{"id":41,"date":"2014-07-02T18:13:44","date_gmt":"2014-07-02T18:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eladd.org\/en\/?page_id=41"},"modified":"2026-02-15T22:43:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T22:43:44","slug":"soledad-acosta-de-samper","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/eladd.org\/en\/popular-authors\/soledad-acosta-de-samper\/","title":{"rendered":"SOLEDAD ACOSTA DE SAMPER"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Soledad Acosta de Samper<\/h2>\n

(1833- 1913)
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Translation by Yesenia Olmedo<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” bg_style=”repeat” css=”.vc_custom_1762916673374{padding-top: 35px !important;background-position: 0 0 !important;background-repeat: repeat !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”” el_class=”autoras__texto”]\"AcostadeSamper\"<\/p>\n

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Soledad Acosta de Samper is one of the greatest figures in 19th-century Latin American literature. She was a prolific writer, historian, traveler, and tireless cultural promoter. She dedicated herself to improving American societies through female education, the cornerstone of which was knowledge of history and local customs.
\nLike many of her fellow authors, she belonged to a notable patriotic family: her father, Joaquin Acosta, was a military man, hero, and historian. Years later, she married and raised a family with Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Samper, one of Colombia’s most prominent politicians and diplomats.
\nHer mother, Caroline Kemble Rou, was born in Jamaica and married Jos\u00e9 Acosta in New York. This foreign influence led Soledad to learn multiple languages and about varied cultures from a very young age. Acosta first attended school in Bogot\u00e1 and later studied in Canada, England, and Paris.
\nShe married Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Samper in 1855. The couple lived in Europe from 1858 to 1862. Starting in 1859, Soledad began contributing to the American and European press. Her first works appeared under the pseudonym \u201cAndina\u201d, but throughout her career she would use others such as \u201cAldebar\u00e1n\u201d, \u201cBertilda\u201d, \u201cRenato\u201d, and \u201cOri\u00f3n\u201d. Acosta mainly published in the Biblioteca de Se\u00f1oritas and El Mosaico. Her main biographers, critics, and editors, Monserrat Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez, Carolina Alzate and Flor Mar\u00eda Rodr\u00edguez-Arenas, considered this the first stage of her work. From 1859 to 1863, she produced small contributions for magazines, bibliographies, translations, commentaries, and articles.
\nThis period also included a sojourn in Lima. Acosta and her husband met Alejandro Villota, one of the directors of the newspaper El Comercio, in Paris. Villota subsequently offered Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda the position of chief editor. Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda and Acosta left for Lima at the end of 1862, a time when the city was a larger, more prosperous, and peaceful place than Bogot\u00e1, due to the success of the guano business. After taking over as editor of the newspaper, Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda launched its cultural supplement La Revista Americana where Acosta actively collaborated. Twelve issues were published between January 5 and June 20 of 1863. As part of the supplement, Acosta published the Spanish translation of the French text Elements of general hygiene by Dr. Luis Crubeilhier, as well as the bibliography section. She also took over the direction of \u201cRevista femenina\u201d, which she introduced in this way: \u201cIf on all English steamships, as on European railways, there is always a lounge or a carriage or compartment reserved for ladies where no man can enter, why shouldn’t there be in a newspaper such as this Magazine a place where ladies can talk face-to-face, without risk of being interrupted by the uglier sex? (45-46)”.
\nThat said, the opening of this literary space did not restrict topics to traditional feminine themes like fashion and chronicles from social salons, but instead opened the door to other areas such as art, reading, and science.
\nThe couple then returned to Bogot\u00e1 in mid-1863. This marked the beginning of the second stage of Acosta\u2019s work, in which romantic fiction would predominate. In this period, American settings blend with European memories together, with an intimate tone showing how female protagonists were subjected to the male laws that governed societies.
\nThese novels and stories continued to be published in the Colombian press. Years later, a compilation volume appeared in Belgium titled Novelas y cuadros de la vida sudamericana in 1869. It included: Dolores (1867), published the same year as Mar\u00eda by Jorge Isaacs, both of which address the topic of sick women; Teresa la lime\u00f1a (1868), inspired by Acosta\u2019s experience in Lima; El coraz\u00f3n de la mujer; La perla del Valle; Ilusi\u00f3n y realidad; Luz y sombra; Tipos sociales; and Un crimen.
\nThis volume included a prologue by Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Samper, who, in a clear position of patronage, wrote: \u201cFor my part, I wanted my wife to add her efforts and always humble contributions to the common work of literature that our young republic is forming, in order to maintain, in some small way, the tradition of her father’s patriotism…\u201d (4, Novellas y cuadros, 2006). Acosta was raised and came of age inside the confines of a disciplined and domestic upbringing that explains her submissive stance. However, as the years passed, her pen would reveal her true talent, along with her independence.
\nIn 1872, two of Acosta\u2019s four daughters died in an epidemic, and just three years later, her husband was imprisoned. These tragic events would darken Acosta\u2019s life.
\nIt was in this period that she produced her well recieved novel, called Una holandesa en Am\u00e9rica.
\nIn 1878, the third stage of Acosta\u2019s literary career began with the founding and direction of the magazine La Mujer (1878-1881) which would be followed by others such as, La Familia (1884-1885), El Domingo de la Familia Cristiana (1889-1890), El Domingo (1898-1899), and Lecturas para el Hogar (1905-1906). She was widowed in 1888, and from this year forward, she was accompanied only by her youngest daughter. Her creative work was incessant, focusing primarily on historical research. She wrote Biograf\u00edas de hombres ilustres o notables relativas a la \u00e9poca del descubrimiento, conquista y colonizaci\u00f3n de la parte de Am\u00e9rica denominada actualmente E.E.U.U. de Colombia (1883), Los piratas en Cartagena: cr\u00f3nicas hist\u00f3rico novelescas (1886), La mujer en la sociedad moderna (1895) which she justified with the question: \u201cIf a good example is the most powerful weapon to promote civilization, why should Hispanic American women, whose education has been so neglected, not be presented with excellent examples of active, hardworking women who have made their own way…?” (IX).
\nThe turn of the century arrived with an abundance of projects: Biograf\u00eda del general Joaqu\u00edn Acosta: pr\u00f3cer de la independencia, historiador, ge\u00f3grafo, hombre cient\u00edfico y fil\u00e1ntropo (1901), Aventuras de un espa\u00f1ol entre los indios de las Antillas (1905), Catecismo de historia de Colombia (1908), Biblioteca hist\u00f3rica (1909), and Biograf\u00eda del general Antonio Nari\u00f1o (1910).
\nDespite the restrictions that this time period imposed on literary women, it is undeniable that Acosta managed to gain access to the intellectual circles of her country and of the Americas. She was named a delegate from Colombia to the Congress of Americanists in La R\u00e1bida (Spain) and in 1892, to the commemorative congresses of the IV Anniversary of Colombus’ arrival in America. Acosta became an honorary member of the Asociaci\u00f3n de Escritores y Artistas de Madrid, the Academia Nacional de la Historia de Caracas, the Sociedad de Historia Nacional de Bogot\u00e1, and, posthumously, she was recognized as a member of the Academia Colombiana de la Historia.
\nM\u00f3nica C\u00e1rdenas MorenoUniversit\u00e9 de Bertagne-Sud\/Ameriber http:\/\/labellalimena.blogspot.com\/<\/p>\n

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