Margarita Carrera

Margarita Carrera Molina
Born	(1929-09-16) 16 September 1929
Other names	Margarita Carrera de Wever
Occupation	writer, philosopher, educator
Years active	1957 - present

Margarita Carrera Molina (Guatemala City, 16 September 1929) is a Guatemalan philosopher, professor and writer. She is a member of the Academia Guatemalteca de la Lengua and the 1996 laureate of the Miguel Ángel Asturias National Prize in Literature.

Biography

Margarita Carrera Molina was born 16 September 1929 in Guatemala City to Frenchman Antonio Carrera Martello and Josefina Molina Llardén. Her father committed suicide when she was a child and she had to work to help support her family, going to night school to learn.^[1] She was the first female graduate in Literature from Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala in 1957 and the first women to ever become a member of the Academia Guatemalteca de la Lengua^[2] in 1967. Since 1957,^[3] she has been employed as a university professor at her alma mater, as well as Rafael Landívar University and Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. She has been a lecturer at the Autonomous University of Madrid and served as guest writer on numerous international congresses held in Costa Rica, France, Germany, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, the US and Venezuela.^[2]

Carrera joined the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, IA in 1982.^[3] She is currently a columnist for Prensa Libre of Guatemala where she has written since 1993 and has published in many other newspapers, including Diario de Centro America, La Hora, and El Imparcial. She writes two columns at Prensa Libre weekly,^[2] in addition to having published twenty books.^[4]

In an interview in her 70s, Carrera said that she often wrote about men she found interesting and whom she studied to help her understand the man she never knew, her father. Among those she studied and wrote about were Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno. After his death, she read about Juan José Gerardi Conedera and ended up writing a novel about his life.^[1]

Private life

Carrera was married for seven years and divorced. She has two children.^[1]

Awards

• 1970 Diploma of the Royal Spanish Academy^[2]
• 1981 Golden Quetzal for "Ensayos contra reloj"^[5]
• 1982 First Prize in poetry for "Mujer y soledades" from Juegos Florales Centroamericanos y de Panamá, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala^[5]
• 1982 Finalist in the XI Anagram Essay Prize in Barcelona, Spain^[5]
• 1982 Silver Star Dolores Bedoya de Molina Medal^[2]
• 1986 First Prize in poetry for "Signo XX" from Juegos Florales Hispanoamericanos, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala^[5]
• 1996 Miguel Ángel Asturias National Prize in Literature^[5]
• 1998 Diploma of Merit from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala^[2]
• 2000 Meritorious Service Medal Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala^[2]
• 2000 Communications award from UNICEF^[2]
• 2001 Distinguished Professor Award Universidad del Valle de Guatemala^[2]

Selected works

Books

• En la mirilla del jaguar Guatemala City: Fondo de Cultura Económica (2002) (In Spanish)
• Juan Gerardi: il vescovo che ruppe il silenzio Milan: Terre di mezzo; Cart'armata (2008) (In Italian)
• Gerardi, la voz en la noche Madrid: Movimiento Cultural Cristiano D.L. (2014) (In Spanish)

Poety

• Poemas pequeños Guatemala: Ministerio de Educación Pública (1951) (In Spanish)
• Poesías Guatemala: Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (1957) (In Spanish)
• Desde Dentro Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria (1964) (In Spanish)
• Poemas de sangre y alba Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria (1969) (In Spanish)
• Del noveno circulo y antología mínima Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria (1977) (In Spanish)
• Mujer y Soledades Guatemala: General de Cultura y Bellas Artes (1982) (In Spanish)
• Toda la poesía de Margarita Carrera Guatemala: Tipografía Nacional (1984) (In Spanish)
• Obra ensayística Guatemala: Tipografía Nacional (1985) (In Spanish)
• Signo XX Guatemala: Serviprensa Centroamericana (1986) (In Spanish)
• Sumario del olvido Antología personal de poesía Guatemala: Editorial Cultura (1998) (In Spanish)
• Iracundiae dea Madrid: Ediciones Torremozas (2008) (In Spanish)

Essays

• Corpus poeticum de la obre de Juan Diéguez Guatemala: Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (1957) (In Spanish)
• Ensayos Guatemala: Editorial Escolar Piedra Santa (1974) (In Spanish)
• El circo: farsátira en un acto Guatemala: Editorial Escolar Piedra Santa (1975) (In Spanish)
• Literatura y psicoanálisis Guatemala City: Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (1979) (In Spanish)
• Ensayos-contra reloj Guatemala: Serviprensa Centroamericana (1980) (In Spanish)
• Nietzsche y la tragedia Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria (1982) (In Spanish)
• Antropos Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria de Guatemala (1985) (In Spanish)
• El desafío del psicoanálisis freudiano Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria (1988) (In Spanish)
• Freud y los sueños Guatemala: Edinter Centroamericana (1990) (In Spanish)
• Octavio Paz y su mundo de palabras (co-writer Eusebio Rojas Guzmán) Guatemala: Ediciones Ventana (1993)(In Spanish)
• Hacia un nuevo humanismo Guatemala: Editorial Artemis-Edinter (1996) (In Spanish)
• Antología personal Guatemala: Editorial Cultura (1997) (In Spanish)
• Ensayos sobre Borges Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria (1999) (In Spanish)

References