Eliana Navarro Barahona (19 June 1920 – 5 June 2006) was a Chilean poet and librarian. A representative of the , Navarro was a member of the Fuego de Poesía.
Early years and education Eliana Navarro Barahona was born on 19 June 1920 in Valparaíso to Fortunato Navarro Herrera, a merchant, farmer and politician, and Guillermina Barahona Soriano, a teacher. In 1923, the family moved to the El Peral farm in , (present-day Araucanía Region).
Inspired by the landscape of Cautín and influenced by the southern poet Augusto Winter, Navarro wrote, at the age of seven, "La laguna de Trovolhue", one of her earliest poems. At the age of 14, her works were published in the magazines Margarita and En Viaje. Navarro was educated at Santa Cruz de Temuco school.
Navarro studied law at the University of Chile, where she met her future husband .
Career In 1951, Navarro published Tres poemas (Three Poems), her first book. Four years later, she joined the Grupo Fuego de la Poesía founded by José Miguel Vicuña and Carlos René Correa. Carlos René Correa . In 1955, through Grupo Fuego de la Poesía, she published Antiguas voces llaman. The journals "Calicanto" and the "Literary Magazine of the Society of Writers of Chile " reviewed her verses in this period. She was a delegate to the PEN Club Congress in Fráncfort in 1959. In 1963, she was a delegate of the Society of Writers of Chile (SECH) to the World Congress of Women for Peace in Moscow. In 1965, Navarro's book, La ciudad que fue, was published by Editorial Universitaria and was awarded the Pedro de Oña prize.
Navarro worked for more than 40 years in the Library of the National Congress of Chile being for many years head of the Cataloging section. In 1973, with her family, she formed the theater group "Mediodía", which, under the direction of Teodoro Lowey premiered in the Votive Temple of Maipú before a crowded audience the poem with vocals for choir entitled La pasión según San Juan (The Passion According to San Juan). Published in 1980, she was awarded Eliana Navarro Prize by Academia Chilena de la Lengua. In 1981, she attended as a guest speaker the International Congress of Women's Literature in Mexico. In 1995, her book, La Flor de la Montaña, was published by Editorial Universitaria in the collection "El Polydro and El Mar". On more than one occasion, she was a candidate for the National Prize for Literature and jurist in multiple poetry contests, including the Fondo del Libro y la Lectura.
Some of her works remain unpublished. One of them is Profesión de silencio (Profession of silence), in which she tackles injustice and pain from the repression suffered during the 1973-90 military dictatorship of Chile.
Personal life In 1939, Navarro married José Miguel Vicuña, a poet, writer and librarian. Navarro and Vicuña had seven children including , a philosopher and professor, and Leonora Vicuña, a photographer, film editor and educator. Navarro was the aunt of Cecilia Vicuña, a poet and artist, and the sister-in-law of the sculptors and educators Teresa Vicuña and Rosa Vicuña.
On 5 June 2006 Navarro died in Santiago, aged 75, from cerebral thrombosis.
Awards Premio Pedro de Oña, 1965 Premio de la Academia Chilena de la Lengua, 1980
Selected works
References
Arteche, Miguel, Juan Antonio Massone y Roque Esteban Scarpa, Poesía Chilena Contemporánea, Editorial Andrés Bello, Santiago, 1997. Bussche, Gastón von dem, Estudios sobre la poesía de Eliana Navarro, Concepción 1964. Hahn, Óscar, La poesía también se llama Eliana Navarro, 2007. Lastra, Pedro, Relectura de Eliana Navarro, 2007. Matus Olivier, Alfredo, Y de allí, su claridad, 2007. Silva Acevedo, Manuel, Eliana Navarro, el gozo y el dolor de ser poeta, Santiago de Chile 2005. Szmulewicz, Efraín Diccionario de la Literatura Chilena, Ediciones Rumbos, Santiago 1997. Valdés, Adriana Celebración de Eliana Navarro, 2006.
External links
Eliana Navarro at Memoria Chilena