Circe Maia

Last updated
Circe Maia
Circe Maia.jpg
Born(1932-06-29)June 29, 1932
Montevideo, Uruguay
OccupationPoet, writer, translator, teacher
Alma mater University of the Republic
SpouseAriel Ferreira

Circe Maia, (born June 29, 1932, in Montevideo), is a Uruguayan poet, essayist, translator, and teacher.

Contents

Biography

Circe Maia was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1932. Her parents were María Magdalena Rodríguez and the notary Julio Maia, both originally from the north of Uruguay. [1] Her father published her first book of poetry (Plumitas, 1944) when she was just 12 years old. The sudden death of her mother when she was 19 left a somber mark on Maia's first book of mature poetry which was published when she was 25 (En el tiempo, 1958).

She married Ariel Ferreira, a medical doctor, in 1957. In 1962 they moved permanently to Tacuarembó in the north of Uruguay with their first two children.

She studied philosophy in the Instituto de Profesores Artigas and also at the Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias of the Universidad de la República, both in Montevideo. She began teaching philosophy at a Tacuarembó high school and at the Instituto de Formación Docente de Tacuarembó, the local teachers' college. She was a founding member of a students' union (Centro de Estudiantes del Instituto de Profesores Artigas) and an active member of the Socialist Party of Uruguay. [2]

The years of the civil-military dictatorship of Uruguay were difficult for Circe Maia and her family. At 3 a.m. one morning in 1972, police raided their home to arrest both Ariel and Circe. However Circe was allowed to remain because she was caring for their four-day-old daughter. [3] Her husband was imprisoned for two years for being associated with the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement. In 1973 the government dismissed her from her teaching position at the high school. However, she began to teach English and French language classes privately. In 1982 her 18-year-old son was killed in an automobile accident. This tragedy combined with the pressures of the dictatorship caused her to suspend poetry writing. With the return of democracy in 1985, her position at the high school was restored, and in 1987 she published two books, Destrucciones, a small book of bitter prose, and Un viaje a Salto, a narrative about an incident during her husband's imprisonment.

Her return to poetry was marked by the publication of Superficies (1990), which was followed by other poetry books and her translations from English, Greek, and other languages. For the reading public, her most important publication was the recompilation of poetry from her previous nine books appearing as Circe Maia: obra poética (2007 and 2010), amounting to over 400 pages.

Circe Main taught philosophy in high school until her retirement in 2001, but she continued to teach English in a private institute and direct local theater productions, as well as continuing her work as a poet, essayist, and translator. [4]

Poetry

In her first book as an adult, En el tiempo (1958) Circe Maia wrote that she favored a poetic language that was "direct, sober, and open, that was not different in tone from conversation, but was a conversation with greater quality, greater intensity.... The mission of this language is to uncover, not to hide; to uncover the value and meaning of existence, not to usher us into a separate world requiring an exclusive and closed poetic language". [5] Throughout her poetic career Maia has been faithful to this conviction. People, objects, personal tragedies, the art of painting, and the passage of time are some themes she has "uncovered", and by doing so has revealed the human condition. She uses her personal experience to feel the pulse of humanity and to discuss it conversationally, as with a close friend.

For more than fifty years she has avoided letting her poetry become self-contained, the sort of literature that ends up as monologue. As she has said, I see "in daily lived experience one of the most authentic sources of poetry". [6] Her intensely intelligent poetry is an expression of sensation, especially the heard and the seen.

Her poems have been set to music by Daniel Viglietti, Jorge Lazaroff, Numa Moraes, and Andrés Stagnaro, among others. That her poetry has been part of the spirit of the times can be seen in the Uruguayan nueva canción group of the late 1970s Los que Iban Cantando, whose name was inspired by a poem in her book En el tiempo (1958). Perhaps more significantly, her poem Por detrás de mi voz was set to music by Daniel Viglietti in 1978 as Otra voz canta. This song, sometimes performed in combination with the poem Desaparecidos by Mario Benedetti, became a Latin American anthem against the military regimes that committed forced disappearances, especially those participating in Operation Condor: [7]

Regional background

Maia has lived for many years in the northern city of Tacuarembó. Along with fellow writer Jesús Moraes, she is one of the relatively few contemporary Uruguayan writers to be strongly identified with the north of the country.

'Poemas de Caraguatá'

Her series of poems 'Poemas de Caraguatá, I, II, III & IV', take their name from the Maia's reflections provoked by an indigenous toponym of Tacuarembó Department in the north of the country, which may variously refer to a range of hills Cuchilla de Caraguatá, a local town named after that range of hills, a local river, the Caraguatá River, or a local plant.

In this series of poems are contained reflections to which local topography, flora and fauna have given rise.

Prizes

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections
List of poems
TitleYearFirst publishedReprinted/collected
Hummingbirds2013Maia, Circe (November 25, 2013). "Hummingbirds". The New Yorker. Vol. 89, no. 38. Trans. Jesse Lee Kercheval. p. 84.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mario Benedetti</span> Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet (1920–2009)

Mario Benedetti Farrugia, was a Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet and an integral member of the Generación del 45. Despite publishing more than 80 books and being published in twenty languages, he was not well known in the English-speaking world. In the Spanish-speaking world, he is considered one of Latin America's most important writers of the latter half of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homero Aridjis</span> Mexican writer, activist, journalist, and ambassador

Homero Aridjis is a Mexican poet, novelist, environmental activist, journalist, former ambassador and ex-president of PEN International, known for his rich imagination, poetry of lyrical beauty, and ethical independence.

Aída Cartagena Portalatín was a Dominican poet, fiction writer, and essayist who was an influential part of the Poesía Sorprendida movement. Many works of hers has been translated into English and other languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fernando Cabrera (writer)</span> Dominican-American poet, essayist, visual artist, songwriter and professor

Fernando Cabrera is a Dominican-American poet, essayist, visual artist, songwriter and professor. He is a National Poetry and Literary Essay Prize Winner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olvido García Valdés</span> Spanish poet and essayist

Olvido García Valdés is a Spanish poet, essayist, translator, and professor. She is married to the poet Miguel Casado.

The Cuchilla de Caraguatá is a range of hills in Uruguay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manuel del Cabral</span> Dominican poet, writer, and diplomat

Manuel del Cabral was a Dominican poet, writer, and diplomat. The son of Mario Fermín Cabral y Báez, an influential senator during the "Era of Trujillo", he served at the Embassy of the Dominican Republic to Argentina. During his long stay in Buenos Aires, he married an Argentine and fathered his 4 children, among them, the television journalist and politician Peggy Cabral. In 1992 he was awarded the Premio Nacional de Literatura.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan Antonio Villacañas</span> Spanish poet, essayist and critic (1922–2001)

Juan Antonio Villacañas was a Spanish poet, essayist and critic. In 2015, he was named distinguished son of the city of Toledo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">José Hierro</span> Spanish poet

José Hierro del Real, sometimes colloquially called Pepe Hierro, was a Spanish poet. He belonged to the so-called postwar generation, within the rootless and existential poetry streams. He wrote for both Espadaña and Garcilaso magazines. In 1981, he received the Prince of Asturias Awards in Literature, in 1998 the Cervantes Prize and he received many more awards and honours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonardo Garet</span>

Leonardo Garet is a Uruguayan writer, teacher, and member of the National Academy of Uruguay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idea Vilariño</span> Uruguayan poet, essayist and literary critic

Idea Vilariño Romani was a Uruguayan poet, essayist and literary critic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Selva Casal</span> Uruguayan poet (1927–2020)

Selva Casal was a Uruguayan poet.

Antonio Colinas Lobato is a Spanish writer and intellectual who was born in La Bañeza, León, Spain on January 30, 1946. He has published a variety of works, but is considered to be above all a poet. He won Spain's National Prize for Literature in 1982, among several other honors and awards.

Maria Beneyto Cuñat was a Spanish poet. She was a recipient of the Premio de las Letras Valencianas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma de Cartosio</span> Argentine writer, poet, storyteller, essayist and teacher

Emma de Cartosio (1928–2013) was an Argentine writer, poet, storyteller, essayist and teacher. The Emma de Cartosio poetry contest was established in Entre Ríos Province in 2015.

María del Rosario González, known as Lalo Barrubia, is a Uruguayan writer, performer, and translator based in Malmö, Sweden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teresa Amy</span>

Teresa Amy was a Uruguayan teacher, poet, and translator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebeca Uribe</span>

Rebeca Mondragón Uribe (1912–1949) was a Mexican poet of the postmodernist movement. She gave recitations of her poems at the Teatro Degollado de Guadalajara (1913–1942). She also worked as the social secretary of actress María Félix from 1945 to 1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luz Pozo Garza</span> Spanish poet (1922–2020)

Luz Pozo Garza, was a Spanish poet and a member of the Royal Galician Academy.

Manuel Álvarez Ortega was a Spanish poet, translator, writer, and veterinarian. He was the director and founder of the journal Aglae, which circulated between 1949 and 1954. He wrote many of his works in Madrid, the city where he lived starting in 1951.

References

  1. Maia, Circe (2013). La pesadora de perlas. Vientodefondo. p. 25. ISBN   9789872904203.
  2. "Biografía". Ministerio de Educación y Cultura-Uruguay. Archived from the original on June 6, 2014. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  3. Maia, Circe (2004). A Trip to Salto . Swan Isle Press. p.  125. ISBN   0967880874.
  4. "Biografía". Ministerio de Educación y Cultura-Uruguay. Archived from the original on June 6, 2014. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  5. Maia, Circe (2010). Circe Maia: obra poética. Rebeca Linke Editoras. p. 13. ISBN   9789974816947.
  6. Maia, Circe (2010). Circe Maia: obra poética. Rebeca Linke Editoras. p. 13. ISBN   9789974816947.
  7. Maria, Figueredo (2005). "Latin American Song as an Alternative Voice in the New World Order". In Yovanovich, Gordana (ed.). The New World Order: Corporate Agenda and Parallel Reality. Linardi y Risso. p. 188. ISBN   9974-559-58-8.
  8. Maia, Circe (2010). Circe Maia: obra poética. Rebeca Linke Editoras. p. 413. ISBN   9789974816947.