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Poet Cora Coralina remembered 30 years after her death

Discovered by poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade when she was 90 years
Andreia Verdélio, special reporter from Agência Brasil
Published on 13/04/2015 - 19:23
Cidade de Goiás
A menina Ana Lins dos Guimarães Peixoto Bretas se transforma, por sua vida e genialidade, em Cora Coralina, a poetisa de Goiás
© Marcello Casal jr/Agência Brasil

A menina Ana Lins dos Guimarães Peixoto Bretas se transforma, por sua vida e genialidade, em Cora Coralina, a poetisa de Goiás (Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil)

The life and genius of young Ana Lins dos Guimarães Peixoto turned her into Goiás's acclaimed poet Cora Coralina.Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil

Thirty years ago, on April 10, 1985, Cora Coralina died in Goiânia, following pneumonia complications. The daughter of a magistrate and a housewife, she spent her childhood and teenage years living in an old house by a bridge, on the bank of the Red River (Rio Vermelho), now a museum.

The imposing house standing by the river strikes any passerby familiar with the former state capital of Goiás. Neither the city nor the house that fascinated the girl who was born there in August, 1889, was enough for the woman she grew up to become. To free herself of the conservative values imposed on women at the time, she managed to uproot from her birthplace to pursue her dreams. The life and genius of young Ana Lins dos Guimarães Peixoto turned her into Goiás's acclaimed poet Cora Coralina.

Vista noturna da Casa de Cora Coralina (Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil)

The house of Cora CoralinaMarcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil

The transformation started when she fell in love with lawyer and police commissioner Cantídio Tolentino de Figueiredo Bretas. She left the state with him in 1911 while pregnant with twins—the first two of the six children she was to have in her life. Cantídio was a married man, and, since divorce was illegal at the time, they could only formalize their union in 1925, when he became a widower. She raised her children in the state of São Paulo, and, after her husband's death, she worked several jobs to provide for her family. She was a bookseller and a field worker.

But it was only after she returned to Goiás, 45 years later, that the poet was able to come to the fore. Her children had grown up, and she was determined to take back the reins of her life by rendering the adversities she had faced throughout the years into verse.

Casa de Cora Coralina foi transformada em museu (Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil)

A room at Coralina's house, now a museumMarcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil

For Goiandira de Fátima Ortiz de Camargo, professor of poetry at the Federal University of Goiás, “the city and its people have their presence felt in her lines. We can clearly see her recollections retrieved. She talks about the present, but she brings back her past experiences, writing them out in an attempt to prevent the younger generation from committing the same mistakes,” she explains.

According to Marlene Vellasco, director at the Casa de Cora Coralina Museum and a former friend of the poet, the nickname Cora Coralina came to her when she was still a child. “She came up with this pseudonym at the age of 14. Ana was thrown into oblivion, along with the ugly-looking child with scanty hair, the blockhead of the house. She comes forward as Cora Coralina, which is a strong name that means "red heart"—a tribute to the river,” Marlene recounts.

Antolinda Baia Borges, 82, lives in Goiás and kept the poet company up to her last years. The businesswoman says she met Coralina when she came back from São Paulo. “For me, Cora was a very strong person, fearless and bold. At a time when women were not even allowed to watch processions in Goiás, Cora was brave enough to ride off with a married man. When she came back, her return was also unexpected, because the image we had of her was that of a woman who fled to get married,” she says.

In the view of Ebe Maria de Lima Siqueira, literature professor at the State University of Goiás, “Her marriage isn't very clearly reflected in her poetry. It's a hiatus in Cora's works. The closest she gets to alluding to it is when she says she was waiting for a prince when a silver-scaled fish landed in the fishing net—but the fish that had spikes, too. So, from the fact that she doesn't talk much about this relationship, we can infer that she'd always been very lonely in her decisions.”

Diretora do museu Casa de Cora Coralina, Marlene Vellasco, diz que a obra da escritora reflete a vida dura e simples que ela levou (Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil)

Marlene Vellasco, director at the Casa de Cora Coralina Museum Marcello Casal Jr. / Agência Brasil

According to Maria Meire de Carvalho, director and professor at the Federal University of Goiás, Cora Coralina is an example to be followed. “Women lack this kind of boldness, this courage. What Cora did in her poetry was self-denunciation. This is what we have to do, and not worry about labels. 'Do not fear the stones they'll throw at you'—that's what Cora used to say.”

Coralina's friend Autolinda says that, when poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade raised her to prominence in 1980 in an article in the newspaper Jornal do Brasil, fame did not get to her head. “She remained just as humble and poor as she'd always been, living in the same house, with walls held up by sticks. She made candy for a living, and felt proud of it, not vain in the least.”

In her opinion, Coralina had a very strong personality—sometimes on the verge of becoming overbearing—and great willpower. She was a libertarian. “When you least expected it, she was right there in the middle of the bustle, or in the backyard, picking papayas. Cora was a natural, and the great love of her life was poetry,” she notes.


Translated by Fabrício Ferreira


Fonte: Poet Cora Coralina remembered 30 years after her death