Rosario Ferrй

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Rosario Ferré

• Sweet Diamond Dust
• (Plume, 1996)

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A little bit about her life

• Rosario Ferré was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in
  1938.
• She received her MA in Hispanic American and
  Peninsular literature from the University of
  Puerto Rico (1982), and her PhD from the
  University of Maryland (1987).
• Ferré was born into a privileged family but not
  wealthy she and her brother studied in private
  schools, and her parents paid for her studies in
  American universities so that she could speak
  English like a native.
• When she finished her BA, Ferré married a
  businessman, Benigno Trigo González. This
  marriage ended in a divorce more than a decade
  later. They had three children Rosario Lorenza,
  Benigno, and Luis Alfredo.

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A little bit about her life

• When she was studying at the University of Puerto
  Rico, she met her second husband a Latin
  American literature professor and Mexican writer,
  José Aguilar Mora. They got divorced after a few
  years of marriage.
• Later, when she was studying at the University of
  Maryland, she found her identity as a literary
  critic, as a short story writer, and as a woman.
  She met her third husband, Puerto Rican architect
  Agustín Costa Quintano.
• Ferré returned to the island with Costa Quintano,
  and established their permanent residence.

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A little bit about her literary work

• Ferré has written in all types of genres poetry,
  narrative, and essay.
• She is known for expressing her critical
  viewpoints of Puerto Rican society in her works.
• Her first poems, short stories, and critical
  essays were published in a journal entitled Zona
  carga y descarga. In fact, she directed this
  journal between 1972 and 1974.
• The following link shows her extensive literary
  work link.
• She won the Liberatur Prix price in Frankfurt,
  Germany (1992).
• She was nominated for the National Book Price in
  1995.
• In 1996 she was an honorary guest during the
  Grinzane Cavour price festivities in Turin,
  Italy.
• She received an Honorary Degree from Brown
  University in 1997.

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More about her literary work

• Since she began writing in 1970, Ferré has fought
  to foster womens participation in the literary
  field.
• She personally knows the difficulties that women
  writers experience in regards to publishing
  houses, literary criticism, and public in
  general.
• According to her, all these obstacles are even
  harder to overcome when it comes to Puerto
  Ricoand Spanish America overallbecause womens
  social roles are still very traditional.
• Although Puerto Rico is part of the US, its
  Hispanic heritage and culture continue dominating
  the relationships among men and women Puerto
  Rican women have political freedom but lack
  social and cultural freedom.

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Themes

• The problems women face at the various levels of
  the Puerto Rican stratified society.
• Conflicts of social class and racial
  discrimination.
• The woman as a writer her characteristics,
  possibilities, and limitations.
• Puerto Rican history Ferré has always been
  fascinated by the reconstruction of the past
  because, according to her, the roots of the
  present times are found in the past. She also
  believes that, despite its injustices, this past,
  vanished world had values that are worth to
  recover.

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Sweet Diamond Dust (Maldito amor). Ferré borrowed
her novels title from a song by Juan Morel
Campos, a Puerto Rican composer.
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Who was Juan Morel Campos?

• Morel Campos was the most prolific composer from
  the 19th century.
• Ferré borrowed the title of this Morel Camposs
  song for her novel because the conflicts that are
  narrated in the novel started to take place
  towards the end of the 19th century/beginning of
  the 20th century.
• Sweet Diamond Dust begins with an evocation of
  the Puerto Rico from the beginning of the 20th
  century. It was during this time that the
  economic collapse took place the previous social
  class system (with landowners at the top of the
  pyramid) started to disappear, and a new
  capitalist social class, dominated by US
  companies, emerged.

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Bibliography

• Chang-Rodriguez, Raquel and Malva E. Filer
  (eds.). Voces de Hispanoamérica. Antología
  literaria. Thomson Canada, 2004.
• Hintz, Suzanne S., La palabra, según Rosario
  Ferré. http//www.ensayistas.org/filosofos/puerto
  rico/ferre/introd.htm