Aldecoa, Josefina

b. 1926, La Robla (León)

   Writer

   Aldecoa (widow of Ignacio Aldecoa), emerged as a major feminist voice in the 1980s. Two decades of silence followed her 1962 story anthology, A ninguna parte (Going Nowhere). Post-Franco writings include the biographical history of the "Mid-Century Generation", Los niños de la guerra (War's Children), a theme fictionalized in Porque éramos jóvenes (Because We Were Young). Excellent feminist novels, La enredadera (Clinging Vine) and El vergel (Enclosed Garden) investigate marital discontent, while Historia de una maestra (Schoolmarm's Tale) pays tribute to her mother and Republic pedagogues. Mujeres de negro (Women in Mourning) explores exile and return.

   Further reading

   - Perez, J. (1990) "Plant Imagery and Feminine Dependency in Three Contemporary Women Writers", in N.Valis and C.Bradford (eds) In the Feminine Mode: Essays on Hispanic Women Writers, Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, pp. 79–100 (analysis of Aldecoa's La enredadera, plus Carmen Martín Gaite and Maria Antònia Oliver).

   —— (1991). "La madurez narrativa de Josefina Aldecoa", Alaluz 23, 1: 49–53 (studies La enredadera, Porque éramos jóvenes and El vergel).

   JANET PÉREZ