María Enriqueta Camarillo

María Enriqueta Camarillo (also known as María Enriqueta Camarillo y Roa de Pereyra) (1872–1968) was a Mexican poet-novelist, short story writer and translator. She was widely recognized for her works, with schools and libraries named after her, as well as a bust by Spanish sculptor Mariano Benlliure erected in Hidalgo Park in Mexico City in her honor. She received the 1923 literary prize from the Académie française for her novel El Secreto. She was awarded a collaborative partnership in 1927 with the Real Academia Hispano-Americana de Ciencias y Artes of Cádiz for her textbook Rosas de la Infancia. For the same work, she also received the prize for best children's literature from the Literary Salon of the Universal Exposition in Seville, Spain. Camarillo was granted the Order of Isabella the Catholic in 1947 and in 1948 received the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise.

Biography María Enriqueta Camarillo y Roa was born 19 January 1872 in Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico to Alejo Camarillo and Dolores Roa Bárcena, who was the niece of the writer José María Roa Bárcena. There is a historical plaque marking the house where she was born, located on Jiménez del Campillo Street in Coatepec. In 1879, her father was elected to the Chamber of Deputies and moved the family from Coatepec to Mexico City. In 1887, she entered the National Conservatory of Music and earned her diploma as a piano teacher in 1895. Without giving up music, Camarillo then took up painting and writing verse. In 1897, her father was posted to an administrative position in Nuevo Laredo and the family left the capital.

In 1894 she published her first poem, “Hastío,” in the literary supplement of the newspaper El Universal, using the pseudonym Ivan Moszkowski. She kept sending poems to El Universal and the Revista Azul even after the family moved to Nueva Laredo. In 1897, she began sending work to Mundo Ilustrado; El Expectador, in Monterrey; Crónica, in Guadalajara; and El Diario in Mexico City.

In 1898, Camarillo married and returned to Mexico City. Her first book, consisting of a single long poem, was published in 1902. When her father died the following year, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera offered her the opportunity to tell his story in Revista Azul. "El maestro Floriani" was her first published prose piece and was dedicated to her father's memory. The first book of her poetry collection, Rumores de mi huerto (Rumors of my garden), appeared in 1908

She worked at a feminist magazine, called La Mujer Mexicana (The Mexican Woman), from 1904 to 1906. Though the magazine ideologically supported the nineteenth-century culture of domesticity, it was one of the first Mexican magazines written by women for women. The women who wrote for La Mujer Mexicana were poets, writers, teachers, lawyers, and doctors. Besides Camarillo, they included attorney María Sandoval de Zarco; writers Dolores Roa Bárcena de Camarillo (her mother), Laura Méndez de Cuenca, Dolores Jiménez y Muro and Dolores Correa Zapata, who was also a teacher; the medical doctors Columba Rivera, Guadalupe Sánchez Rosas de la Infancia was written in 6 volumes, but only 5 were published. The work was to be used as textbooks, She lived in Spain for 32 years. After the death of her husband in 1942, Camarillo decided to return to Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico and was buried in the City Cemetery of Coatepec, Veracruz.

Awards 1923 literary prize from Académie française for El Secreto, Best Hispanic female novel "Hojas Dispersas" Patria: Mexico (1950) (In Spanish)

Narratives "La puerta verde" "La mano de mi padre" "Una culebra" "Esquilo y Béquer" "Urgente"

Books Rosas de la infancia: lectura para los niños Viuda de Charles Bouret: Paris (1914) (In Spanish) Mirliton, le compagnon de Jean Gedalge: Paris (1917) (in French) Mirlitón J. Pueyo: Madrid (1918) (In Spanish) Jirón del Mundo Editorial-América: Madrid (1918) (In Spanish) Sorpresas de la vida Virtus: Buenos Aires (1921) (In Spanish) El secreto Editorial-América: Madrid (1922) (In Spanish) Entre el polvo de un castillo Virtus: Buenos Aires (1924) (In Spanish) El misterio de su muerte Calpe: Madrid (1926) (In Spanish) Le secret: roman Bould & Gay: Paris (1926) (in French) Enigma y símbolo Espasa-Calpe: Madrid (1926) (In Spanish) Contosinhos de cristal Anuário Comercial: Lisbon (1927) (in Portuguese) Lo irremediable: novelas Espasa-Calpe: Madrid (1927) (In Spanish) Cuentecillos de cristal Araluce: Barcelona (1928) (In Spanish) Mirliton: le compagnon Godalgo: Paris (1929) (in French) El arca de colores Espasa-Calpe: Madrid (1929) (In Spanish) Tres figuras amadas Juan Pueyo: Madrid (1930) (In Spanish) Brujas, Lisboa, Madrid Espasa-Calpe: Madrid (1930) (In Spanish) Del tapiz de mi vida Espasa-Calpe: Madrid (1931) (In Spanish) Fantasia y Realidad Espasa-Calpe: Madrid (1933) (In Spanish) Nuevas rosas de la infancia Patria: Mexico (1954) (In Spanish)