Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose: Translated from the Spanish by Lynette Yetter

By Adela Zamudio and Virginia Ayllón

Finalist for the 2023 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose is the first book in English showcasing the life and writings of Bolivia's most celebrated writer and

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fuente Fountain Books
• Release date: Aug 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9780984375684

Adela Zamudio

Adela Zamudio (1854-1928) is the most celebrated writer of Bolivia, where her birthday is a national holiday. Self- educated, she was the mother of feminism and women's education in Bolivia. She was an activist for women's right to vote, women's right to divorce, and for indigenous rights. Her Quechua-language literacy projects are credited with contributing to the success of indigenous uprisings.

Book preview

Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose. Translated from the Spanish by Lynette Yetter. Bilingual edition. Colorful acrylic and pencil portrait of Adela Zamudio, on orange background. Logo of Fuente Fountain Books.

PRAISE FOR ADELA ZAMUDIO: SELECTED POETRY & PROSE

We should all learn about Adela Zamudio, a major Latin American figure, by reading this timely book.

—Roberto González Echevarría

Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literature, Yale University

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Lynette Yetter has so brilliantly translated the poetry and prose of groundbreaking feminist poet Adela Zamudio, that this exquisite book reads as though it was written this morning, not a hundred years ago.

—Linda Segall Anable

Hollywood Studio Story Analyst

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Lynette Yetter's sensitive and powerful translation of Adela Zamudio's poetry and prose is a revelation that has found its perfect historical moment! The Bolivian writer's voice, lyrical, passionate, and vibrant, champions the dignity and rights of the marginalized, the persecuted, and the ‘invisible’ of her own time and place– and does so in a register that deeply resonates with our own. Zamudio's poetry, animated by vulnerability, empathy, and a steely drive to survive, insists on language as a source of resilience, idealism, and human connection.

—Lena Lencek

Professor of Russian and Humanities, Reed College

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Adela Zamudio speaks to the feminist heart — to all hearts — with piercing, timeless insight. With lyrical precision, the translation by Lynette Yetter captures the voice and soul of a woman who must cry out for social justice, no matter the pain or consequence.

—Gail Kinsey Hill

Journalist, Writer, and Advocate for Peace, Oregon

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Lynette Yetter’s translation of Adela Zamudio's poems and prose sings! Zamudio's odes to nature, feminist pronouncements, and revolutionary passages are adeptly and thoughtfully translated. Yetter's book provides a nuanced and thorough introduction to Zamudio's work.

—Claire Michie

Senior Director of Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving, Portland State University Foundation

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This selection documents the dawn of feminism and the struggle for the rights of workers and Indigenous peoples in Bolivia at the start of the twentieth century. As such, it is a valuable testimony by a courageous woman who faced down the patriarchal culture handed on to Bolivia from Spain and maintained by mining oligarchs and landowners. To read it is to witness a great awakening.

—Bruce Parker

Author of Ramadan in Summer

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"The literary world is celebrating the new work born from the virtuosic pen of Lynette Yetter, who has discerningly translated Zamudio's writings into English in the book entitled Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose. I have the high honor of maintaining a close friendship with Lynette, which has allowed me to get to know her strong literary qualities and tireless researching of the roots of Andean literature. Thank you, Lynette, for your new contribution to the literature of our culture and, above all, for the positive impact that this work will bring to our communities."

—Gina Galvez

Journalist, Lima, Peru

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Although Adela Zamudio has long been recognized as one of Bolivia's premier poets and the founder of the country's feminist movement, her work has typically only been accessible to Spanish speakers. Beautifully translated, with both passion and nuance, this jewel of a collection promises to make Adela Zamudio's poetry available to a whole new audience and in doing so expand readers' understanding of Latin American literary history. Those who speak both languages will particularly appreciate the dual language edition.

—Laura Arnold Leibman

Professor of English and Humanities, Reed College

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This is an excellent selection of Zamudio's work now available in English. Poet, writer, and educator Adela Zamudio is an outstanding figure in Bolivia's cultural and artistic history. A feminist forerunner, her work and stance transgressed the expectations and conventions of her time, emancipating the role of women in her society for years to come.

—Núria Vilanova

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor Department of World Languages and Cultures, American University

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"This bilingual Spanish-English edition of this selection of poetry and prose by Adela Zamudio (1854-1928) is great news for everyone interested in Bolivian and Latin American literature and women's writing at the turn of the last century. An important author of a number of poems, short stories, and the epistolary novel Intimates (1913), Zamudio is recognized in Bolivia as a foundational writer and trailblazer of feminism in her country. The inclusion in this book of a prologue by Virginia Ayllón, a Bolivian writer and critic who has studied Zamudio's work in depth, constitutes an undeniable contribution to understanding the context in which Zamudio wrote, as well as the author's ethical and aesthetic proposals.

With this translation into English by Lynette Yetter, the English-speaking public can access essential texts by this writer from Cochabamba, who in her poetry and prose reflected on the situation of women, criticized the luxury and frivolity of church representatives, advocated for the rights of the Indigenous population and pondered the scope, limits, and paradoxes of humanity's dreams of progress.

Lynette Yetter first encountered Adela Zamudio in Bolivia. Yetter reads Zamudio, listens to her, dialogues with her, and in a generous gesture, allows her work to cross the borders of nations, continents, and languages. Now Zamudio can reach a new reading public, which will undoubtedly be enriched by the rhythm of her poems and by contact with her lucid and often ironic reflections."

—Lucía Stecher

Professor of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, Universidad Alberto Hurtado

Chile

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"Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose, a bilingual edition of selected literary and intellectual work of Bolivian writer Adela Zamudio (1854-1928), has been long-awaited and is worth celebrating. It constitutes a breakthrough for both the critical tradition and the reconfiguration of Latin American literary histories.

With a vast literary and intellectual contribution, and major achievements in terms of feminist reclamation, Adela Zamudio’s work remains somewhat unknown. The reason behind such obscurity lies in the difficulties accessing her work—to a great extent, published posthumously – and the historical imprecision around her texts. Such opacity is symptomatic of women’s precarious place in literary and cultural traditions, which highlights the greatest value of this work.

By bringing together her poetry, essays, and narrative productions in both English and Spanish, this work enables us to overcome the traditional pigeon-holing of literature by women as a sub-category of a nation's history, in which it is relegated to marginal or invisible places. Moreover, this book creates the conditions of possibility for illuminating the value of Zamudio’s contribution beyond a pedagogical or moralizing agenda, and beyond its traditional linkage to children’s literature, which has made more controversial facets of her texts, in ethical-aesthetic, intellectual, and political terms, invisible.

This bilingual edition fosters the critical expansion of Latin American literary and cultural histories by incorporating the silenced voices of writers like Zamudio. At the same time, it encourages delving into the complex feminist imaginaries and agendas mobilized by Zamudio’s works, especially by considering their nuances, strategies of power acquisition, confrontations, and negotiations with the patriarchal system in rule during her time."

—Luz Ainaí Morales-Pino

Professor of Spanish American Literature, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

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"Lynette Yetter’s translation of the most representative pieces of Adela Zamudio's work allows the Anglophone reader access to an all-time key figure in Bolivian poetry. Indeed, the selection is an invitation to discover a unique female voice in the literature of this country. In Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose, a particularly acute and critical spirit shines through, questioning the place of women in Bolivia at the turn of the twentieth century. Likewise, in speeches, such as the one delivered in La Paz during the Poetic Olympics of 1915, Adela Zamudio introduces herself as the authoritative literary theorist that she is, and reflects on poetic creation. Complex and multifaceted, this woman from Cochabamba has also become a figurehead for current feminism and has continued to inspire several generations of women.

For all this and more, this book represents a magnificent introduction to the writer and her work for readers outside of the Spanish-speaking world. Carefully translated into English, these texts move between poetry and prose and open up new eyes to, and new readings of, a thinker who is already an indisputable classic, and therefore remains absolutely current."

—Kurmi Soto

Editor and Researcher, La Paz, Bolivia

Adela Zamudio crowned with gold laurels

Adela Zamudio crowned with gold laurels. Photo courtesy of Fundación Zamudio Torrico, Cochabamba, Bolivia

ADELA ZAMUDIO: SELECTED POETRY & PROSE

Bilingual Edition

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Translated from the Spanish by

Lynette Yetter

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Prologue by

Virginia Ayllón

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Logo de Fuente Fountain Books

FUENTE FOUNTAIN BOOKS

Portland, Oregon

2022

Published by Fuente Fountain Books

1631 NE Broadway Street #737, Portland, Oregon 97232

www.fuentefountainbooks.com

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© 2022 by Lynette Yetter

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All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise — without the prior written permission from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief passages in a review.

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Spanish language editor: Tania Cano

English language editor: Michael Favala Goldman

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Zamudio, Adela (1854-1928)

Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose

/ Translated from the Spanish by Lynette Yetter

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ISBN-10 0-9843756-8-6 (ebook)

ISBN-13 978-0-9843756-8-4

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ISBN-10 0-9843756-7-8 (pbk : alk. paper)

ISBN-13 978-0-9843756-7-7

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1. Literature -Women -South America -Andes -Bolivia -Music -Poetry. 2. Literature -Women -South America -Andes -Bolivia -Fiction. 3. Literature -Women -South America -Andes -Bolivia -Non Fiction. 4. Translation Literature -Women -South America -Andes -Bolivia -Poetry. 5. Translation Literature -Women -South America -Andes -Bolivia -Fiction. 6. Translation Literature -Women -South America -Andes -Bolivia -Non Fiction. 7. Title.

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First edition, United States of America

For the realization of the just world

imagined by Adela Zamudio

CONTENTS

Prologue

Preface

How this book is arranged

Translator’s Introduction

POETRY

Yesterday Afternoon

To a Suicide

The Violet

Springtime

To a Seagull (A Song)

To a Tree

Masquerade

Born a Man

Progress

Pilgrimage (part I)

Pilgrimage (part II)

Pilgrimage (part III)

Pilgrimage (part IV)

Pilgrimage (part V)

Clouds and Wind

Poet

Fragment

Whither Goest Thou?

End of the Century

Iron Crazy Woman (part I)

Iron Crazy Woman (part II)

Iron Crazy Woman (part III)

Iron Crazy Woman (part IV)

Iron Crazy Woman (part V)

Iron Crazy Woman (part VI)

Iron Crazy Woman (Part VII)

Iron Crazy Woman (part VIII)

Iron Crazy Woman (part IX)

Iron Crazy Woman (part X)

Iron Crazy Woman (part XI)

PROSE

The Poetic Olympics

Keynote Speech

Yesterday’s Meeting

Afterword

Acknowledgments

About the Author and Contributors

About Fuente Fountain Books

En alabanza a Adela Zamudio: poesía & prosa seleccionadas

ADELA ZAMUDIO Poesía & Prosa Selecionadas

Prólogo

Prefacio

Cómo está organizado este libro

Introducción de la traductora

POESÍA

Ayer en la tarde

A un suicida

La violeta

Primavera

A una golondrina (Canción)

A un árbol

Baile de máscaras

Nacer hombre

Progreso

Peregrinando (parte I)

Peregrinando (parte II)

Peregrinando (parte III)

Peregrinando (parte IV)

Peregrinando (parte V)

Nubes y vientos

Poeta

Fragmento

Quo vadis?

Fin de siglo

Loca de hierro (parte I)

Loca de hierro (parte II)

Loca de hierro (parte III)

Loca de hierro (parte IV)

Loca de hierro (parte V)

Loca de hierro (parte VI)

Loca de hierro (parte VII)

Loca de hierro (parte VIII)

Loca de hierro (parte IX)

Loca de hierro (parte X)

Loca de hierro (parte XI)

PROSA

Discurso de Adela Zamudio, Mantenedora de los Juegos Florales

La reunión de ayer

Epílogo

Agradecimientos

Sobre la autora y colaboradores

Sobre Fuente Fountain Books

Notes

PROLOGUE

Adela Zamudio Translated into English

Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose is a thought-provoking translation of Adela Zamudio's work into English by Lynette Yetter. Adela Zamudio (1854-1928) is Bolivia’s most important female writer. She wrote during the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s when Bolivia was constructing itself as a new nation. At that time, debate was primarily about who had citizenship. Two majority sectors of Bolivian society were excluded: women and Indigenous peoples. Bolivia was built based on the patriarchal and racist structures of colonial society. This stratified societal structure aroused rebellions by women and Indigenous peoples. Due to the persistent discriminatory foundation of society, rebellions continue to this day. It is in this context that Adela Zamudio wrote her novel, stories, poems, and essays.

Zamudio lived at a time when liberal ideology, anticlerical thought, and a nascent indigenismo were central in national debates. Along with this, the feminist movement in Bolivia was born post-World War