salome ureña (poeta)

Salomé Ureña de Henríquez (October 21, 1850-1897) or better known as Salomé Ureña was a popular poet and pedagogist of Dominican Republic. Born in Santo Domingo to Don Nicolás Ureña de Mendoza and Doña Gregoria Díaz de León in 1850, she is today considered the central figure of lyrical poetry of the XIX century and an innovator of the femine education of her country.

[edit] Biography
Salomé Ureña was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in 1850. She was the daughter of writer Nicolás Ureña de Mendoza and Gregoria Díaz, who gave her daughter her first lessons of education. At an early age Salomé was well influenced by literature. Her father taught her classic works of Spanish and French writers that helped her develop her own career.
She began publishing her first works at the age of seventeen and soon became known for her spontaneity and tenderness. Later on she became more tragic and sad with poems such as "En horas de angustia" (In Hours of Anguish) or very patriotic and strong in poems such as "La Patria" (The Mother country) and "Ruinas" (Ruins). Later on she would include more themes of her life in her poetry, such as "Mi Pedro" (dedicated to her son, perhaps her most tender poem), "La llegada del invierno" (The Arrival of the Winter), and a book that became popular called "Steven", where she talks about her motherland, her children, her husband, the plants and flowers, and the island itself.
At the age of twenty she married Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal, himself a writer, and an important figure in politics. She had four children with him: Francisco, Pedro, Max y Camila Henríquez Ureña. Their children would later become highly respected figures of the mid and late XX century as writers, philosophers, poets, and critics of the arts.
Around 1881 Salomé was encouraged by her husband to open the first center of superior education for young women in Dominican Republic named "Instituto de Señoritas" and within five years the first six female teachers were graduated from the Institute something uncommon at the time.
Salomé Ureña died in 1897 due to complications with tuberculosis. She was 47 years old.