MADRID, Spain.- Fermina de Cárdenas, one of the forgotten Cuban poets of the 19th century, was the daughter, wife and mother of renowned and published journalists and writers; but she is remembered very little.
She was the daughter of Nicolás de Cárdenas, who in the early 1840s directed The Press and collaborated in Navy Journal; wife of José de Armas y Céspedes, author of the novel vialdeputy director of The century and founder of the newspaper The Occident; mother of José de Armas y Céspedes, known as Justo de Lara, with a relevant journalistic and intellectual career, recently recalled.
The 1980 print of the Dictionary of Cuban Literature, from Letras Cubanas Editorial, collects reviews of the three. However, he only points to her, when referring to Just from Lara, that “Her first education was received fundamentally from her mother, Fermina.” From other biographical data about Lara, it is known that she was a translator.
In the book Photographic pictorial album of Cuban writers and poetessesby Domitila García de Coronado, published in 1868 and quoted on the Fotos de La Habana website, notes that Chapter XXXIV of vial, entitled “¡La Carta!”, was written by Fermina in epistolary style at the request of her husband. It is also indicated that three children were born from her marriage to José de Armas: José (Justo de Lara), Susini and María.
Sylvie Bouffartigue in her text “Women in the narrative of the War of Independence” (2010), includes her in the bibliography as: Cárdenas, widow of Armas, Fermina de. Calixto Garcia. Havana, Impr. Modern poetry, 1909; and Ena of Rohan [seudónimo de Cárdenas, Viuda de Armas, Fermina de] Quintin Banderas. The hero of the war or the good man with a reputation as a bad man, Cuban historical novel by Ena de Rohan. Havana, Impr. The Universal, 1911.
Fermina died in February 1923 and her literary and historical creations continue without being studied in her native land.
