Dora Varona Gil (19 June 1932 – 7 March 2018) was a Cuban-Peruvian poet, narrator, and missionary. After the death of her husband, Peruvian writer Ciro Alegría, she compiled, edited, and studied his work.

Biography

Dora Varona was born in

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains t ...

on 19 June 1932, the daughter of Ricardo Varona and María Gil, and granddaughter of the writer Enrique José Varona. After completing school in her hometown, she specialized in pedagogy at the University of Oriente in 1951, and later moved to Madrid, where she joined the journalism faculty of the

Complutense University The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

in 1955. The following year she obtained the degree of Bachelor in Literature and Hispano-American Literature. She returned to Cuba, and on 25 May 1957 she married the Peruvian novelist Ciro Alegría, who had been one of her professors at the University of Oriente. Her daughter Maria Cecilia Alegria Vatona was born in Santiago, Cuba, on December 23, 1858. Shortly afterward, she accompanied her husband on his return to Peru, where they decided to settle because of the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...

. From her union with Alegría she had four children: (born 1958), Ciro Benjamín (born 1961), (born 1962), and Diego (born 1967). After Alegría's death on 17 February 1967, she dedicated herself to rescuing and publishing his manuscripts. For this purpose she founded the publishing house Ediciones Varona (1970–1985), where she came to collect 27 titles in addition to works published during the writer's lifetime. A deep process of reconnection with the Christian faith led Varona to redefine her literary perspectives. She traveled to

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, Chile to pursue studies in Pastoral Theology at the Latin American Institute of Theological Studies in 1989, where she was received as a missionary in 1992. She devoted herself to this work full-time. She was the founder and spiritual counselor of the Faithful Christian Community (). In the late 1990s she resumed compiling and publishing her husband's works. In her last years she lived in

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

, spreading the memory of Ciro Alegría, participating in tributes offered to the writer. On 17 February 2010 she was present at a tribute to Alegría at The House of Peruvian Literature, where she inaugurated an exhibition of his photographs and personal objects, and that was attended by President

Alan García Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez (; 23 May 1949 – 17 April 2019) was a Peruvian politician who served as President of Peru for two non-consecutive terms from 1985 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011. He was the second leader of the American Popula ...

. Dora Varona died in Lima on 7 March 2018 from

pulmonary fibrosis Pulmonary fibrosis is a condition in which the lungs become scarred over time. Symptoms include shortness of breath, a dry cough, feeling tired, weight loss, and nail clubbing. Complications may include pulmonary hypertension, respiratory ...

Works

Poetry collections

* ''Rendija al alma'', Havana, Pérez Sierra y Hermano, 1952. Award (Cuba, 1952). With this work Varona obtained a scholarship to study literature in Madrid. * ''Hasta aquí otra vez'', Madrid, Rialp, 1955. Finalist for the

Premio Adonáis de Poesía The Premio Adonáis, or Adonais Prize for Poetry, is awarded annually in Spain by Ediciones RIALP to an unpublished Spanish language poem. Runners-up are also recognized. Named after the collection of the same name, the Adonais Prize was created ...

, Madrid, 1956. * ''El litoral cautivo'', Buenos Aires, Editorial Losada, 1968 * ''Estado de gracia'' (poetic anthology). Lima, Fondo Editorial Cultura Peruana, 2014 A collection of 66 sonnets titled ''Bajo Dios'' was never published, because, according to her account, it was burned by Ciro Alegría out of a jealous suspicion that one of the sonnets was written about another man.

Prose

* ''Los que no se fueron'' (1955), collection of interviews with

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

, Jacinto Benavente,

Pío Baroja Pío Baroja y Nessi (28 December 1872 – 30 October 1956) was a Spanish writer, one of the key novelists of the Generation of '98. He was a member of an illustrious family. His brother Ricardo was a painter, writer and engraver, and his ne ...

, Azorín,

Ramón Menéndez Pidal Ramón Menéndez Pidal (; 13 March 1869 – 14 November 1968) was a Spanish philologist and historian."Ramon Menendez Pidal", ''Almanac of Famous People'' (2011) ''Biography in Context'', Gale, Detroit He worked extensively on the history of t ...

Camilo José Cela Camilo José Cela y Trulock, 1st Marquess of Iria Flavia (; 11 May 1916 – 17 January 2002) was a Spanish novelist, poet, story writer and essayist associated with the Generation of '36 movement. He was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Liter ...

, and other cultural personalities of Spain * ''A la sombra del cóndor'' (Lima, Diselpesa, 1993), biography illustrated by Ciro Alegría * ''Resurgimiento de evangelizadores laicos'' (1993) * ''Tico y Bebita en la isla de Cuba'' (2007), a novel collecting stories from Varona's childhood * ''Ciro Alegría y su sombra'' (Lima, Editorial Planeta del Perú, 2008), a new version of the previous biography ''A la sombra del cóndor'', with one subchapter removed

Collection and publication of the works of Ciro Alegría

To the four titles published in life by Ciro Alegría (the novels ', ', and ', and the story collection ''Duelo de caballeros''), Dora Varona added 27 volumes based on unpublished manuscripts and writings in Latin American periodicals, as well as editions and anthological reissues. * ''Panki y el guerrero'' (Lima, 1968), short stories and tales for children. José María Eguren National Award for Children's Literature. * ''Gabriela Mistral íntima'' (Lima, Editorial Universo, 1969), essay * ''Sueño y verdad de América'' (Lima, Editorial Universo, 1969), historical stories * ''La ofrenda de piedra'' (Lima, Editorial Universo, 1969), Andean stories * ''Siempre hay caminos'' (Lima, Ediciones Varona, 1969), novella * ''El dilema de Krause'' (Lima, Ediciones Varona, 1969), unfinished novel * ''La revolución cubana: un testimonio personal'' (Lima, Editorial PEISA, 1971) * ''Lázaro'' (Buenos Aires, Editorial Losada, 1973), unfinished novel * ''Mucha suerte con harto palo'' (Buenos Aires, Editorial Losada, 1976), memoirs of the writer, based on compilations of his various writings * ''Siete cuentos quirománticos'' (Lima, Ediciones Varona, 1978), urban narratives * ''El sol de los jaguares'' (Lima, Ediciones Varona, 1979), Amazonian stories * ''Fábulas y leyendas americanas'' (Madrid, Editorial Espasa-Calpe, 1982) * ''Sueño y verdad de América'' (Madrid, Alfaguara, 1985) * ''Fitzcarraldo, el dios del oro negro'' (Madrid, Alfaguara, 1986), short stories * ''Sacha en el reino de los árboles'' (Madrid, Alfaguara, 1986), short stories * ''Nace un niño en los Andes'' (Madrid, Alfaguara, 1986), short stories * ''Once animales con alma y uno con garras'' (Madrid, Alfaguara, 1987), stories based on fragments of the writer's first three novels * ''El ave invisible que canta en la noche'' (Madrid, Alfaguara, 1989), stories extracted entirely from ''El mundo es ancho y ajeno'' * ''Novela de mis novelas'' (Lima,

PUCP Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (, PUCP) is a private university in Lima, Peru. It was founded in 1917 with the support and approval of the Catholic church, being the oldest private institution of higher learning in the country. The Peru ...

, 2004), large selection of Alegría's articles on culture and literary criticism, with an introduction by * ''Mi alforja de caminante'' (Lima, Editorial Norma, 2007), short stories and tales * ''El zorro y el conejo'' (Lima, Editorial Norma, 2008) * ''Cartas de Amor para una Alumna'' (Lima, Editorial Universitaria-URP, 2009), bringing together the story of Varona's epistolary love with Alegría

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Varona, Dora 1932 births 2018 deaths Alegría family 20th-century biographers 20th-century Cuban poets 20th-century Peruvian poets Cuban women poets Mass media owners in Latin America People from Santiago de Cuba Peruvian Christian missionaries Peruvian women in business Peruvian women poets Peruvian biographers Women biographers Peruvian women journalists Complutense University of Madrid alumni