Adela Zamudio

Adela Zamudio was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 1854, to upper-class parents. Her father, Don Adolfo Zamudio, was an engineer of Basque ancestry who had emigrated to Bolivia from Argentina. Her mother, Doña Modesta Rivero de Zamudio, was the daughter of a wealthy La Paz mine owner, José Claudio Rivero, who employed Adolfo. ==Career==

Zamudio published her first poem, Two Roses, when she was 15, but did not publish her first book until 20 years later. In 1926 she was awarded the Bolivian Crown of Distinction award. Her animal trope to critique society was later used by George Orwell in Animal Farm (1945). In 1920, Zamudio's call for girls' education was answered with the opening of the first public high school for women, which was later named Liceo Adela Zamudio. Zamudio was appointed principal. Zamudio continued teaching, training teachers, and promoting women's communities until she was forced to retire in 1925. In 1926, the president of Bolivia crowned Zamudio with gold laurel leaves to honor her as a thinker in a large ceremony. Zamudio died on June 2, 1928, in Cochabamba. == Activism ==

Throughout her teaching career, Zamudio conducted literary campaigns in Quechua-speaking mining communities, where rich mine owners (like her own grandfather had been) kept indigenous miners and their families illiterate. Her biographer and grand-niece Gabriela Taborga de Villarroel credits this work with contributing the solidarity that helped them in future insurrections and with training the next generation of great Bolivian thinkers. Her poetry and fiction dealt primarily with the social struggles of Bolivia, often with a romantic feeling invoked towards revolution. Non-religious, her writing was highly intellectual. Her work Quo Vadis, caused a stir amongst upper-class women and clerics, increasing animosity towards her work. Her struggles with religion caused her to choose to no longer teach religion at the school she directed and the League of Catholic Women publicly condemned her. Zamudio also wrote articles for publications and newspapers, promoting democratic reforms and women's rights, including the legalization of divorce. ==Legacy==

Zamudio's family republished her poetry in 1942. In 1955, Augusto Guzman wrote the first biography about Zamudio. In 1977, Zamudio's grand-niece, Gabriela Taborga de Villarroel published another, La verdadera Adela Zamudio, which focuses more on her life using archival and family materials. In 2018, Virginia Ayllón published a more critical book El pensamiento de Adela Zamudio, which aimed to dispel misinformation within the popular understanding about Zamudio. While there is academic analysis of Zamudio's impact, it had been mostly in Spanish and circulated in Bolivia, until Lynette Yetter's 2020 Reed College Master's thesis, Domination and Justice in the Allegorical Story "La reunión de ayer" by Adela Zamudio (1854-1928), Bolivia. Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose earned a Kirkus Starred review and was a BookLife for Publishers Weekly Editor's Pick. On November 2, 1989, the Confederación de Instituciones Femeninas ("CONIF") erected a statue in honor of Zamudio in Chochabamba. A plaza in the Sopocachi neighborhood of La Paz was named for Adela Zamudio, and her granite bust by sculptor Vítor Zapana was placed in the center of Plaza Adela Zamudio in 1979. In 1980, Bolivia's first female president, Lidia Gueiler, declared Zamudio's birthday, October 11, a national holiday. It is celebrated in Bolivia as the "Day of Bolivian Women." In 1994, a crater on Venus was named Zamudio in honor of Adela Zamudio. Zamudio is also the namesake of an ant, Hylomyrma adelae. Zamudio is a featured figure on Judy Chicago's installation piece The Dinner Party, being represented as one of the 999 names on the Heritage Floor. She is in the place setting dedicated to Virginia Woolf. ==Works==

• Ensayos poéticos (Poetic Texts) (1887) • Violeta o la princesa azul (Violeta or the Blue Princess) (1890) • El castillo negro (The Black Castle) (1906) • Intimas (Close Friends) (1913) • Ráfagas (Squalls) (1914) • Peregrinando (Travelling) (1943) • Cuentos breves (Short Novels) (1943) • Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose, translated from the Spanish by Lynette Yetter, bilingual edition (Fuente Fountain Books 2022) (2023 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, finalist) ==Notes==