Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera

Juana Mercedes Cabello Llosa (Moquegua, February 7, 1845 - Lima, October 12, 1909), better known as Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera, was a writer Peruvian Influenced by the current of positivism and naturalism, she was the initiator of the Peruvian realist novel. She wrote six novels of social content and critical intention, the most successful being Blanca Sol (1888), The consequences (1890) and The conspirator (1892). She also wrote numerous articles and essays published in the Peruvian press, on literary and social topics; She especially advocated for the emancipation of women, which is why she is among the first feminists in her country.

Biography

Born in the city of Moquegua into a landowning family with old colonial roots, she was the daughter of the landowner Gregorio Cabello Zapata, and Mercedes Llosa y Mendoza. Her father was the great-grandson of the counts of Cumbres Altas. Her mother was the daughter of Mariano de la Llosa y Vizcarra, a Moqueguano magistrate who was president of the Constituent Congress of 1827.

Much is unknown about his early years. He had an excellent education from his father and his uncle who in the 1930s had traveled through France, bringing back a respectable library. Mercedes received lessons with private teachers who taught her French well, which is why later she could always quickly find out about the most recent literary trends in France, with model authors such as Honoré de Balzac and Émile Zola.

At the age of 22 he moved to Lima, where he lived in the house of an uncle, who was the senior cosmographer of the Republic. At the age of 24 (1866) she married the doctor Urbano Carbonera, who brought her closer to science and positivism. But the marriage was unhappy and she had no children; Her husband later became a gambler and Don Juan type. They separated and he went to live in Chincha.

In Lima, Mercedes took an active part in the literary world then imbued with romanticism and actively collaborated in newspapers and magazines using the pseudonym Enriqueta Pradel, before daring to use her own name. Although she began writing verses, she quickly moved on to writing essays in favor of women's emancipation.

She was incorporated into the Ateneo de Lima and attended the gatherings of the Argentine Juana Manuela Gorriti where she learned the art of novelization, that is, writing novels. If Gorriti was known for her romanticism, Cabello de Carbonera abandoned this school to cultivate naturalism and realism. In his essay The Modern Novel he advocated realism because it admitted the psychology of the characters, a tendency that he fully embraced in his novel The Conspirator (1892), a satire of acting. policy of the leader Nicolás de Piérola, who shortly after became constitutional president of Peru. Her novel Blanca Sol condemned the materialism of that time. It was so controversial that she offended her old teacher Gorriti who was much more subtle in her criticism of society. She had to go into exile in Chile and Argentina, although for brief periods.

Like Turner's Clorinda Matto, Cabello was very little understood in her time and was the target of strong criticism from male authors, such as Juan de Arona and Ricardo Palma, criticism that intensified following the triumph of the revolution of 1895, which He elevated Piérola to power.

Such criticism affected him greatly, so he isolated himself, and if that were not enough, he began to suffer the consequences of syphilis that was infected by his own husband. This disease caused progressive paralysis, dementia and terrible sores, so she had to spend her last years in the Cercado Asylum in Lima, until she died in 1909.

His friend Teresa González de Fanning wrote his obituary in the newspaper El Comercio:

“You deserve Carbonera hair, as talented as a wretched woman,” he said. “After lusting the Peruvian lyrics with a bright and deep brain, he has died sadly in the asylum, not realizing that serious problem of the traffic of life by not being; without having a friendly hand, a loving look that would accompany her in the terrible trance.”

Works

Novels

• Sacrifice and reward (Lima, 1886), awarded by the Ateneo de Lima.
• Eleodora (Madrid, 1887), later consolidated in The consequences.
• The Loves of Hortensia (1886 and 1887)
• White Sun (1888, 1889 and 1894)
• The consequences (1890)
• The Conspirator (A Public Man's Autobiography) (1892 and 1898)

Tests

• Influence of the Beautiful Letters in the moral and material progress of the peoples (1887), awarded a gold medal by the Municipality of Lima.
• The realistic novel
• The modern novel (1892), awarded the “Rosa de Oro” in the inter-American essay contest promoted by the Literary Academy of Buenos Aires.
• Importance of literature
• Comparative study of the intelligence and beauty of women
• Improved education and social status of women
• The religion of humanity (1891)
• Count Leon Tolstoi (1894)