Pilar de Valderrama: a woman's voice in Spanish literature
Pilar de Valderrama
Poet and playwright Pilar de Valderrama (1889-1979) was the author of five books of poetry (Las Piedras de Horeb, Huerto Cerrado, Esencias, Holocausto and Espacio) and three theatrical titles that were never performed on stage, as well as from an autobiographical text published after his death, Sí, soy Guiomar. Memories of my life (1981), with a prologue by Jorge Guillén, which also included more than thirty letters from the extensive epistolary that Antonio Machado had addressed to her, and which publicly revealed her secret relationship with the consecrated poet.
In recent years, her own poetic and theatrical creation has been rescued for literary studies, which integrates her with full rights among that group of Spanish women who during the 1920s and 1930s collaborated with their creative activity in the incipient process of female emancipation in Spain. Also her contribution to the currents of theatrical renewal through the launch of "Teatro Íntimo Fantasio" (1929-1930), based in her house on Calle Pintor Rosales, of which she was, along with her husband, main promoter and architect. “Fantasio” has been considered one of the most interesting chamber theaters in pre-republican Madrid.
She regularly participated in the activities of the Lyceum Club Feminino, in Madrid, where María de Maeztu, Zenobia Camprubí, Pérez de Ayala's wife, Zubiaurre's wife and many other writers and artists attended. She also frequently attended the gathering of Concha Espina, as well as the theatrical sessions of "El Mirlo Blanco", the Baroja chamber theater, cultivating the friendship of other contemporary writers.
There is a turning point in his life, when he meets Antonio Machado in 1928.She then began a close relationship with the poet, which was a great personal and literary encourage for both of them, reaching a romantic relationship from a distance that with the outbreak of the Civil War ended tragically with the death of the poet in exile. The Civil War and its consequences marked the end of his years of creative plenitude, later she only wrote the aforementioned autobiography that would be published after her death, in 1979 in Madrid.
The event will include a conference given by Miguel Ángel Moratinos, Senior Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and Alicia Viladomat, art curator and granddaughter of Pilar Valderrama, would give a presentation about her grandmother's personal and professional career.
