“No es mi madre la tierra” ‘The Earth Is Not My Mother’: Ecology in Gloria Fuertes’s Last Poetry

Abstract

Since the 1930s, Gloria Fuertes’s poetry has attracted listeners and readers to her unique combination of verbal play, witty juxtapositions of erudite and popular sources, and uncanny linguistic virtuosity. Thirteen years after her death in 1998, her popularity continues to grow as new printings of her best-selling books and new editions of her early poetry appear in print. The last book over which she had editorial control, Mujer de verso en pecho (1995) ‘Woman with Verse on her Chest,’ is her most provocative, expanding considerably the thematic range to which she applied her unconventional poetic strategies. One previous thematic element which takes a new direction is that of ecological concerns, which her speakers call into question as they link them to other equally urgent ethical concerns such as poverty, hunger and war. These poems create startling and intellectually challenging contradictions for the reader that recall the Spanish Baroque, and yet cast them into wholly accessible language that defies the hermetic, elitist avant-garde and novisimos movements of the twentieth century. This article is available in Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature: http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol36/iss2/5 “No es mi madre la tierra” ‘The Earth Is Not My Mother’: Ecology in Gloria Fuertes’s Last Poetry Douglas K. Benson Kansas State University Since the 1930s, the poetry of Gloria Fuertes has attracted listeners and readers to her unique combination of verbal play, her witty juxtapositions of erudite and popular sources, her recasting of traditional poetic forms with everyday conventions of language, and her uncanny linguistic virtuosity. Her inclusive reconstruction of voices, speakers, situations and strategies from high and popular culture characterizes a highly sophisticated and innovative way of making poetry (Debicki 117). In the 1980s and 1990s, studies by Nancy Mandlove, Sylvia Sherno, Andrew Debicki, Margaret Persin, Jose Luis Cano and Peter Browne, among others, described specific features of her trailblazing approach, and newer books by Sherno, Michael Mudrovic and Persin have further expanded our knowledge of how she achieved her effects. Thirteen years after Fuertes’s death in 1998, her popularity continues to grow as new printings of her best-selling books appear, as well as new editions of her earlier poetry. The last book over which she had editorial control, Mujer de verso en pecho (1995), ‘Woman With Verse on Her Chest’ is her most provocative, despite its uneven and sometimes even banal form of expression, expanding considerably the thematic range to which she applied her unconventional poetic strategies. The title is a witty take on the popular expression “hombre con pelo en pecho” (346) ‘man with hair on his chest,’1 as Gonzalo Navajas has noted. One thematic direction which comes more clearly into focus in this collection but which has received limited critical attention to date is that of global ecological issues, which add complexity and richness to her arsenal of metapoetic and religious concerns as well as social issues such as women’s roles in society, the horrors of war and tyranny, and the plight of the marginalized. Sherno notes that 1 Benson: “No es mi madre la tierra” ‘The Earth Is Not My Mother’: Ecology Published by New Prairie Press