The Countess of Merlín, a character from La Habana

August 3, 2019

María de las Mercedes de Santa Cruz y Montalvo, Countess of Merlín, was born into a family of Havana aristocracy on February 5, 1789. Daughter of Joaquín de Santa Cruz y Cárdenas and María Teresa Montalvo y O'Farril, counts of Jaruco and Mompox. Founder of Cuban literature written by women, writer and novelist.

The countess entered the Convent of Santa Clara in Havana at eight years old and, fed up with religious life, attempted to escape, aided by Mother Santa Inés, who inspired her book, Historia de Sor Inés (1832).

Her childhood took place in Cuba; due to a trip her parents made to Italy, she was left in the care of her paternal great-aunt, who raised her in a very free and indulgent manner.

At age 12, in 1802, young María moved to Madrid to live with her mother, who was lady-in-waiting to Queen Doña María Luisa, and who had a salon in the capital where politicians, writers, and artists gathered.

In that environment she met artists such as Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1827), Manuel José Quintana (1772-1857), and Juan Meléndez Valdés (1754-1817), and the Count of Merlín, Christophe-Antoine de Merlin (1771-1839), a French general in the Spanish navy, whom she married at age 20. After the defeat of the French troops, they both departed for Paris.

Anyone who reviews newspapers from the 1830s such as "Revue Musicale," "La Gazette de France," or "La Chronique" will find abundant praise for the artistic talent of the Creole woman, who was usually greeted with general admiration when seen appearing at the opera.

An excellent singer, her salon was frequented by political figures and Cuban and foreign artists, among them Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis of La Fayette, Alfred Guillaume Gabriel, Honoré de Balzac, Víctor Hugo, Alfred de Musset, George Sand, Franz Liszt, José de la Luz y Caballero, José Antonio Saco, and Domingo del Monte.

Among her most important literary works are: Mis primeros doce años (1831), an account of her childhood, and the biography, Historia de Sor Inés, which recounts the life of a nun from the Convent of Santa Clara in Havana, and La historia de una mujer de mundo, published in 1838 simultaneously in Paris and Brussels, and even translated into English and Italian, an account of the brief and unhappy life of her friend and Spanish singer María Felicia García Malibrán; the hybrid genre represented by the narrative Viaje a La Habana, a detailed account in epistolary form of a trip she made to Cuba in 1840.

The countess traveled through Germany, Switzerland, England, and Italy. She was widowed in 1839, and in 1840 she returned to Cuba, where she wrote this Viaje a La Habana.

At that time she was accused of plagiarizing Cirilo Villaverde (1812-1894), José Antonio Saco, and Ramón de Palma (1812-1860); Félix Tanco y Bosmeniel (1797-1867) was one of her principal detractors with his Refutación al folleto titulado Viaje a la Habana. Her defenders were equally well-known: Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda and Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés [i.e.] Plácido (1809-1844).

In this book the author describes a colonial Havana of the mid-19th century, in 10 letters, from the 38 that editions in other languages include, for the logical reason that the countess avoided touching on topics in the Island not pleasing to the Spanish authorities of that time.

Subtitles in each of the letter headings guide the reader... "Viaje a la patria..." appears in the first one.

She expresses... "I am delighted! Since this morning I breathe the warm and loving air of the tropics..." From there she transmits her experiences upon returning to her country of origin, the customs of Havanans and even of the "guajiros," the usual rides in carriages, the buildings (The Castle of Force, El Morro, El Templete, the Cathedral, among others), the fondness for theater and music, nature, characteristics of the climate and flora and fauna, even the attacks of bothersome mosquitoes; she refers to occupations of all kinds and cites historical figures.

A testimony to an era of Havana life, it complements the iconographic work of the excellent engravers who traveled to the Island or the chronicles of so many foreign visitors the city received.

It is precisely the text of "Viaje a La Habana" that today captures the attention of critics and makes a French-language writer recognized as the mother of Cuban literature.

In its preliminary pages this volume begins with biographical notes by Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda about the countess, comprising 16 pages, in which the life and work of María de las Mercedes Santa Cruz is synthesized, whom she qualifies as one of the most distinguished writers of contemporary literature.

La Tula laments that her books enrich French literature and not the land that gave her birth, "whose sun ignited that lush imagination, somewhat cooled under a foreign sky, yet still casts resplendent flashes that serve her homeland as a magnificent halo."

In this last book the names of María de las Mercedes Santa Cruz y Montalvo, Countess of Merlín (1789-1852) and of Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (1814-1873) come together, and it was not a mere coincidence; two women, writers, contemporaries, lived far from the Island, yearning for the years spent on it and with profound love for its culture and for a city that was already beautiful at that time, Havana, which in a few months will celebrate 500 years since its founding.

The Countess of Merlín, founder of an established feminine narrative tradition, very controversial and criticized in her time, bequeaths us beautiful testimonies of her era from the perspective of a bold person who knew how to write them until her death at age 63 in Paris, on March 31, 1852.