Antonia Palacios

Antonia Palacios (born May 13, 1904 in Caracas ; † 2001 ibid) was a Venezuelan writer .

Through her brother Inocente Palacios she was in close contact with the students of the "Generación 1928" (Generación del 28), who during the student week (Semana de Estudiante, February 6-12, 1928) the first large-scale resistance against the dictator Juan Vicente Gómez initiated.

In 1929 she founded a literary circle ("Cero de Teoréticos"), which Gómez banned. In 1934 she wrote her first article in the magazine “Elite” under the pseudonym “Mariana Avila”. After Gómez's death in December 1935, her husband Carlos Eduardo Frías received a diplomatic post at the Venezuelan embassy in Paris . During her stay in France she studied with Jean Piaget and Maria Montessori . 1938 return to Venezuela.

In 1939 she took on a leading position in the women's group Agrupación Cultural Femenina. In 1940 she became president of the 1st Venezuelan Women's Congress in Caracas and took an active part in the 2nd Venezuelan Children's Congress organized by the Agrupación Cultural Femenina in Maracaibo . Alejo Carpentier , who had worked in her husband's advertising agency since 1945, encouraged her to finish her novel “Ana Isabel, una niña decente”, which she began in 1938. The novel, completed in 1946, was published in 1949. From 1978 to 1985 she ran a literary workshop in her house, which published the magazine "Hojas de Calicanto".

In 1976, she was the first Venezuelan to be awarded the Premio Nacional de Literatura de Venezuela for El largo día ya seguro .

Works

• Antonia Palacios: Obras completas. Caracas: Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. Caracas 2002

Literature on Antonia Palacios

• Coloquio Latinoamericano de literatura "José Rafael Pocaterra" 5, 27 al 30 de April 2000, Ateneo de Valencia: Homenaje a la memoria de Antonia Palacios y Juan Liscano. Caracas: Univ. Católica Andrés Bello, 2002