Gioconda Belli
Gioconda Belli was born on 9 December 1948 in Managua, Nicaragua, into a wealthy family: her father, Humberto Belli, was a businessman and her mother, Gloria Pereira, was the founder of the Experimental Theater of Managua. She received a strong educational foundation, studying at the Colegio de La Asunción in Managua and at the Real Colegio de Santa Isabel in Madrid, Spain, where she obtained her Bachelor's degree in 1965. After graduating in Advertising and Journalism in Philadelphia (USA), she decided to settle in Managua.
In 1970 her poems were first published in magazines such as El Gallo Ilustrado, Prensa Literaria and Nicaracuac. Political commitment and the feminine being and feeling are two fundamental themes in her work, which is why her poetry was considered revolutionary in its approach to the female body and sensuality. Her book Sobre la grama won in 1972 Mariano Fiallos Gil Prize – the most prestigious Nicaraguan poetry prize at the time – of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua.
A staunch opponent of the Somoza dictatorship, Belli had to go into exile in Mexico and Costa Rica and joined the ranks of the FSLN, an organization in which she was active from 1970 to 1994. She was a member of the Political-Diplomatic Commission of the FSLN, transporting weapons and travelling through Europe and Latin America gathering resources and sharing her experiences of the Sandinista struggle. In 1978 she won the prestigious Casa de las Americas Award in Cuba for her poetry collection Línea de Fuego. After the Sandinista victory, she represented the movement on the National Council of Political Parties and acted as spokeswoman for the FSLN in the electoral campaign of that year. Belli would then abandon politics, dedicating herself to writing her first novel and continuing to write poetry.
In 1988 Belli published her first novel La Mujer Habitada, which became a great international success and would be translated into eight languages. It was followed by Sofía de los Presagios and Waslala. Her memoir El país bajo mi piel was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2001 and selected as one of the best books of the year by the newspaper.
Belli’s career and reputation continued to grow with an array of literary prizes bestowed upon her. Her novel El infinito en la palma de la mano won the Biblioteca Breve – one of the most prestigious Spanish awards – in 2008 and was awarded the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz award at the Guadalajara Book Fair in Mexico. In 2010 Belli received the Latin American prize La Otra Orilla for her novel El País de las Mujeres, which is set in the fictional Faguas that pervades Belli’s oeuvre.
In more recent years, her novel Las fiebres de la memoria was a finalist for the Mario Vargas Llosa Novel Prize in May 2019 and, in October 2020, her poetry collection El pez rojo que nada en el pecho won the XXX Premio de Poesía Jaime Gil de Biedma in Segovia, Spain. Belli’s record on press freedom and advocating for women was recognised in 2018, when she was awarded the Hermann Kesten Prize.
Compiled by Elena López (Barcelona)
Bibliography
Poetry
Sobre la grama (Managua: Nuevos Horizontes, 1972)
Línea de fuego (Managua: EDUCA, 1978)
Truenos y arco iris (Managua: Editorial Vanguardia, 1982)
Amor insurrecto (Managua: Editorial Vanguardia, 1986)
De la costilla de Eva (Managua: Ediciones Nicarao, 1988)
El ojo de la mujer (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1991)
Apogeo (Managua: Ediciones Nuevo Amanecer, 1993)
El taller de las mariposas (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1998)
El país bajo mi piel (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 2001)
Yacimiento de agua viva (Madrid: Visor Libros, 2011)
Leoparda salvaje (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 2018)
Novels
La mujer habitada (Managua: Editorial Vanguardia, 1988)
Waslala (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1996)
Sofía de los presagios (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 2001)
El pergamino de la seducción (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 2005)
El infinito en la palma de la mano (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 2008)
El país de las mujeres (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 2010)
El intenso calor de la luna (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 2013)
Las fiebres de la memoria (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 2020)
Translations into Foreign Languages
English
The Inhabited Woman [Translation of La mujer habitada by Helen R. Lane] (New York: Persea Books, 1994)
The Scroll of Seduction [Translation of El pergamino de la seducción by Margaret Sayers Peden] (New York: HarperCollins, 2007)
Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand [Translation of El infinito en la palma de la mano by Margaret Sayers Peden] (New York: HarperCollins, 2009)
French
La femme habitée [Translation of La Mujer Habitada by Françoise-Marie Rosset] (Paris: Stock, 1988)
Sophie des présages [Translation of Sofía de los Presagios by Françoise-Marie Rosset] (Paris: Stock, 1990)
Le pays que j'ai dans la peau [Translation of El país bajo mi piel by Françoise-Marie Rosset] (Paris: Stock, 2000)
L'Infini dans la paume de la main [Translation of El Infinito en la palma de la mano by Françoise-Marie Rosset] (Paris: Stock, 2008)
Italian
La donna abitata [Translation of La mujer habitada by Domenica Perrone] (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1993)
Sofia dei presagi [Translation of Sofía de los Presagios by Domenica Perrone] (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1993)
Il paese sotto la pelle [Translation of El país bajo mi piel by Patrizia Filia] (Rome: Fazi Editore, 2002)
La pergamena della seduzione [Translation of El pergamino de la seducción by Patrizia Filia] (Milan: Feltrinelli, 2008)
L'infinito nel palmo della mano [Translation of El infinito en la palma de la mano by Patrizia Filia] (Rome: Fazi Editore, 2009)
Nel paese delle donne [Translation of El país de las mujeres by Patrizia Filia] (Rome: Fazi Editore, 2012)
L'intenso calore della luna [Translation of El intenso calor de la luna by Patrizia Filia] (Rome: Fazi Editore, 2016)
Le febbri della memoria [Translation of Las fiebres de la memoria by Patrizia Filia] (Rome: Fazi Editore, 2019)
Criticism
Albert Zinani, Cecil Jeanine: ‘Nicarágua e Gioconda Belli: um diálogo possível’(Revista de letras, 44, 2004, pp.105-128)
Arellano, Jorge Eduardo: Panorama de la literatura nicaragüense (Managua: Editorial Nueva, 1986, 5th edn.)
García Irles, Mónica: ‘Recuperación mítica y mestizaje cultural en la obra de Gioconda Belli’ (Cuadernos de América sin nombre, 5, 2001)
Hernández, Laura: Escribir a oscuras: El erotismo en la literatura femenina Latinoamericana (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Lumiere, 2003)
Lagos, Ramona: Metáforas de lo indecible: Gioconda Belli, Lucía Guerra y Ángeles Mastretta (Santiago: Ediciones Cuarto Propio, 2003)
Lavrín, Asunción: ‘Mujeres rebeldes: El Salvador, Nicaragua y Guatemala’ in Historia de las Mujeres en España y América Latina del Siglo XIX a los Umbrales del XX, vol. III ed. by Isabel Morant, G. Gómez-Ferrer, G. Cano, D. Barrancos and A. Lavrín (Madrid: Cátedra, 2008, pp. 737-50)
Murguialday, Clara: Nicaragua, revolución y feminismo (1977-89) (Madrid: Revolución, 1990)
Ojeda Franco, Mónica: ‘Pornoerótica latinoamericana: subversión en la narrativa de mujeres en el exilio’ (Anales de Literatura Hispanoamericana, 43, pp. 57-69)
Oviedo, José Miguel: Historia de la literatura hispanoamericana. Vol. 4. De Borges al presente (Madrid: Alianza editorial, 2001)
Paredes, Jorge: Discurso cultural y posmoderno en la novelística de Gioconda Belli: Itzá versus las metanarrativas europeas (Ixquic, 1, 1999, pp. 95-112)
Urbina, Nicasio: ‘Conciencia y afirmación el desarrollo de la literatura escrita por mujeres en América Central’ (Revista Géneros, 9.27, 2002, pp. 50-65)
Vargas, José Ángel: ‘La incorporación de la voz femenina en la novela centroamericana contemporánea’ (Revista comunicación, 12.23, 2013 pp. 113-20)
Interviews/in the Media
Arenes, Carolina: ‘Lejos de una Nicaragua irreal’ (Revista Nueva Sociedad, 302, Nov-Dec, 2022) available online at https://www.nuso.org/articulo/302-lejos-de-una-nicaragua-irreal/
Calero, César: ‘La izquierda tiene que reinventarse, yo he perdido completamente todo el leninismo que alguna vez tuve’ (Diario Público, 18 March 2022) available online at https://www.publico.es/entrevistas/entrevista-gioconda-belli-gioconda-belli-izquierda-reinventarse-he-perdido-completamente-leninismo-vez-tuve.html
Camargo, María Pilar: ‘Deseo habitar en el país de las mujeres’ (Semana, 20 August 2010) available online at https://www.semana.com/entretenimiento/articulo/deseo-habitar-pais-mujeres-gioconda-belli/120764-3/
Cruz, Juan: ‘Nicaragua: testimonios sobre “un país cansadito”’ (El País, 6 June 2016) available online at https://elpais.com/internacional/2016/06/06/actualidad/1465212958_872596.html
East, Vanessa: ‘Entrevista a Gioconda Belli’ (Revista Nomadías, 19, July 2015) available online at https://nomadias.uchile.cl/index.php/NO/article/view/36756
Intxausti, Aurora: ‘Gioconda Belli novela la tragedia de Juana la Loca en El pergamino de la seducción’ (El País, 3 May 2005) available online at https://elpais.com/diario/2005/05/03/cultura/1115071203_850215.html
Krakusin, Margarita: ‘Entrevista con Gioconda Belli’ (Confluencia: Revista hispánica de cultura y literatura, 22.2, 2007, pp. 138-44)
Solanes, Ana: ‘El verdadero erotismo es el compromiso con la vida’ (Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, 694, April 2008, pp. 199-34)
—: ‘La sabiduría es una forma de la inteligencia del alma’ (Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, 696, June 2008, pp. 127-35)
Vallejo-Gómez, Nelson: ‘Entrevista con Gioconda Belli’ (Revista Aleph, 204, January-March 2023) available online at https://www.revistaaleph.com.co/index.php/component/k2/item/1013-entrevista-con-gioconda-belli
Zabalbeascoa, Anatxu: ‘Las mujeres mezclamos menos que los hombres el poder y el sexo’ (El País, 25 January 2020) available online at https://elpais.com/elpais/2020/01/20/eps/1579520691_084992.html