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Angelamaría Dávila
Angelamaría Dávila Malavé (February 21, 1944 – July 8, 2003) was a Puerto Rican poet and writer who explored themes of love, relationships, and womanhood. She is an Afro-feminist and Afro-Caribbean poet and visual artist who identified her black Puerto Ricanness as a defining characteristic of her work and personal identity. BiographyAngelamaría Dávila Malavé was born in Humacao, Puerto Rico February 21, 1944. She wrote poetry in her native Spanish before attending the Universidad de Puerto Rico in the 1960s and was a part of the Generación del 60, a prominent and revolutionary group of Puerto Rican poets, where she contributed to the literary magazine Guajana. She collaborated with fellow Puerto Rican poet and husband José María Lima. Angelamaría was a visual artist and singer who performed at cabarets and included her illustrations alongside her poems as seen in la querencia, in which color pencil and black pen drawn human figures are accompanied by the graphic design work of artist Nelson Sambolín. She has two living children, actor Aurelio Lima (born in 1970) and Amanda Colón (born in 1980).[1] She died of lung complications from Alzheimer's July 8, 2003 at a assisted living home in Río Grande, Puerto Rico. CareerPuerto Rican literary magazine, Revista Guajana, credits Dávila online with contributing to the first issue (G1.1) of Guajana in 1962 with two poems entitled I and II.[2] She would soon after leave Guajana to continue her work as an individual poet. Her influences included Julia de Burgos, Clara Lair, Sylvia Rexach and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. According to her biography on the Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular of Puerto Rico, in 1963, noted poet Jorge Luis Morales presented Dávila to the Ateneo Puertorriqueño, where she performed her first recital.[1] In 1965 some of her poems were included in the Antología de jóvenes poetas edited by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña.[1] In 1966 she and husband José María Lima collaborated on their poemario (a collection of poems), Homenaje al ombligo (Homage to the navel), a work of poetry and drawings centering on intimacy and sensuality. In 1977, Dávila published her second book of poems Animal fiero y tierno. This was Dávila's first solo book publication.[3] In 1994, her work was included in the “Antología de la poesía hispanoamericana actual”, edited by Julio Ortega. In 2004, a number of her poems were included in “Flor de lumbre: Guajana 40 aniversario 1962-2002". A third collection of poems, la querencia, was published posthumously in 2006 by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. Themes in her workLoveLove is a central idea to the body of Dávila's work as evidence of her interest and engagement with love's place in the human experience. In la querencia, for example, a preface poem following after the title page posits love in relation to Spanish prepositions that locate and position love: a afuera adentro arriba abajo adelante atrás antes bajo cabe con contra cuando de desde después durante en entre excepto hacia hasta mediante mientras para por pues salvo según sin so sobre tras el amor.[4] According to love, against love, within love, and without love are manners of engaging with the concept of love that Dávila establishes at the beginning of her work for readers to consider and as foreground to the further exploration within the work. Significantly, the word querencia means love, fondness, and attachment.[5] Throughout this poemario, she directs and muses poems about herself and a male lover, their love and how their bodies play a role in their experience. The human bodyDávila writes about the human body, especially in the sixth section of la querencia entitled, "MORADA TERCERA/TU CUERPO SIEMPRE CÁLIDO", in which she explores "cosas del cuerpo, del ánima, del silencio" in three "habitaciones" containing approximately 24 poems.[4] In the first section she dedicates 10-11 line poems about different body parts of her lover. In a poem about his hands, she compares them to roots like "certain scars" and explores the idea of her thirst as maintaining the hands which enjoy and support her desire: "tus manos" son tus manos agoreras dos destiladas raíces de la tierra; cicatrices desprendidas y certeras. crecientes van por la vera del aire, que las detiene, arrastradas se sostienen prometen, hurgan, rebuscan siempre encuentran, siempre gustan de mi sed, que las mantiene[4] Dávila states that his hands "sustain", "promise", "always find", and "always enjoy" her thirst, evincing the intimate and sensual language emblematic of her poetry. The choice to explore the human body in poetry are standard for Dávila's work, where she engages with the personal, using her writing as a conduit to a better understanding of humanity in a physical and spiritual sense. Books of Poetry by Ánjelamaría Dávila
Works that mention the author
See alsoMultimedia
References
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