Isabel Carrasquilla de Arango (Santo Domingo, Antioquia, 08/10/1865 – Medellín, 05-01-1941), also known as Equis and Zeta, was a writer who vindicated the independence and freedom of women in her plays. In this sense, in Contra viento y marea we see a cast of female characters who make their own decisions, assuming the consequences of putting their will above the family’s male authority, which meant defying the guidelines of Colombian society at the time.
On the other hand, her literary production reflects the irruption of socialist and feminist ideas in the Colombian sphere. Carrasquilla, together with Ángela Villa Toro and Sofía Ospina de Navarro, among other women, was a member of the Centro de Estudios Femeninos de Medellín, and she claimed the need for women to have agency in the social and political events of the time.
In the 1930s several of his dramatic creations were performed. In 1933, Vidal Montoya’s Compañía de Comedias Cómicas staged Pepa Escandón, a comedy based on the novel Frutos de mi tierra, written by his brother Tomás Carrasquilla. In the Floral Games of that year, his play Una llanta rota was awarded a prize, which would be performed two years later at the Teatro Bolívar by a group of local artists, including Celestino Riera, Clarisa Márquez de Riera and Amalia Gil. In 1936, the Grupo Escénico de la Acción Social, directed by Ramón Soler, performed Noche de Reyes. In this way, from a frontier space between the domestic sphere and public life dominated by masculine schemes, the author participated in the Colombian cultural scene, renegotiating gender stereotypes and the social order.
Carrasquilla visited Europe in 1929, meeting numerous intellectuals and even having an audience with Pope Pius XI. Between 1938 and 1939, he published in the magazine Letras y Encajes some articles related to this trip, such as “Sevilla”, “Ruinas de Italia”, “Una visita a la Alambra”, and “Florencia”. These publications came to light as the author was writing her memoirs, which were published posthumously in 2011 by Paloma Pérez Sastre:
I. Carrasquilla: Impresiones de viaje escritas por una abuela para sus nietos (Universidad EAFIT, 2011)
This text is analysed in REWIND because it is a historical document that allows us to study European cultural heritage from the perspective of otherness.
Here are some bibliographical references in case you want to learn more about Isabel Carrasquilla:
- Correa Serna, Nancy Johana (2018): “Mujeres detrás de la escena: Isabel Carrasquilla y Sofía Ospina de Navarro, dramaturgas al margen en la primera mitad del siglo XX en Colombia”, Anuario de Historia Regional y de las Fronteras, 23 (1): 173-196.
- Pérez Sastre, Paloma (2011): “Edición comentada de las Impresiones de viaje de una abuela para sus nietos de Isabel Carrasquilla de Arango”.In Sara Beatriz Guardia (ed.), Viajeras entre dos mundos (Dourados: DEHMAL): 239-263.