Durán, Gloria 1924–

(Gloria Bradley Durán)

Personal

Born 1924, in Worcester, MA; married Manuel Durán (an educator), 1949; children: Alexander, Philip. Education: Degrees from Wellesley College, Columbia University, and Yale University.

Addresses

Home—889 Indian Hill Rd., Orange, CT 06477; (fall-winter) 1305 Snell Isle Blvd. N.E. St. Petersburg, FL 33704. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Writer and educator. Yale Summer Institute of Languages, New Haven, CT, instructor, 1969–73, and writing tutor, 1980–83. University of Connecticut, Storrs, professor of Spanish, 1980–93. Speaker for organizations and at symposia.

Awards, Honors

Named honorary Puerto Rican at San Juan Congress of International PEN, 1987; First Prize for Young-Adult Fiction, National Association of American Pen Women, 1997, for Malinche: Slave Princess of Cortez; First Prize for Young-Adult Fiction, Latino Book Summit, 2000, for Maria de Estrada; Arch & Brown Foundation grant; several awards for short fiction.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

Malinche: Slave Princess of Cortez (young-adult novel), Linnet Books (Hamden, CT), 1993.

Maria de Estrada: Gypsy Conquistadora, Latin American Literary Review Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1999.

Catalina, mi padre, Spanish translation by Márgara Averbach, Planeta Editorial (Mexico City, Mexico), 2004.

OTHER

(With husband, Manuel Durán) Vivir hoy (textbook), Harcourt Brace Jovanaovich (New York, NY), 1973, second edition, 1981.

La magia y las brujas en la obra de Carlos Fuentes, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico), 1976.

(With Manuel Durán) El mundo del más allá (textbook), Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (New York, NY), 1976.

(With Manuel Durán) Autorretratos y espejos/Self-Portraits and Reflections (textbook), Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1977, second edition, Heinle & Heinle, 1988.

(With Charles E. Kany and Manuel Durán) Spoken Spanish for Students and Travelers, third edition, D.C. Heath (Lexington, MA), 1978.

The Archetypes of Carlos Fuentes: From Witch to Androgyne, Archon Books (Hamden, CT), 1980.

Contributor of articles to journals and anthologies.

Work in Progress

Chicana; or, The House in the Clouds, a novel about the great grandchildren of Emiliano Zapata; Black Dog and Golden Helmet, the adventures of a rich, spoiled girl and her eleven-year-old Mexican friend, involving a golden bicycle helmet and her black dog, which becomes a hero in the jungles of Yucatan.

Sidelights

In addition to teaching Spanish at the university level for many years, Gloria Durán has also collaborated on language textbooks with her husband, fellow educator Manuel Durán, and has produced several well-received novels for young-adult readers. Her award-winning first novel, Malinche: Slave Princess of Cortez, is based on the history of Aztec Princess Malinche and her role as interpreter and mistress to Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez. Drawn from the same period of history, Maria de Estrada: Gypsy Conquistadora was praised by Booklist contributor Margaret Flanagan as a "vibrant chronicle" of the adventures of the young woman who escapes the Spanish inquisition, masters the art of swordfighting, and rises to acclaim as a soldier in Cortez's army during the conquest of the New World.

Durán told SATA: "I started writing fiction for the teen age after observing the reactions of my own students at the University of Connecticut to the various literary texts that we studied. The period that fascinated them most was the conquest of Mexico (especially Bernal Díaz del Castillo) and their favorite character was Malinche. My first novel continues her story. I add to it the other great women of the conquest, Maria de Estrada, since she was also a favorite of many readers. Subsequent research has shown me that several of the characters I imagined in both novels actually existed!

"In Catalina, mi padre I present a hypothetical relationship between the adolescent Sor Juana Inéz de la Cruz and the illustrious 'Lieutenant Nun' Catalina de Erauso, who escaped her convent in Spain and became a conquistador in South America. In my novel she poses as the long-sought natural father of Mexico's greatest poet and feminist avant la lettre. In real life, most of Catalina's exploits take place long before the mid-seventeenth-century birth of Sor Juana. In my novel I have Catalina, who becomes a second narrator, relate her adventures in far more detail than is presented in her actual published memoir. I also try to present a vivid portrait of the world as it was during that period.

"All my fiction centers around strong, independent girls and women whom I hope will serve as models for the young students who read them. They are women whose universe extends far beyond their own person and even their own community, who struggle against social inequality (especially for women), who strive to understand other cultures, and who are deeply moved by the plight of those less fortunate than themselves."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 1993, Ilene Cooper, review of Malinche: Slave Princess of Cortez, p. 1803; July, 1999, Margaret Flanagan, review of Maria de Estrada: Gypsy Conquistadora, p. 1921.

Hoja por Hoja, March, 2005, Eve Gil Arena, review of Catalina, mi padre.

Publishers Weekly, July 25, 1980, review of The Archetypes of Carlos Fuentes, p. 153; July 12, 1993, review of Malinche, p. 81.

School Library Journal, July, 1993, Ann Welton, review of Malinche, p. 98.

Voice of Youth Advocates, June, 1993, review of Malinche, p. 88.