Plá, Josefina (1909–1999)

Josefina Plá (b. 1909, d. 1999), Paraguayan artist, dramatist, poet, and historian. Plá is generally considered to be the most influential woman in Paraguayan cultural matters in the twentieth century. Yet she was born not in Paraguay but in Spain's Canary Islands and only came to the inland republic in 1927 after having married the noted sculptor Andrés Campos Cervera (better known as Julián de la Herrería), who died ten years later. She gained fame for her earliest poetry, which was part of the vanguardista school and included such pieces as "El precio de los sueños" (1934), "La raíz y la aurora," (1960) and "Invención de la muerte" (1964). Her later poetry includes "La muralla robada" (1989) and "Las artesanias en el Paraguay".

During the 1932–1935 Chaco War with Bolivia, she helped operate a radio theater that presented dramas and comedic pieces to soldiers in the field. As part of this effort, she brought together poets and actors who later came to dominate the Paraguayan literary scene after the conclusion of the war.

As a sculptor and plastic artist, Plá has exhibited works all over South America. Several of her murals and mosaics can be seen on important buildings in today's Asunción. Her historical work includes El barroco Hispano-guaraní (1975), Las artes plásticas en el Paraguay (1967), and Los británicos en el Paraguay (1984).

Plá contributed weekly columns on cultural issues to several Asunción newspapers up until her death in 1999.

See alsoWomen in Paraguay .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rafael Eladio Velázquez, Breve historia de la cultura en el Paraguay, 7th ed. (1980), pp. 251, 256.

Efraím Cardozo, Apuntes de historia cultural del Paraguay (1985), pp. 366-374.

Additional Bibliography

Godoy Ziogas, Marylin. Josefina Plá. Asunción, Paraguay: Editorial Don Bosco, 1999.

Vallejos, Roque. Josefina Plá, crítica y antología. Asunción, Paraguay: La Rural Ediciones, 1995.

Vilarino, Idea. Antología poética de mujeres hispanoamericanas: siglo XX. Montevideo, Uruguay: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, 2001.

                            Marta FernÁndez Whigham