Background
Carolina Coronado was born in Almendralejo, Badajoz in the province of Extremadura on 20 December 1820. Her family was well-to-do, but they adhered to a progressive ideology that caused her father and grandfather to be persecuted.
Carolina Coronado was born in Almendralejo, Badajoz in the province of Extremadura on 20 December 1820. Her family was well-to-do, but they adhered to a progressive ideology that caused her father and grandfather to be persecuted.
She became so popular as to merit the title "the female Bécquer."
After moving to the provincial capital of Badajoz, Carolina received the formal education for girls of her time: fashion and housework. Despite this, she demonstrated at an early age an interest in literature, and she began to read works from widely varying genres. Thanks to this activity she gained a natural ability to compose verses.
Though she employed somewhat sloppy language and committed grammatical errors, her lines were spontaneous and charged with feeling.
Many of her poems were based on impossible loves. Her most notable subject was Alberto - who may not even have existed.
Her earliest poems were written when she was 10 years old. Her romantic temperament could also have been influenced by the chronic catalepsy from which she suffered.
She even appeared to "die" on several occasions, leading her to become obsessed with death.
Perry was the secretary of the American embassy. Her gatherings served as a meeting-point for progressive writers and a refuge for the persecuted, including many of the most well-known authors of the time. Unfortunately for her, her clandestine refuge and affinity for revolution brought about the disapproval of her contemporaries.
Despite this, she succeeded in publishing several works in newspapers and magazines and thus gained a certain measure of fame.
Her physical beauty undoubtedly contributed to her success, and it caused infamous admiration in other romantic writers. In fact, José de Espronceda dedicated the following verses to her:
Dicen que tienes trece primaveras (They say that you have thirteen springs)
y eres portento de hermosura ya, (and you are a vision of beauty)
y que en tus grandes ojos reverberas (and that in your great eyes reverberates)
la lumbre de los astros inmortal.
(the glow of the immortal stars)
Coronado died in Lisbon, Portugal on 15 January 1911.