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Among Sandino's Girlfriends: Carmen Sobalvarro and the Gendered Poetics of a Nationalist Romance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Erin S. Finzer
Erin S. Finzer*
Affiliation:
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
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Abstract

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Carmen Sobalvarro (Nicaragua, 1908–194?), widely known during the 1930s as General Augusto Sandino's “platonic” girlfriend, was the only female poet officially admitted into the Nicaraguan vanguard movement. Despite her significance to Nicaraguan politics and letters, until recently she has been virtually forgotten. In crafting her public persona, Sobalvarro combined traditional and modern stereotypes of womanhood, thus providing Central Americans with a viable model of women in literature and politics. Through her poetry and image, she also shored up the romantic notion of Sandino as a valiant general deserving of international respect and adoration, especially among female followers. In these ways, the poet serves as a significant case study of the cultural anxieties surrounding changing gender roles upon the arrival of the “modern” woman and a growing women's movement in Nicaragua.

Resumen

Resumen

Carmen Sobalvarro (Nicaragua, 1908–194?), bien conocida durante los 1930 como la novia platónica del general Sandino, fue la única mujer poeta oficialmente admitida en el movimiento vanguardista nicaragüense. A pesar de su importancia en la política y las letras nicaragüenses, hasta hace poco ha sido prácticamente olvidada. Al construir su imagen pública, Sobalvarro combinó estereotipos tanto tradicionales como modernos de la femineidad, así proveyendo a los centroamericanos con un modelo viable de una mujer involucrada en la política y la literatura. A través de su poesía e imagen pública, también contribuyó a la reputación romántica de Sandino como un general valiente que merecía el respeto y adoración internacional, especialmente entre sus seguidoras femeninas. Así la poeta sirve como un estudio significativo de las ansiedades culturales acerca de los papeles cambiantes del género sexual, la llegada de la mujer “moderna” y un movimiento feminista creciente en Nicaragua.

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , 2012 , pp. 137 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by the Latin American Studies Association

Footnotes

To Jill, my mentor. I thank Jorge Eduardo Arellano for the kind use of his archives, as well as the three anonymous LARR reviewers for their thoughtful comments and guidance.

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