Josefa Perdomo

Josefa Perdomo
Born
Josefa Antonia Perdomo y Heredia

(1834-06-13)13 June 1834
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Died25 May 1896(1896-05-25) (aged 61)
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
OccupationPoet

Josefa Antonia Perdomo y Heredia (13 June 1834 – 25 May 1896) was a Dominican poet. She wrote under the pseudonym Laura.

Biography

Perdomo was born on 13 June 1834 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Her parents were Felipe Perdomo and Mercedes Heredia. Her mother was from a noble family of merchants and landowners, which included the writer Manuel de Jesús Heredia. Literary historiography has recorded that her uncle introduced her to art and literature and instructed her in grammar.

Perdomo published her first poem Delicias del Campo in 1854 and was the first Dominican woman to publish a poem in the press. Further works were published in the newspaper El Oasis and the Catholic newspaper La Crónica in 1855 and 1856. Perdomo wrote under the pseudonym Laura.

poetry was considered traditionalist, features patriotic, religious and biographical details and was described as having "lovely verses" by Salomé Ureña. Ureña and Perdomo were the only women elected as members of the Friends of the Dominican Republic.

Politically, Perdomo supported the Dominican Republic dictator Ulises Heureaux.

Josefa Perdomo Street is named in honour of Perdomo, created by a Santo Domingo City Council resolution on 13 November 1934.

Perdomo died on 25 May 1896 in Santo Domingo, aged 61.

Selected works

Perdomo's poems were included in the anthology Lira de Quisqueya by José Castellanos in 1874, the Anthology of Dominican Literature by Peña Batlle in 1944, and Two Centuries of Dominican Literature by Manuel Rueda in 1996.

References

  1. 1 2 Knight, Franklin W.; Gates Jr., Henry Louis, eds. (2016). "Perdomo y Heredia, Josefa Antonia (1834–1896), nineteenth-century Dominican poet". Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro–Latin American Biography. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199935802.
  2. 1 2 3 "Nace Josefa Perdomo Heredia, poetisa dominicana". El Nacional (in Spanish). 13 June 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2026.
  3. 1 2 "Hoy en la historia: Nace Josefa Perdomo". Hoy Digital (in Spanish). 13 June 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2026.
  4. ↑ Paredes, Margarita Vallejo de (1995). Apuntes biográficos y bibliográficos de algunos escritores dominicanos del siglo XIX (in Spanish). Publicaciones ONAP. p. 131.
  5. 1 2 3 "Josefa Perdomo". PoesíaDominicana. 19 January 2025. Retrieved 14 April 2026.
  6. ↑ Ricardo, Yolanda (2004). La resistencia en las Antillas tiene rostro de mujer: (transgresiones, emancipaciones) (in Spanish). Publicaciones de la Academia de Ciencias de la República Dominicana. p. 122. ISBN 978-99934-959-3-2.
  7. 1 2 Nacidit Perdomo, Ylonka. "Josefa A. Perdomo, "la triste Laura"". Acento (in Spanish). Retrieved 14 April 2026.
  8. ↑ Vallejo, Catharina Vanderplaats (1999). Las madres de la patria y las bellas mentiras: imágenes de la mujer en el discurso literario nacional de la República Dominicana, 1844-1899 (in Spanish). Ediciones Universal. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-89729-890-2.
  9. ↑ Marshall, Alice Kahler (1985). Pen Names of Women Writers: From 1600 to the Present : a Compendium of the Literary Identities of 2650 Women Novelists, Playwrights, Poets, Diarists, Journalists and Miscellaneous Writers, Fully Cross-referenced. Copies from Alice Marshall Collection. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-9616387-0-2.
  10. 1 2 3 "Semblanza de Josefa Perdomo, destacada poetisa Dominicana" (in Spanish). 13 June 2025. Retrieved 14 April 2026.
  11. ↑ Dalleo, R.; Sáez, E. Machado (11 June 2007). The Latino/a Canon and the Emergence of Post-Sixties Literature. Springer. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-230-60516-9.
  12. ↑ Hernández, Angela; Inoa, Orlando (2009). La mujer en la historia dominicana (in Spanish). Secretaría de Estado de la Mujer. p. 90. ISBN 978-9945-410-50-1.
  13. ↑ Perdomo, Josefa A. (1885). Poesías (in Spanish). imp. de García hermanos.