There are not few who define February as the month of love. Important ephemerides speak of publications, of the birth or the departure towards eternity of exalted poets, including Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda.
The literary world will also remember our Tula by the pseudonym La Peregrina, who was born on March 23, 1814 in Camagüey and would die precisely on February 1, 1873.
Short life for whom lived intensely and created a lot, nurturing Hispanic American literature with a wide and diverse work in terms of genre and themes.
This talented and passionate woman impacted Romanticism, one of the most deeply rooted movements in the history of literature, with the quality of her work, but I think that less has been said about her work as a journalist.
This is evidenced by the founding, in Havana in 1860, of the biweekly magazine, Álbum Cubano de lo Bueno y de lo Bello, which she also directed, from which the recurrence of the women’s press in Cuba intensified.
Only with a brief glance at the editorial profile of the first issue of said magazine, it is revealed how Avellaneda defends the rights of women.
It also includes sections such as Galería De Mujeres Celebres and it contains articles on fashionable female costumes, advising on how to wear more suitable dresses according to the weather, accompanied by reviews of wardrobe novelties in Europe and Havana.
On the other hand, she also published poetry dedicated to women and how she should enjoy spiritual delight and love for the country.
Album Cubano de lo Bueno y de lo Bello reached great popularity in the feminine society of Havana at the time, by providing a way of expressing their demands within the colonial system.
Despite having achieved celebrity in Cuba and Spain and being a candidate for the Royal Spanish Academy in 1853, due to her condition as a woman she suffered the humiliation of being rejected, because the seats of such a high institution were exclusively destined to the men.
The verses of Al Partir, one of his best-known works, are the proof that between the poet, the playwright and the journalist on February 1, 1853, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, the most famous Cuban writer of the XIX century, was leaving for eternity, La Peregrina, our Tula, but above all that the patriot.
