Rosalia de Castro

Rosalía de Castro was born on February 24, 1837 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. She was the daughter of a priest and a seamstress. She had a difficult childhood and married Manuel Murguía, a historian and journalist, in 1858. She had seven children with him, but only four survived. She published her first poems in magazines and newspapers and won a prize for her novel La hija del mar (The Daughter of the Sea) in 1859. She became friends with other young writers, such as Eduardo Pondal and Manuel Curros Enríquez, who formed part of the Generation of '98, a group of writers who reacted against the political and cultural decadence of Spain. She published her first book of poetry in Galician, Cantares gallegos [ gl] (Galician Songs), on May 17, 1863. This date is now known as the Día das Letras Galegas (Galician Literature Day), and commemorates Rosalía's achievement by dedicating every year this special day to a different writer who must also write in Galician. She followed it with other collections, such as Follas novas [ gl] (New Leaves), which are considered as the first examples of modern Galician literature. She also wrote novels and essays in Spanish on topics such as education, feminism, social justice and history. She suffered from cancer and depression and died on July 15, 1885 in Padrón at the age of 48 . She is regarded as one of the most important and influential poets and writers of Spanish literature in the 19th century. She is also remembered as a pioneer of feminism and social work in Galicia .