Juana Pavón (July 19, 1945 – March 28, 2019) was a Honduran poet and actress. She was noted for her feminist poetry and critique of Honduran society.

Biography

Pavón was born in San Marcos de Colón in 1945. Her mother, who was 14 at the time of Pavóns birth, died during childbirth and her father died days later due to alcohol abuse. She was then adopted by a doctor from the maternity hospital but was soon moved to an orphanage after he left

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

to live in exile. She spent most of her childhood in boarding schools or orphanages where she faced frequent punishment for acts of rebellion. She developed a like of poetry at a young age and reported that her favourite poet growing up was

Juana Inés de la Cruz Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana, better known as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (12 November 1651 – 17 April 1695), was a Hieronymite nun and a Mexican writer, philosopher, composer and poet of the Baroque period, nicknamed "Th ...

. In 1970, she moved to

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa ( )—formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz''—is the capital and largest city of Honduras along with its sister city, Comaya ...

and changed her name legally to Margarita Velásquez Pavón. She fell pregnant but was abandoned by the child's father which left her destitute and she became a prostitute to earn money to be able to look after her child. In total, Pavón had three children who were adopted by different families. During this period, while battling alcoholism and poverty, she started to write poetry under the pen name Juana Pavón and gained recognition through establishing friendships with individuals based at the National School of Fine Arts. In 1981, she published a collaboration poetry collection, ''Two Voice Verse'', with

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

n poet Carmen Naranjo. In 1994 she published her first individual volume of poetry ''I am that subject.'' In 2002, she appeared in a Honduran film ''Anita, the Insect Hunter'' playing the part of Sister Margarita. In 2004, she published her second book, ''Exacta,'' which acts as an encyclopedia of her life told through poems and creative writing. In 2016, she moved to the mining town of San Juancito, where it is reported she lived in poverty and poor health. She died on March 28, 2019, of advanced mouth cancer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pavón, Juana 1945 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Honduran women writers People from Choluteca Department Honduran actresses Honduran feminists Honduran women activists 20th-century Honduran poets Deaths from oral cancer Deaths from cancer in Honduras