Blanca Luz Brum

Blanca Luz Brum (31 May 1905, Pan de Azúcar, Maldonado - 7 August 1985, Santiago, Chile) was a writer, journalist, poet and artist from Uruguay.

Biography Brum was born on 31 May 1905 in Pan de Azúcar. Her family included her uncle, Balthazar Brum, a former president of Uruguay.

Family and relationships

Much of Brum's reputation as a writer and artist was over-shadowed by her relationships. Riego kidnapped her from a convent and they married when she was 17; he died of tuberculosis three years later, leaving her with a young son. The couple lived in Los Angeles for a time. They married in 1932, but separated in 1933, whilst living in Montevideo. Whilst Siqueiros was imprisoned in 1930, she kept him supplied with artists materials. At the end of 1938 their daughter María Eugenia was born. She was also a painter, inspired by her poetry and politics. In the 1930s she was a role model for women in revolutionary art and politics. Some of her work, such as the poem Himno, is now viewed as very early ecofeminism.

Politics During the earlier part of her life, Brum was a supporter of left-wing militancy. During her time in Peru, she became a Marxist, influenced by José Carlos Mariátegui.

In the 1930's she was in Chile and as a APRA militant. When Chilean nazis murdered writer and storyteller Hector Bareto in 1936, who was in the same writers' club as a then young Miguel Serrano, she joined the funeral marches and there she had comforted the saddened Serrano, squeezed his hand and told him "cheer up, comrade", not knowing that Serrano would later become infamously closer to the Nazi politics of the murderers.

From 1943 on, she was related to the union sectors that gave rise to Peronism in Argentina, she served as press officer for the Ministry of Labour and Social Security under Juan Domingo Perón. She actively participated in politics in her country and in other Latin American countries where she lived, such as Chile or Mexico. She wrote poetry about life there. Levante (Lima 1928) Penitenciaría-Niño Perdido (Mexico, 1931) es:Atmósfera arriba. Veinte poemas (Buenos Aires, 1933) Blanca Luz contra la corriente (Chile, 1935) Cantos de América del Sur (Chile, 1939) Del cancionero de Frutos Rivera (1943) El último Robinson (Chile, 1953)

In the media I will not travel hidden is a documentary film by Pablo Zubizarreta about Brum and she is played by Mercedes Morán. The novel Falsas memorias: Blanca Luz Brum by Hugo Achugar re-tells Brum's life through fiction.