Vicenta Moguel

Vicenta Antonia Moguel Elguezábal (Azcoitia, 1782 - Abanto, 1854) was a Spanish writer and translator who was the first woman to write in the Basque language. In Basque Country, she is known by the local spelling of her name, Bizenta Mogel Elgezabal.

Early life and education Moguel was born in 1782 in Azkoitia, in a part of Northern Spain known as the Basque Country. She was very young when her father died and moved with her brother Juan José to live in Markina with her uncle, the priest and writer Juan Antonio Moguel (1745 - 1804). He was a scholar and author of the first novel in the Basque language, Peru Abarca (1802), and he was a friend of Felix Maria de Samaniego (1745-1801), a Spanish writer famous for his fables.

She received her educational training from her uncle, who taught her Latin, Basque and Spanish and encouraged her interest in literature and fables. Her brother also became an accomplished writer.

Career Moguel became a professor in the Society of Friends of the Country and is widely credited with being the first woman to write in the Basque language at a time when most women were not literate and she was "forced to give explanations about her status as a literate woman and writer."

The resurgence of the fables genre coincided with a decline in the influence of traditional stories from the Catholic Church. In general, fables with a moral point of view became considered the most appropriate reading material for children.