Alejandrina Benitez de Gautier
Alejandrina Benitez de Gautier (1819-1879) born in the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico was one of the island's first reowned poetist.
Alejandrina became an orphan at an early age. She was raised and educated by her aunt, the poetist and author of dramatic works, Bibiana Benitez.
Her collaboration with the "Aguinaldo Puertorriqueño" (Collection of Puerto Rican Poetry) gave Alejandrina the recognition of being a great poetist. This collection was published in 1843 by a group of young writers, of whom she was a member, that was considered as the first generation of the Puerto Rican literary culture.
Her preferrence in poetry was the civil poetry, whose contents were based on ideology.
She wrote a poem tittled "La Patria del Genio" (The Nation of the Genius) dedicated to Jose Campeche. For her poem she received an award from the "La Sociedad Economica Amigos del Pais" which usually was 100 pesos.
Among her most celebrated works were "Al Cable Submarino en Puerto Rico" (To the Under Sea Cable in Puerto Rico), "A La Estatua de Colón en Cardenas" ( To the Statue of Columbus in Cardenas), and "A Cuba" (To Cuba).
Alejandrina Benitez married Rodulfo Gautier, thus becoming Alejandrina Benitez de Gautier. On April 12,1848, in the City of Caguas, Puerto Rico she gave birth to Jose Gautier Benitez who was to become Puerto Rico's greatest poet during the Romanticism era.
Alejandrina Benitez de Gautier died in 1879 at the age of 60.
Puerto Rico has honoured her memory by naming school's after her. There is also a school in Brooklyn, New York named in her honor.
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