Rosario Ferré
Rosario Ferré was a prominent Puerto Rican writer known for her diverse body of work, which encompasses novels, short stories, essays, children's literature, poetry, and literary criticism. Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1938 to a well-known political family, she initially pursued a career in journalism before fully immersing herself in literature. Ferré's writings are characterized by their exploration of race, gender, and socioeconomic issues faced by women in patriarchal societies, particularly in Puerto Rico. Influenced by her childhood experiences and the storytelling traditions of her nanny, her works often incorporate elements of Magical Realism.
Ferré's literary career includes notable works such as *The House on the Lagoon*, which examines Puerto Rican identity and political status through the lens of a family's multi-generational saga. Her first English-language novel, published in 1995, marked a significant moment in literature, reflecting her commitment to addressing Puerto Rico's complex historical relationship with the United States. Throughout her life, Ferré was an advocate for Puerto Rican independence and later supported pro-statehood views, showcasing her dynamic engagement with politics. She passed away in 2016, but her contributions to literature and feminist discourse have solidified her legacy as one of the leading contemporary female writers in the Caribbean.
Rosario Ferré
- Born: September 28, 1938
- Place of Birth: Ponce, Puerto Rico
- Died: February 18, 2016
- Place of Death: San Juan, Puerto Rico
PUERTO RICAN-BORN WRITER
One of the most important and prolific contemporary female writers in the Carribean, Ferré was the author of novels, short stories, essays, children’s books, poems, and literary criticism. Her writings examine the impact of race, gender, and socioeconomic status on the lives of women living in patriarchal societies, especially that of Puerto Rico.
Early Life
Rosario Ferré was born to Lorenza Ramírez de Arellano and Luis A. Ferré in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Her father, a wealthy industrialist who founded the New Progressive Party (PNP), the main political party advocating Puerto Rican statehood, served as the third democratically elected governor of Puerto Rico (1969–73). Ferré’s childhood was enlivened by her nanny, Gilda Ventura, who told the young child fascinating stories based on myths and fairytales. Consequently, many of Ferré’s literary works, which are steeped in Magical Realism, use myths and fairytales as literary devices.
After completing her primary education in Ponce, Ferré attended the Dana Hall School, a private secondary school for girls in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She began her writing career in high school, publishing several articles in El Nuevo Día, a widely read Puerto Rican newspaper owned by her family.
After graduating from the Dana Hall School in 1956, Ferré pursued a BA in English at Manhattanville College, earning her degree in 1960. Notwithstanding her father’s leadership of the pro-statehood movement, Ferré was a vocal advocate of Puerto Rican independence during the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1990s, however, she changed her political outlook and became a supporter of the pro-statehood movement. When her mother died in 1970, Ferré assumed the role of First Lady for the remainder of her father’s term in office.
As a graduate student at the University of Puerto Rico, Ferré helped establish the student-led literary journal Zona de Carga y Descarga (Loading and Unloading Zone) in 1972. The journal was dedicated to publishing new writers, especially Puerto Ricans. Ferré subsequently earned a PhD in Latin American literature from the University of Maryland in 1986. Her dissertation was an analysis of the works of Argentine writer Julio Cortázar.
Life’s Work
While studying at the University of Puerto Rico as a master’s degree candidate in Spanish literature, Ferré took courses from Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, who encouraged her to pursue a literary career. Many of the stories published by Ferré in Zona de Carga de Descarga were reprinted in her first book, Papeles de Pandora, in 1976 (published in English in 1991 as The Youngest Doll). The recurring motif in the stories is the figure of a doll, a critique of the concept of idealized femininity. Several of the stories debunk the patriarchal view that values women for their social prestige as wives. Drawing upon her early childhood memories of fairytales, one of Ferré’s stories recounts how a young woman’s hopes of a career as a ballerina were dashed by her father’s plan to arrange a socially advantageous marriage for her. Ferré’s aggressive and politically astute female characters challenge the stereotypical image of passive and subordinate women in Puerto Rican culture. As such, Ferré is credited by many critics with launching the feminist movement in Puerto Rican literature. In addition, her stories incorporate techniques such as multiple narrators and fragmented time sequences common to Magical Realism.
A frequent theme in Ferré’s writings is Puerto Rico’s controversial historical and political relationship with the United States. In 1986, Ferré published her first novel, Maldito amor (Sweet Diamond Dust, 1988). In the novel, the author rewrites Puerto Rican history during the first half of the twentieth century from a woman’s perspective. The story, set in the Guamani Mountains, relates the multigenerational escapades of the sugar plantation-owning De La Valle family and their attempts to resist the encroachment of US corporations. Infused with elements of Magical Realism, the story is told from multiple points of view.
Published in 1995, The House on the Lagoon was Ferré’s first English-language novel. Nominated for the National Book Award in 1996, the semiautobiographical novel, with multiple narrators and mythical themes, examines the history of the Mendizabal family. The main character of the novel, Isabel Montfort, a member of the elite social class, embodies the tensions among the various races, genders, and social classes in Puerto Rico. The novel depicts debates about Puerto Rico’s political status, with Isabel preferring independence while her husband opts for statehood. Significantly, the book begins on the day that US President Woodrow Wilson signs the Jones Act of 1917, which granted citizenship to Puerto Ricans.
Ferré’s second novel originally written in English was Eccentric Neighborhoods (1998). Like The House on the Lagoon, the novel is a family saga that explores modern Puerto Rican political and social history. The main character, Elvira Vernet, is descended from two prominent families that have contrary views of Puerto Rico’s political future. In Flight of the Swan (2001), her third English-language novel, the protagonist is Anna Pavlova, a Russian ballerina trapped in Puerto Rico as a result of the Russian Revolution. Rendered stateless by the revolution, Anna experiences a limbo akin to that of the Puerto Ricans before they were granted US citizenship in 1917. Lazos de sangre (Blood Ties,2010) explores the life of Rose Monroig, a member of Puerto Rico’s social elite. In addition to her literary pursuits, Ferré continued to teach at the University of Puerto Rico in the Department of Literature.
Ferré died at her home in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the age of seventy-seven on February 18, 2016. She is survived by her husband and three children.
Significance
Running counter to the island’s dominant linguistic mode, Ferré set a literary precedent in 1995 when she wrote and published The House on the Lagoon in English. Her novels reflect and reinterpret Puerto Rican history, while often engaging in the most controversial debate in Puerto Rico, the future of the island’s political status with the United States. Ferré’s fiction—suffused with references to Puerto Rico’s twentieth-century historical experience, Magical Realism, and feminist thought—made her one of the leading female authors in contemporary Latin American literature.
Bibliography
Ferré, Rosario. The House on the Lagoon. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995.
Henao, Eda B. The Colonial Subject’s Search for Nation, Culture, and Identity in the Works of Julia Alvarez, Rosario Ferré, and Ana Lydia Vega. Edwin Mellen Press, 2003.
Lindsay, Claire. Locating Latin American Women Writers: Cristina Peri Rossi, Rosario Ferré, Albalucia Angel, and Isabel Allende. Peter Lang, 2003.
Ortega, Julio. “Postmodernism in Latin America.” Postmodernist Fiction in Europe and Latin America. Edited by Theo D’haen and Hans Bertens, Rodopi, 1988.
Rivera, Carmen S. Kissing the Mango Tree: Puerto Rican Women Rewriting American Literature. Arte Público Press, 2002.
Weber, Bruce. "Rosario Ferré, Writer Who Examined Puerto Rican Identity, Dies at 77." The New York Times, 21 Feb. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/books/rosario-ferre-writer-who-examined-puerto-rican-identity-dies-at-77.html. Accessed 3 Sept. 2024.