Mercedes Serafina Núñez de Villavicencio y Ortiz (better known as Serafina Núñez; 14 August 1913 – June 2006) was a Cuban teacher and poet who first gained recognition in the 1930s. During her literary life, she was a contemporary of

Alfonso Reyes Alfonso Reyes Ochoa (17 May 1889 in Monterrey, Nuevo León – 27 December 1959 in Mexico City) was a Mexican writer, philosopher and diplomat. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times and has been acclaimed as one of the ...

Gabriela Mistral Lucila Godoy Alcayaga (; 7 April 1889 – 10 January 1957), known by her pseudonym Gabriela Mistral (), was a Chilean poet-diplomat, educator, and Catholic. She was a member of the Secular Franciscan Order or Third Franciscan order. She was ...

and

Juan Ramón Jiménez Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón (; 23 December 1881 – 29 May 1958) was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which in the Spanish language constitutes an example of high ...

, as well as other women poets of this era such as

Emilia Bernal Emilia Bernal Agüero (Nuevitas, 8 May 1882 – 1964) was a Cuban poet, who also cultivated other genres such as essay, translation and the autobiographical novel. Along with several other middle-class, educated women writer contemporaries -Lydia C ...

, Dulce Maria Loynaz,

Carilda Oliver Labra Carilda Oliver Labra (6 July 1922 – 29 August 2018) was a Cuban poet. She was born in Matanzas and died there as well. Oliver Labra studied law at the University of Havana. She was also known to excel at drawing, painting and sculpting. Know ...

and Rafaela Chacón Nardi.

Life

Serafina Núñez was born in

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

at the

University of Havana The University of Havana (UH; ) is a public university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of Cuba. Founded on 5 January 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the first to be founded in the Americas. Originall ...

in 1949, ending in the third year when she began working as a primary school teacher until 1969. Núñez was first published in 1936, when her work was included in

's anthology ''Antología de la Poesía Cubana en 1936'', and he maintained a friendship with Núñez the rest of his life, to the point of defraying the expense of publishing ''Mar Cautiva'' (1937), and ''Vigilia y Secreto'' (1942). It would be more than 30 years before she published again in 1992. In 2001, she visited Miami as a guest at the International Book Fair. She died in June 2006 at the age of 92 years.

Selected works

* 1936: ''Antología de la Poesía Cubana en 1936'' * 1937: ''Mar Cautiva'' * 1938: ''Isla en el sueño'' * 1942: ''Vigilia y Secreto'' * 1956: ''Paisaje y Elegía'' * 1994: ''Vitral del tiempo'' – Premio Nacional de Crítica Literaria (National Critics Prize) * 1995: ''Moradas para la vida'' * 1996: ''Porque es vivir un testimonio raro'' * 1999: ''En las serenas márgenes'' * 2000: ''Antología cósmica de Serafina Núñez'' * 2000: ''Rosa de mi mansedumbre'' * 2001: ''El herido diamante'' * 2002: ''Cancioncillas'' * 2003: ''Penélope'' * 2004: ''Tierra de secreta transparencia''Núñez, Serafina, Regidor D. Ropero, and

Jorge Enrique González Pacheco Jorge Enrique González Pacheco is an international award-winning Cuban poet, film industry professional, and cultural entrepreneur. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Latin American Literature from University of Havana, Cuba, and a Master's Degree i ...

. ''Tierra de Secreta Transparencia: Antología Poética''. Madrid: Ediciones Torremozas, 2004. (in Spanish) * 2007: ''Mar Cautiva. Edición fascimilar''

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nunez, Serafina 1913 births 2006 deaths Writers from Havana Cuban women poets Cuban women educators 20th-century Cuban educators 20th-century Cuban poets