Juana Manuela Gorriti Zuviria (15 June 1818 – 6 November 1892) was an Argentine writer with extensive political and literary links to Bolivia and Peru. She held the position of First Lady of Bolivia from 1848 to 1855.
With the publication of La quena (1851), Gorriti became recognized as the earliest novelist in what would become Argentina. In La quena, Gorriti challenged the notion of poverty, ignorance, tyranny, and the oppression of women, writing, "A day shall come in which man's science will discover those treasures; but by then men will be free and equal, and they shall use wealth to serve humanity! The reign of worries and despotism will have ended, and only man's genius will rule the world, it reside upon the head of a European, or upon that of an Indian." Gorriti's commitment to women's issues sparked the interest of both women and men, including Abel Delgado. His essay, "La educación social de la mujer", ("The Social Education of Woman," 1892) discussed male and female spheres and justified women's participation in law and politics.
Biography
Juana Manuela Gorriti was born on 15 June 1818, in Rosario de la Frontera, in the province of Salta in the north of Argentina. She came from a wealthy upper-class family and attended a convent school when she was eight. She was born to José Ignacio de Gorriti and Feleciana Zuviria. Her father was a politician and soldier, and signed the Argentine Declaration of Independence on 9 July 1816. She was also the niece of the infamous guerrilla . Her family supported the Unitarians during the politically challenging era of Juan Manuel de Rosas, a conservative governor of Buenos Aires Province. In 1831, when Gorriti was thirteen, the federal caudillo Facundo Quiroga forced Gorriti and much of her family into exile.
Goritti's family settled in Tarija, Bolivia, where she met her future husband, Manuel Isidro Belzú, who was a captain in the Bolivian Army at the time. They married when she was fifteen, and they had two daughters. As his career advanced, their marriage suffered, and he abandoned her in 1842 after nine years together. Gorriti did not receive the divorce papers until fourteen years later, after his assassination. After her return to Argentina, she died on 6 November 1892, in Buenos Aires at the age of 74.
By organizing and hosting her tertulias, Gorriti provided a great opportunity for female writers to come together and discuss literature, progress, and the progress of women. Many of the attendees would later go on to write more about these subjects, including Teresa González de Fanning, who founded an enlightened women's movement.
Women's rights
Gorriti was an ardent feminist before the term itself was invented, and her dedication to women's rights showed in many of her journals. Through her writings, she instructed and inspired women to take on the gender roles more commonly found in Europe and North America. Through ‘The Argentina Dawn’, Gorriti addressed issues such as women’s access to education and the importance of redefining domestic roles. In her article 'The Future of Women,' she argued for integrating women into intellectual and public life, advocating for equality through education and social reform. She wanted women to be heard, to educate themselves, and not be afraid to go against social norms. Gorriti’s narratives frequently explored the intersections of race and gender, shedding light on the layered oppressions faced by women in 19th-century Latin America [7] In works such as ‘El Lucero de Maná’, she portrayed characters navigating societal constraints tied to gender and ethnicity, emphasizing the need for inclusivity in the feminist movement. Gorriti’s works also critiqued societal norms and cultural expectations surrounding women. For instance, in her writings on fashion and societal pressures, Gorriti questioned the emphasis on superficial appearances as a measure of female worth. Her essays often discussed intellectual achievements as the true indicators of women’s progress and emancipation.
First Lady of Bolivia
Manuel Isidoro Belzú, husband to Gorriti, went on to become president of Bolivia in 1848. He survived an assassination attempt two years later and ruled for a further five years until retiring in 1855, having sponsored his son-in-law, Jorge Córdova, to succeed him. Córdova was overthrown in a coup d'état two years later and was succeeded by José María Linares, who in turn was ousted by his Minister of War, José María de Achá in 1861. Achá survived for three years until replaced, through another coup, by General Mariano Melgarejo. Belzú raised an army against Melgarejo who, according to unconfirmed rumours, invited him to the presidential palace and shot him during a fake embrace. He died on 23 March 1865.
Battlefield nurse
In 1866, the Spanish Navy shelled ports on Peru's and Chile's coastlines, including the port of Lima, where Gorriti served as a battlefield nurse.
Literary contributions
Gorriti left Bolivia for Peru, where her literary life would take off. When she initially arrived in Peru she had no financial support or resources. Gorriti founded an all-girls school in Bolivia, where she dedicated her life to teaching and writing. This was followed by La oasis de la vida (The Oasis of Life), a melodramatic novel written in the 1880s. La tierra natal (The Native Land), her last major work, published in 1889, relates a physical journey through northern Argentina, back to the places where she had lived over the course of her lifetime, as well as a voyage back through her memories of the people and events she had known and experienced along the way.
Two of her most famous short stories are La hija del mazorquero and El lucero de manantial; both are melodramatic tales with a strong anti-Rosista political message. These are powerful examples of how literature intertwines with political critique. Both works are set in melodrama, a hallmark of Gorriti's style, and serve as allegories for Argentina's national identity during the controversial regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas (1829–1852).
In La hija del mazorquero, Gorriti critiques the brutal methods and authoritarian governance associated with Rosas, particularly through the depiction of characters tied to the "mazorca" (Rosas' secret police). Similarly, El lucero de manantial uses symbolic imagery and dramatic narrative to show the corruption under Rosas' rule. Gorriti was not only a literary figure but also a voice of resistance.
Gorriti also founded the newspaper The Dawn of Argentina (La Alborada del Plata) with fellow poet Numa Pompilio Llona.