Salomé Ureña de Henríquez
Salomé Ureña de Henríquez was a prominent Dominican poet and educator, known for her significant contributions to literature and women's education in the Dominican Republic. Born to an educated family, her father, Nicolás Ureña de Mendoza, was a noted attorney, teacher, and journalist who influenced her early education in classical literature. Ureña de Henríquez began publishing poetry under the pseudonym Herminia at the age of seventeen, though her early work faced skepticism regarding its authorship. One of her most celebrated poems, "La Gloria del progreso," reflects her dedication to the advancement of her country.
In 1880, she published her collected works and married Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal, with whom she shared a commitment to education. She founded the Instituto de Señoritas, the first higher education school for women in the Dominican Republic, and operated it despite facing financial challenges. Ureña de Henríquez's later poetry often explored themes of love and longing, particularly during her husband's time studying abroad. Following her death in 1897, her legacy continued with the reopening of her school in her honor and her recognition as a national poet, marking her as a pivotal figure in Dominican cultural history.
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Subject Terms
Salomé Ureña de Henríquez
Poet
- Born: October 21, 1850
- Birthplace: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
- Died: March 6, 1897
- Place of death: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Biography
Dominican poet Salomé Ureña de Henriquez’s parents were Gregoria Díaz y Léon and Nicolás Ureña de Mendoza, an attorney, teacher, poet, and journalist, who founded in 1853 the newspaper El Progreso (progress). After Salomé had completed her school education, her father oversaw her education in the Spanish, French, and English classics. Using the pseudonym Herminia, she published her first poem at the age of seventeen, but there was some suspicion that because her early poems were so accomplished her father was the real author.
Ureña de Henriquez’s “La Gloria del progreso” (the glory of progress; 1873), about progress in the Dominican Republic, is one of her best-known poems. She continued to write as Herminia until 1874, the year that several of her poems were included in the anthology Lira de Quisqueya (lyre of Quisqueya).The poems written before 1881, which deal with her fledgling country’s progress and problems, are among her best: “Ruinas” (ruins), “La fe en el porvenir” (faith in the future), and “Anacaona,” an epic poem about the Indian queen whose rule in 1500 over Hispaniola ended with her death at the hands of the Spanish. In 1878, she received a medal from the Sociedad de Amigos del Paés (society of friends of the country), establishing her as the national poet of the country.
In 1880, Ureña de Henriquez published the first edition of her collected poems and also married Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal, who founded the Escuela Normal, a training school for teachers. After joining him in the work of his school, she founded her own the following year: Instituto de Señoritas, the first higher-education school for women in the Dominican Republic. She devoted herself to her school, which she ran, despite financial problems, for over a decade, and to her family. By 1884 she had three sons, Fran, Max, and Pedro (the last one became a well-known writer and critic), as well as a daughter, Camila, born to her late in life (she was forty-four).
When her husband went to Paris in 1887 to study medicine (he was there until 1891), Ureña de Henriquez had written only eight poems since their marriage. Those poems, with themes of melancholy, love, and yearning, are about her husband and family. Her school was closed in 1893 but was reopened in 1896 and renamed in her honor as the Instituto Salomé Ureña. Her feminist concerns are reflected in her “Mi ofrenda a la patria,” a poem she gave in lieu of an address at the reopening ceremonies. Her death a year later was followed by a three-day mourning period with flags at half mast and schools closed. Julia Alvarez wrote a fictional treatment of her life, In the Name of Salomé, in 2000.