3. Rosalía’s Diary

Diary (Monday or any other day)

Day 1

Was it wrong to publish what I did? Did I really offend that many people? After all, there were no accusations, no threats, no promises to hurt anyone. I had no intention of hurting anybody. It was simply what I needed to say. Of course I put it in writing, which means I wanted people to know what I felt, but I didn’t actually attack anyone. I was biting my tongue every minute when I wrote what I did. 

Nevertheless, I’ve gotten so many letters and I’ve seen quite a few letters in the periodicals complaining about my Lieders. Many are calling it a manifesto, a cry to revolution, to the liberation of women. Is that such a bad, such a dangerous thing? Maybe some people got nervous.

Nobody can say I was blaming it all on the wrong people. True, If I’d been crying my eyes out after being mistreated by somebody in particular, some people might have felt I was talking about them. Guilty consciences?

What’s wrong with declaring my rights as s woman and as someone from a class without privileges? Which is worse? Thinking like a woman or thinking like a person from a lower class? After all, we’re past the middle of the nineteenth century. Things should be more possible than several decades ago, shouldn’t they?

What’s wrong with learning from 1848 revolutions all over Europe? They weren’t successful, but that doesn’t mean they were wrong! Things still needed changing after the French Revolution, didn’t they?

It was so sad about the tragic end of the Mártires de Carral [the Carral Martyrs) in 1846. There were only about a dozen and they had good intentions, as I understood it, but they needed more support. I was just a little girl, not even ten, but I heard people talking. Most seemed to be afraid of Narváez and his henchmen. I bet I could have stood up to them if I’d been older. All I can see is that Solís and his men wanted fair treatment from the government, wanted not to be treated like a colony. Galicia deserves that.

Was it foolish to rebel against a whole country? A handful of local men against a national army? Maybe, but they were brave to try. If I had been old enough, I’d have tried to help. It wasn’t fair that they killed all those man. They only wanted to be treated fairly by the Spanish government. That rarely happens, I guess.

Ten years later was o Banquete de Conxo, in 1856. Students and workers got together, trying to bridge the gap between the two groups. It was a noble cause, but it didn’t fix anything, not really. I know some people didn’t think a woman should have been there, but I do it all again if I had the chance. What did we eat? Who cares? I remember the three toasts, or maybe it was four.

I was the only woman there, but that didn’t bother me. I’m sure those two events influenced me, just as the anti-slavery convention in Britain did. Slavery was being questioned everywhere. Some associated it with racism and classism, but many of us women knew there was a slavery maintained by sexist attitudes. We knew things had to change. We also know it wouldn’t be easy, because history had shown us that.

Day 2 Tuesday

Mary Wollstonecraft - what a woman. Julián de Velasco reviewed her Vindication of the Rights of Women in the Diario de Madrid. It was years ago, but I still remember reading his article. I knew her writing already because I read it in French. It was translated into French soon after it came out in 1792. Wollstonecraft was pretty bold to write that, but she was right. She had the French Revolution to inspire her, even if that didn’t change things the way she wanted or as much as she said needed to be changed. She said women had to be educated and I agree. I plan to write something of my own about it, because women in this country are way behind other countries. 

Sometimes I get so angry that things happen so slowly. 

Wollstonecraft wasn’t the only one who wrote about the problem of women not having opportunities. I’ve read Madame de Staël and know her father held an important position under the king, plus he had contacts with the Americas. I want to read more things by American writers, but they usually reach us in French translation, which is fine. She wasn’t as progressive as she should have been, but I finally managed to get a copy of Sur l'influence des passions liked it. I took a lot of notes. Her De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales made Napoleon mad, and he wasn’t a good enemy to have. Spain certainly found that out. He thought women should stick to knitting after he read her work, which shows how small his brain was. It matched him physically.

De Staël criticized the situation of women in Britain. She spent a lot of time in politics and I read she was discussed by American politicians. Lord Byron admired her. However, when Comte included her in his Calendar of Great Men, I was pretty upset. How could he do that?

At least De Staël was against slavery. Everybody knew her. I wish I could say the same for myself. Maybe some day.

Day 3

Lucrezia Marinella is another writer I admire and I hope to read La nobiltà et l'eccellenza delle donne co' diffetti et mancamenti de gli uomini. I heard she criticizes Aristotle, who called women inferior. In La nobilita, et l’eccellenza delle donne she really speaks well of educated women and I admire her for that. It was only 1600 when she published it, so why am I so nervous about my little Lieders being a problem for readers?

I was told Marinella’s Enrico has warrior women who wear men’s armor. 

Boccaccio’s Famous Women [De Claris Mulieribus] was from the 1360s. Women read his work, I understand. It is on my reading list, even if it was mostly a list of women rulers and the like. It’s good to set history right.

Moderata Fonte’s The Worth of Women. Another book I want to read, but not easy to find, because it was published in 1600, like Marinella’s book.

Day 4

What’s wrong with wanting to dress like a man, as my beloved George Sand did? Other women did it. The naysayers should try it. It was common in France during Sand’s time. I read the women could request permission for different reasons. Some women didn’t bother to request it, which was fair. 

Rosa Bonheur wore pants to ride a horse. I like her paintings. 

Josefa Amar y Borbón was pretty courageous in her publication regarding women’s right to belong to the Sociedad Económica de los Amigos del País. I think her Discurso en defensa de del talento de las mujeres, y de su actitud para el gobierno was from 1786. She was known for her translations, too. Funny how people overlook how many women knew several languages.

Apología de las mujeres by Inés Joyes y Blake, was just inserted in a translation she did of an English novel in 1798. Was she afraid to publish it all by itself? It was so odd to do that. 

Margarita Hickey-Pellizzoni was inspired by Father Feijóo to write about women’s ability to think. Maybe having parents who were not Spanish, like Joyes, had something to do with her ideas. Too bad her work on geography wasn’t accepted by the history society. I can imagine why.

Day 5

This diary has turned into a catalogue of names and publications. Maybe by surrounding myself with them I can have more confidence in my right to write what I think. I’m working on anotherpiece, Las literatas, which could be Literary Women in English, but I prefer Bluestockings because that would tie it to France, which is how it should be taken. That will show the irony I’m using, because otherwise the literal-minded will just think I’m telling women not to write. Anybody reading my diary knows that’s absolutely not the case. 

Like others, I guess I should recognize the value of Father Feijoo’s Defensa de las mujeres. After all, he was Galician and people valued what he wrote, seeing’s how he was a priest. I wonder how he dared write his essay, though, because in 1726 there weren’t many others in this country, especially men, who were so in favor of women.

I think I’ve been making my own list. If I must, I must. Otherwise, years, centuries from now, people will say I was just a little woman from the provinces who was writing in a void.

They need to know I was surrounded by good ideas and shared them. Some day I’d like to be famous.