Cipriana Álvarez Durán

Cipriana Álvarez Durán (1827–1904) was a Spanish folklorist, writer and painter. She is noted for promoting popular culture and was known in Llerena (Badajoz) as La Mujer de los Cuentos (The Woman of Tales). She was the grandmother of the Spanish poet Antonio Machado.

Biography Durán was the daughter of Jose Alvarez Guerra, a former soldier and politician, and Cipriana Durán Yanez. For his republican political ideology, her father was exiled to France.

Duran was married to Antonio Machado Nuñez in 1844. Durán was 15 years younger than her husband. She gave birth to a son, Antonio "Demofilo" Machado y Alvarez, in Santiago de Compostela. By 1847, her family moved to Seville. This is said to be rooted in the family's nationalism based on "determinism-guided Romanticism". Particularly, her uncle, Agustín Durán, was a major influence in her interest in popular culture and ballads.

Works Durán's works on popular tales were published in magazines such as El Folk-lore Andaluz. She also contributed stories to her son's book such as "El barquito de oro, de plata y de seda" and "La sirena". Her grandson also published a number of her unpublished works after her death.

Durán also influenced her grandson Antonio Machado early in his life. She was said to have habitually read Durán's Romancero and Becquer's Leyendas not only to the young Antonio but to his brother Manuel, who also became a noted writer and poet.

Publications

La mano negra Una rueda de conejos La serpiente de las siete cabezas Las velas Las tres Marías.