6 feminist Chilean authors writing about love that you'll want to read

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Evelyn Carpenter

Kristian Silva Photography

International Women's Day is celebrated every March 8 and is a perfect occasion to pay tribute to all those who stand out in their respective fields. Among them, Chilean women writers of yesterday and today, who have raised the flag of feminism and among whose texts you can find fragments to include in your marriage.

For example, to incorporate into your wedding vows, thank you cards, or simply to dedicate to each other at a special moment. Discover below six feminist authors who also speak of love and passion.

1. Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957)

Writer, poet, diplomat and educator, Gabriela Mistral was the first Latin American woman and the second person from Latin America to win a Nobel Prize in Literature. She received it in 1945. And while she his work is mostly associated with motherhood, lovelessness and feminism. In the sense of fighting for equal rights, there is also a lot of hidden romance among her writings.

For example, in the letters to Doris Dana, his executor and with whom he had an intimate love relationship until the end of his days. The letters were sent between 1948 and 1957, which you will be able to take when writing your vows.

"The lives that come together here, come together for a reason (...) You have to take care of this, Doris, love is a delicate thing".

"You don't know me well yet, my love. You ignore the depth of my bond with you. Give me time, give it to me, to make you a little happy. Be patient with me, wait to see and hear what you are for me."

"Perhaps it was a very great folly to enter into this passion. When I examine the first facts, I know that the fault was entirely mine".

"I have for you in me many subterranean things that you do not yet see (...) The subterranean is what I do not say. But I give it to you when I look at you and touch you without looking at you".

Isidora Aguirre (1919-2011)

Ahead of her time, committed, tireless, feminist and daring. Isidora Aguirre was a Chilean writer and playwright, whose most famous work is "La pérgola de las flores" (1960). Much of her work was linked to social texts, with a strong defense of human rights.

However, she also wrote to love, as evidenced in the novel "Letter to Roque Dalton" (1990), which she dedicated to the Salvadoran writer with whom she had an affair in 1969. The relationship arose when she was a member of the jury for the Casa de las Americas Prize and he won with a collection of poems.

You can take some excerpts from this novel to include in your marriage, for example, to make your wedding speech.

"Until that fixed gaze began to unsettle me. I'd say it gave me a slight itch, a burning of the skin before seeping pores inside. Anyway, I'd say anything, maestro, but the truth is that I knew, and with certainty, that I would answer 'yes, affirmative', if you proposed anything to me."

"By this time his eyes had rested on mine with a certain amount of paranoia and notemeescapes (...) He settled down next to me and asked me in his gentlest voice: 'What do you think, teacher, if we see each other more often? Because I knew at once that this was a declaration of love and at once we were baptized: teacher and teacher. As if to say, wedding and baptism'.

3. María Luisa Bombal (1910-1980)

Although there are many reasons that support her work, there is one that is particularly striking, and that is that the writer from Viña del Mar, not only focused her texts on female characters, but she was also the first Latin American to describe the sexual act. In those years, sex was represented as an action of male domination over women. However, Bombal broke with these dogmas and explored the senses of the female body, This is what he presents in his novel "The Last Fog" (1934), fragments of which you will be able to read together.

"The beauty of my body craves, at last, its share of homage. Once naked, I remain seated on the edge of the bed. He moves away and contemplates me. Under his attentive gaze, I throw my head back and this gesture fills me with intimate well-being. I undress my arms behind my neck, braid and unbraid my legs and each gesture brings me intense and complete pleasure, as if, at last, they had a reason.to be my arms and my neck and my legs".

"Even if this enjoyment were the only purpose of love, I would already feel well rewarded! He comes closer; my head is at the level of his chest, he smilingly holds it out to me, I press my lips to it and immediately rest my forehead, my face. His flesh smells of fruit, of vegetables. In a new burst I throw my arms around his torso and I attract, once again, his chest against my cheek (...) Then he leans overHis body covers me like a great boiling wave, caresses me, burns me, penetrates me, envelops me, envelops me, drags me, weak. To my throat rises something like a sob, and I don't know why I begin to moan, and I don't know why it is sweet to moan, and sweet to my body the fatigue inflicted by the precious load that weighs between my thighs.

4. Isabel Allende (1942)

The 78-year-old writer, who won Chile's National Literature Prize in 2010, has an extensive body of work that includes books based on letters or personal experiences, historical themes and even police dramas.

And now, at a time when the feminist movement is becoming more and more relevant, her latest novel, "Women of My Soul" (2020), deals precisely with her approach to feminism. Also, in his work backwards there is a lot of love and passion; fragments that you can take as inspiration to include, for example, as a quote in your invitations or in your wedding program.

"Maybe they didn't do anything they wouldn't have done with others, but it's very different making love, loving" ("The Island Under the Sea").

"The only thing that's going to heal you is love, as long as you make room for it" ("Ripper's Game").

"Whoever says that every fire goes out by itself sooner or later is mistaken. There are passions that are fires until they are smothered by fate with one blow, and even then there are hot embers ready to burn as soon as they are given oxygen" ("The Japanese Lover").

"They were eternal lovers, to seek and find each other again and again was their karma" ("Portrait in sepia").

"Love is a bolt of lightning that strikes us suddenly and changes us" ("The Sum of His Days").

5. Marcela Serrano (1951)

The Santiago-born writer, author of successful novels such as "Nosotras que nos queremos tanto" and "Para que no me olvides", stands out as a left-wing activist, a fierce defender of women's rights and a tireless fighter to reclaim her place. For her, defining herself as a feminist is "defining herself as a human being". .

And although his writings focus primarily on stories starring women, not couples, you can still find inspiration in them, for example, to incorporate into the speech of newlyweds.

"The world outside has gone wild, amore. Hide in here" ("What's in my heart").

"I don't believe much in philosophical answers: it all comes down to living it whole and living it well" ("What's in My Heart").

"The past is a safe haven, a constant temptation, and yet the future is the only place we can go" ("Ten Women").

"To be loved, as time and eyes have confirmed to me, is rare. Many take it for granted, believe that it is common currency, that everyone, in one way or another, has experienced it. I dare say that this is not so: I see it as an enormous gift. A richness" ("Ten Women").

"Never mind the past, it's already happened. There is no future. Here's to the only thing we truly possess: the present" ("Ten Women").

6. Carla Guelfenbein (1959)

This Chilean writer, a biologist by profession, published her latest work in 2019, "The Station of Women", which is "a feminist and anti-patriarchal work". In fact, the author has pointed out that all her novels are feminist "the only thing is that now I am allowed to say it". You will also find in her work love phrases and reflections that you can insert in certain moments of marriage, for example, in the declaration of vows or during the speech.

"Of course I can, by your side I can do everything, by your side I perceive the exciting nature of things" ("Swimming naked").

"We had spent our lives gravitating like two lonely planets" ("With You in the Distance").

"Happiness comes in the strangest ways, in its own way. There is no way to summon it, no way to wait for it" ("Contigo en la distancia").

"It seems that the moments that precede great moments have a special quality that often makes them more exciting than the event itself, perhaps the vertigo of being suspended on the edge of a moment where everything is still possible ("The Woman of My Life").

"I wanted to sleep with her, but also to wake up next to her; as I believed at the time, what distinguishes sex from love ("The Woman of My Life").

Since it's not enough to personalize details of the celebration, feel free to include excerpts from Chilean women authors at different moments of the celebration. And if you're also a strong supporter of feminism, then you'll love exploring the writings of these brave, revolutionary, and talented women.

Evelyn Carpenter is the author of the best-selling book, All you need for your marriage. A Marriage guide. She has been married for over 25 years and has helped countless couples build successful marriages. Evelyn is a sought after speaker and relationship expert, and has been featured in various media outlets including Fox News, Huffington Post, and more.