Paca Navas

Francisca Raquel Navas Gardela, better known as Paca Navas (1883–1971), was a Honduran journalist, writer and feminist. She founded the first feminist journal in Honduras and was a member of the first suffragette organization. She and her husband spent most of their lives in exile because of their liberal leanings. Her most productive writing period was during her Guatemalan exile from 1945 to 1951.

Biography Francisca Raquel Navas Gardela better known as Paca Navas was born on March 23, 1883, in Juticalpa, Olancho, Honduras to José María Navas and Francisca Gardela de Navas. In 1900, she married the attorney, intellectual and journalist Adolfo Miralda. It was considered the first feminist journal in Honduras, covering topics such as aging, domestic abuse, incest, rape, homeless youth, and the subordination of women. In 1947 Navas represented the Unión Democrática Femenina Hondureña at the Primer Congreso Interamericano de Mujeres in Guatemala City, Guatemala. There she introduced the theme of Political prisoners and exiles of Latin America to the assembly and denounced the forced political exile of 100 Hondurans during the 14 years of the dictatorship of Tiburcio Carías Andino.

At the time of the conference, Navas, having been exiled herself, Ramón Amaya Amador sought refuge with her in Guatemala. The Guatemalan sojourn marked her most productive writing period, in part because she could publish her work.

She died on July 11, 1971, in Seattle, Washington while visiting her daughter.

Selected works Ritmos criollos (1947) Barro (1951) Mar de fondo Campiña olanchana Rutas de silencio Cámara obscura Atraídos

Barro (1951) One of the best examples of the Criollismo literary movement in Honduras and written during the 1940s. However, it was not able to be published until 1951 in Guatemala during the presidency of Juan José Arévalo, Guatemala's first democratically elected president.

Atraídos This novel has 17 sections, the two first ones being an introduction and a few words to the reader. The remaining fifteen are suggestive titles regarding different historical moments. In the first chapter, titled 'Oro Verde' (Green Gold), it describes the coast of Atlantis, the landscape, and the lifestyle of Atlantians, highlighting the banana plantations. It is here where Remigio Hernández, an old, widowed man that moves to the coast with his son Leandro to find a better life.

Note José González is the author of two scholarly works on the history Honduran literature as he references in the blog. The information in his blog, per his acknowledgment corrects an incorrect date in the printed books for Navas' birth. The books are:

González, José. Cronología de la literatura Hondureña del siglo XX. Honduras: Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia (2008) (in Spanish) González, José. Diccionario de literatos hondureños Honduras: Editorial Guaymuras (2004) (reprint 2010) (in Spanish)