1. Select one poet and discuss the significant aspects that you find in her work, contrasting them with he work of the other poets . For Alfonsina Storni include the essay “The Immigrant Girl” as part of your analysis.
Some aspect to consider:
– Alfonsina Storni was a working class immigrant to Argentina. Julia de Burgos is part of the Puerto Rican diaspora consequence the country’s colonial condition. Coming from a rural remote area in Chile, Gabriela Mistral traveled around the world as an emblem of Spanish American culture.
– Gabriela Mistral and Julia de Burgos were teachers and Alfonsina Storni a factory worker, an actress and a journalist.
– Alfonsina Storni rejected the prevailing poetic canon from “Modernismo,” a literary movement related to art nouveau aesthetics and French Symbolist poetry. In most poems from “Modernismo” women were objectified as a motherly peasant or a sensual femme fatale, projections of male erotic fantasies.
– An essential aspect of Gabriela Mistral’s public persona was her role as educator. Her earlier poetry that we are reading emphasizes women’s role as mothers responsible education at home.
– Julia de Burgos fervently advocated for the independence of Puerto Rico. In New York City she experienced the life of a Puerto Rican living as a discriminated minority.