Aguilar, Rosario (Fiallos de) 1938-

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AGUILAR, Rosario (Fiallos de) 1938-

PERSONAL: Born January 29, 1938, in León, Nicaragua; daughter of Mariano Fiallos Gil (a lawyer) and Soledad Oyanguren; married Ivan Aguilar, October 4, 1958; children: Ivan E., Piedad, Leonel, Yolanda, Ximena. Ethnicity: "Hispanic." Education: Attended Colegio La Asunción, León, Nicaragua, 1943-53, and St. Mary of the Pines, Chatana, MS, 1953-56. Religion: Roman Catholic. Hobbies and other interests: Literature, history, conservation of the tropical rain forest.

ADDRESSES: Home—P.O. Box 162, León, Nicaragua; fax: 505-311-3278. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer. City of León, Nicaragua, member of Municipal Council's Select Commission on History.

MEMBER: Nicaraguan Academy of the Spanish Language (elected member), Centro Nicaragüense de Escritores, Instituto Nicaragüense de Cultura Hispanica, Alianza Francesa, Spanish Royal Academy (Madrid; corresponding member).

AWARDS, HONORS: Diploma of Recognition, mayor of the city of León, 1994, for her contribution in protecting and conserving the historic heritage of León; Cultural Achievement Award, president of the Nicaraguan National Assembly, 1996; Diploma for Excellence in Novel Writing, Instituto Cultural Ruben Dario, 1996; Diploma of Recognition, Municipal Council of León, 1996, for cultural contribution to the city of León; award from Universidad de Ciencias Comerciales, 1998; award from Ave María College, Universidad de Mobile, 2000; award from Centro Nicaragüense de Escritores, 2001; Gabriela Mistral Latin American and Caribbean Literary Prize, Asociation Côté-Femmes (Paris, France) and Women and Society of the University of Bogotá, 2001; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua, D.H.C., 2001, award for literary works, 2002; award from Universidad Centroamericana, 2002.

WRITINGS:

novels

Primavera sonámbula (title means "Sleepwalking Spring"), Editorial Hospicio (León, Nicaragua), 1964, revised edition, Ediarte (Managua, Nicaragua), 1999.

Quince barrotes de izquierda a derecha, Editorial Nicaragüense (Managua, Nicaragua), 1965, revised edition, Ediarte (Managua, Nicaragua), 1999.

Rosa sarmiento (biographical novel), Editorial Unión (Managua, Nicaragua), 1968, revised edition, Ediarte (Managua, Nicaragua), 1999.

Aquel mar sin fondo ni playa (title means "That Sea without Bottom or Beach"), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua (León, Nicaragua), 1970, revised edition, Ediarte (Managua, Nicaragua), 1999.

Las Doce y veintinueve (title means "Twelve-twenty-nine"), Cuadernos Universitarios (León, Nicaragua), 1975.

Primavera sonámbula (contains Primavera sonámbula,Quince barrotes de izquierda a derecha, Rosa sarmiento, Aquel mar sin fondo ni playa, and El Guerrillero), Editorial Universitaria Centroamericana (San José, Costa Rica), 1976.

La Niña blanca y los pájaros sin pies (historical novel), Editorial Nueva Nicaragua (Managua, Nicaragua), 1992, translation by Edward W. Hood published as The Lost Chronicles of Terra Firma, White Pine Press (New York, NY), 1997.

El Guerrillero, revised edition, Ediarte (Managua, Nicaragua), 1999.

La Promesante, Indigo (Paris, France), 2001.

other

Siete relatos sobre el amor y la guerra (short stories; title means "Seven Tales about Love and War"), Editorial Universitaria Centroamericana (San José, Costa Rica), 1986.

Soledad: Tú eres el enlace (biography; title means "Soledad: You Are the Link"), Editora de Arte (Managua, Nicaragua), 1995.

Several of Aguilar's novels have been translated into French.

Contributor to books, including Rubén Darío y su Vigencia en el Siglo XXI: Memoria del primer simposio internacional en León, Nicaragua, edited by Jorge Eduardo Arellano, JEA Editor (León, Nicaragua), 2003.

WORK IN PROGRESS: El Penitente, a sequel to the novel La Promesante, for Nicaraguan Academy of the Spanish Language; The Wind before the Storm, an English translation of El Guerrillero and Siete relatos sobre el amor y la guerra.

SIDELIGHTS: The novels and short stories of Rosario Aguilar often focus on women at moments of crisis. Primavera sonámbula is the story of a young woman's struggle with mental illness, while Aquel mar sin fondo ni playa concerns a young wife who fears her child may be born mentally impaired. Many of Aguilar's writings also make use of a historical setting. Rosa sarmiento is a biographical novel based on the life of the mother of the Nicaraguan modernist poet Rubén Darío. Las Doce y veintinueve follows four women of different social classes through the events surrounding a devastating earthquake that struck Nicaragua in 1972. El Guerrillero and Siete relatos sobre el amor y la guerra both concern women involved in the Sandinista movement that ousted the dictatorial Somoza regime in 1979.

Aguilar's novel La Niña blanca y los pájaros sin pies was published in English as The Lost Chronicles of Terra Firma. Published to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the New World, the book traces the lives of several women—Spanish, indigenous, and mestiza—at the time of the Spanish conquest. The stories of these women are presented within a frame narrative in which a young woman journalist in modern-day Nicaragua conducts research for a novel on women's lives during the conquest. Reviewing the novel in the New York Times Book Review, Erik Burns commented that its "fine prose . . . captures the ambiguities involved in modern views of those earlier times, conveying both their horrors and their glories." Aguilar also published a biography of her mother, Soledad: Tú eres el enlace.

Aguilar described El Promesante to CA as "the story of a young girl who, in her first sexual experience, gets infected with HIV by her boyfriend who unknowingly carries the virus. She travels to New York with her mother and doesn't find out until a routine examination in a hospital detects the HIV. There the world falls apart for her, and her life takes an unexpected turn."

Aguilar once told CA: "Ever since I was a child I had a keen interest in history. When I read the books written by the Spanish chroniclers of the conquest of Mexico and Central America, I found to my surprise that they wrote very little about the women that came with the conquistadors to the New World and the natives. I decided to give these women, Spanish and native, a voice, a perspective in the events they helped to shape, writing about them in a novel.

"My research took me not only to the Spanish books, but also to the archives of the conquest in Seville, the basic books of the Mayas like the Popol Vuh, the legends of the Guatemalan Indians, and the history of Nahuatl literature where, through the poems, I found the essence of the spirit of the native people. I also studied the sacred chants and the Church's liturgy of the time.

"Based on these historical facts I wrote the fictional novel The Lost Chronicles of Terra Firma."