Dominican Republic / All works
Poetry
Las vírgenes de Galindo
Not translated into English
Félix María del Monte · 1885
Synopsis
A historical legend in verse, in two parts. It opens with a eulogy of Santo Domingo and runs through the history of the island up to the Haitian invasion of February 1822, then moves to Galindo, at the gates of the city, where Andújar lives with his daughters. A young man in love with Águeda, the eldest, asks for her hand; the father, the young woman and the suitor exchange long dialogues, while the crime announced by the title is being prepared.
Context
According to its preface, the author composed these verses in San Juan de Porto Rico during his exile, around 1860, when proclamations coming from Haiti made him fear for his homeland; he published them only in 1885. Rita Tejada, who gives them as an appendix to her edition of Penson, stresses the digressions and the variety of metres, and considers that the two authors arrange the story to stir up hostility towards the Haitians. Penson drew from it the most carefully worked of his traditions.
Who it is for
In Spanish; a long text in uneven verse, to be read as a document of the literary anti-Haitianism of the nineteenth century.
Prizes and reception
The best-known text by its author, according to Acento, and the source of a tradition in Cosas añejas.
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