SOURCE: Introduction to Poems by Rosalía de Castro, State University of New York Press, 1991, pp. 1-24.

In the following excerpt, Aldaz and Gantt discuss Castro's life, place in Spanish literature, and poetic themes.

Her Life

At the time of her death in 1885, Rosalía de Castro was little known outside of her native Galicia, a region in northwestern Spain. Yet this woman poet who wrote more than half of her poems in a regional language and did not follow the poetic conventions of her time is now considered one of the outstanding figures of Spanish literature.

Rosalía was born on February 24, 1837, in the historic city of Santiago de Compostela, now the capital of Galicia.¹ Though her birth certificate calls Rosalía "hija de padres incógnitos [daughter of unknown parentage]," she was actually the illegitimate child of a once-wealthy noblewoman, María Teresa de la Cruz...