nuevitas, Camagüey and died in Washington.

Author of an extremely copious bibliography. She published essays, translations, narratives, and an autobiographical novel.

She spent her childhood and adolescence in the fields near her hometown, without formal education, despite her mother being a rural teacher. During the War of '95, her house was burned down, and she, along with her parents, went to Santo Domingo, a country from which they returned shortly after, unable to find means of livelihood.

She moved to La Habana and in 1910 published her first compositions. She collaborated in La Nación, Bohemia, Social, El Fígaro.

She traveled through different countries in America and Europe. She spent much of her life outside of Cuba.

She stands out not only in poetry, but also ventures into essays on Cuban issues of the era in which she lived. Her most well-known literary production in verse includes: "Alma errante", "Mallorca", "Como los pájaros", "Vida", and "Exaltación".

In prose "Layka Frayka", "Cuestiones cubanas", "Martí por sí mismo", and "Ensayo sobre el problema de la raza negra en Cuba".

In Spain, she spent time at the Residencia de Estudiantes and traveled to Granada where she met Manuel de Falla. She had a relationship with the Majorcan Llorenç Villalonga, who was inspired to write works that reflected the differences in age and education between both writers.

The Foundation bearing her name annually awards the "Emilia Bernal Literary Prize".

She died in Washington in 1964 at the age of 80.

Emilia stood out in the Hispanic world as an innovative literary figure, pioneer of feminism and later itinerant cultural ambassador of her young homeland. She excelled first as a poet and shortly after as a prose writer, and delivered vibrant lectures on cultural and historical topics at the most important universities in the United States, Latin America, and Europe. Her works are found in almost all the great libraries of the world and her poems have been translated into several languages, including English and French.

Republican Cuba had few women of her caliber, and her national and international impact, with the perspective of time, was broader than is commonly thought. She cultivated all poetic genres and styles, from classical to modernist, earning the approval of the most influential critics of her time, who praised her grace and elegance no less than her deep emotionality and her "intimism". As if all this were not enough for her restless spirit – she published about fifteen books of her own – she translated and collaborated in the Spanish edition of works by important Portuguese, Brazilian, Catalan, and Galician poets of her time, including Rosalía de Castro and Anthero de Quental.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alma errante 1916.
¡Cómo los pájaros!, 1922.
Poesías inéditas, 1922.
Poemes, (text in Catalan), 1922
Layka Froyka; el romance de cuando yo era niña, 1925, 1931.
Vida, 1925.
Cuestiones cubanas, 1928.
Exaltación 1928.
Martí por sí mismo, 1934.
Negro, 1934.
América, 1937.
Ensayo sobre el problema de la raza negra en Cuba, 1937.
Sentido, 1937.
Sonetos, 1937.
Mallorca, 1938.