Carmen Natalia

Carmen Natalia Martínez Bonilla, known simply as Carmen Natalia, (April 19, 1917 — January 6, 1976) was a Dominican feminist poet, essayist, playwright, and activist in opposition to the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo.

Early life Carmen Natalia Martínez Bonilla was born in San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic, in 1917. Her parents were Andrés Martínez Aybar and Carmen Julia Bonilla Atiles, and she was one of seven children. In 1931, her family moved to Santo Domingo, where she worked for a time in a relative's factory to help support her mother.

As a child, she studied at the Salomé Ureña School.

Literary debut In 1939, at just 22 years old, she published her first book of poetry, Alma Adentro.

In 1942, her first novel, La Victoria, was honored as the best Dominican novel at the Farrar & Rinehart International Competition in Washington. It openly questioned the social order under the Trujillo regime. Carmen Natalia died in Santo Domingo in 1976.

Style Carmen Natalia wrote poems on a wide variety of subjects, everything from love to the feminine condition to her deep hatred for the regime. Her poetry spanned different movements and is difficult to categorize, with elements of postmodernism. While her early work was more romantic, she quickly turned to writing about the harsh realities of life in Trujillo's Dominican Republic.

Some of Carmen Natalia's most representative poems include "Canto a la tierra," "La Miseria está de ronda," "No fue porque yo quise," and "El Grito." She wrote many poems directly addressing the fight against Trujillo and memorializing martyrs of their cause, including "Elegía a los mártires de Constanza, Maimón y Estero Hondo," "Oda heroica a las Mirabal," and "Poema recóndito para un Mártir de la Libertad," dedicated to the memory of Salvador Reyes Sánchez, who died in the failed 1949 invasion that her brother survived.

Selected works

Poetry

Alma adentro (1939) Llanto sin Término por el Hijo Nunca Llegado (1959) El hombre tras las rejas (1962)

Novels

La Victoria (1942) Cristóbal

Essays

Veinte actitudes y una epístola

Theater

Adaptaciones de la Cenicienta y la Bella Durmiente (1950) El milagro de la Epifanía (a play meant to be performed by blind children, 1953) Estampas de la vida de Maria (a play meant to be performed by deaf children, 1954)