Cora Coralina

The Brazilian poet, Cora Coralina, was born Ana Lins dos Guimarães Peixoto in Goiás Velho, in the state of Goiás, in 1889. Her father, Francisco de Paula Lins dos Guimarães Peixoto, a judge, died when she was two months old. Cora’s mother, Jacyntha Luiza do Couto Brandão, came from a once wealthy family, but consequently Cora was raised with her three sisters in genteel poverty. She only attended school for two, possibly three, years but was self-taught and read extensively although she received no family encouragement in her literary interests, which were seen as unsuitable for a girl in the traditional patriarchal society. Nevertheless, in her late teens, Cora Coralina became involved in the thriving literary scene in Goiás Velho, concentrating on prose writing and publishing articles in the local newspaper. She adopted the pseudonym Cora Coralina at this time to distinguish herself from the many girls named Ana in the town. 

In 1910, following the publication of her short story, ‘Tragedia na Roça’, in the Annuario Histórico, Geographico e Descriptivo do Estado de Goyaz, she was described by Professor Francisco Ferreira as 'the best writer in our state, even though she’s not even twenty years old'. At the Gabinete Literário Goiano (the town’s literary and cultural centre) she met Cantídio Tolentino Bretas, the new police chief for the state, who was separated from his wife. In 1911 Cora Coralina ran away from Goiás Velho with him (‘em busca do meu destino’), by night and on horseback, already pregnant with her first child and scandalizing the town. Cora spent the next forty-five years living in the state of São Paulo, where she continued writing and published some articles in local newspapers, although her husband strongly discouraged her writing. During this period, she also began writing poetry, although none of it would be published for many years. In 1956, widowed and with her children now independent, she returned to Goiás Velho for the first time since 1911 and lived for the rest of her life in her childhood home, Casa Velha da Ponte, making and selling crystallised fruits traditional to Goiás, while devoting herself to writing poetry in her free time.  

Cora’s first collection of poetry, Poemas dos becos de Goiás e estórias mais, was rejected by many publishing houses before it was finally published in 1965. A second book, Meu livro de cordel, followed in in 1976. Nevertheless, recognition and success eluded her: not only was she a woman attempting to gain recognition as a writer in the male-dominated literary establishment in Brazil, but she was elderly, with little formal education, and lived far from the Rio-São Paulo literary axis. Her style and subjects, with her focus on the past and on the rural, failed to fit in with the literary trends of the time. However, in 1980 the Brazilian writer and critic, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, published a eulogistic essay, ‘Cora Coralina de Goiás’, in Jornal do Brasil. This validation led to a dramatic increase in the visibility of Cora and her work in the last years of her life and she achieved enormous popularity before her death in 1985 at the age of ninety-five.

It is generally agreed that Cora Coralina’s work has echoes of the Modernist tradition, particularly her use of free verse with no metre or rhyme, and her use of everyday vocabulary. Cora said that she had never managed to write formal poetry and that it was 'só depois que a poesia se libertou da rima e da métrica [...] me libertei das minhas dificuldades'. This, together with the strong narrative element of her poetry, led to some critics describing her work as ‘prose poems’. The wide range of styles and language that Cora employed included narrative, lyrical and epic, with use of colloquialisms, archaisms and Afro-Brazilian words. Her themes included social injustice and discrimination against women, especially against those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, such as washerwomen and prostitutes. Her third collection, Vintém de Cobre: meias confissões de Aninha (1983) contains autobiographical poems, which describe her unhappy childhood as the 'menina mal-amada’, her distant relationship with her mother, who had hoped for a son, the bullying she suffered, and the rigid social expectations of young women, which Cora would transgress so dramatically in her departure from Goiás Velho. She also looked back at life in Brazil in the rural interior, drawing on her own memories and those of her two great-grandmothers, with vivid descriptions of the quiet former goldmining town, the cerrado and the natural life.  

Part of Cora Coralina’s enduring fame in Brazil is undoubtedly the result of the ‘myth’ that grew up around her. Many of the factors that contributed to her lack of critical recognition enhanced her appeal to the public: the elderly poet who declaimed her simple but profound poetry in television appearances as well as to visitors to her home, her assertion that 'Sou mulher como outra qualquer', the lyrical references to the obstacles that she overcame in her life ('removendo pedras e plantando flores'), as well as her close identification with the picturesque historic town of Goiás Velho. Her own empowerment as a woman in the face of prejudice, plus the voice she gave to women who would otherwise have been silent and forgotten by history, has made her a feminist icon for some Brazilian women and girls.  

Cora Coralina was the first recipient of the state of Goiás’ literary prize, the Troféu Jaburu, in 1981. She was the first woman to receive Brazil’s Troféu Juca Pato as ‘Intelectual do Ano’ in 1984 and was posthumously awarded the Ordem do Mérito Cultural Grã-Cruz for literature in 2006.  

Following Cora’s death, a further three collections of her work (containing poetry and short stories) were published, plus a book combining poetry with recipes, Doceira e poeta, and two illustrated children’s stories. All her work is currently in print with Global Editora (as of 2024). None of Cora’s work has yet been published in English translation and the writer remains little known outside Brazil.

Compiled by Kathryn Folland (London)