Salomé Ureña


Salomé Ureña was a Dominican poet and the founder of women's higher education in the Dominican Republic.

Biography

Salomé Ureña was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on October 21, 1850. She was the daughter of writer Nicolás Ureña de Mendoza and Gregoria Díaz de León, who also gave their daughter her early education. At a young age Salomé was well influenced by literature. Her father taught her the classic works of Spanish and French writers that helped the young Salomé to develop her own literary career.
She began publishing her first works at the age of seventeen and soon became known for her spontaneity and tenderness. Later on, her poetry became more tragic and sad with poems such as "En horas de angustia" or very patriotic and strong in poems such as "La Patria" and "Ruinas". She would include more personal themes in her poetry, as noted in "Mi Pedro", "La llegada del invierno", and a book that became very popular called "Steven", where she talks about her country, her family, the plants and flowers, and the island itself.
At the age of thirty in 1880, she married Dr. Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal, himself a writer, and an important figure in politics. The couple had four children: Francisco, Pedro, Max, and Camila Henríquez Ureña. Their children would later become highly respected figures of the mid- and late 20th century as writers, philosophers, poets, and critics of the arts.
Around 1881, Salomé with the help of her husband opened the first center of higher education for young women in the Dominican Republic, which she named "Instituto de Señoritas". Within five years, the first six female teachers had graduated from the Institute, something uncommon at the time. The first graduating class included Mercedes Laura Aguiar, Leonor M. Feltz, Altagracia Henríquez Perdomo, Luisa Ozema Pellerano, Catalina Pou, and Ana Josefa Puello.
Ureña died on March 6, 1897, at age 46, due to complications of tuberculosis.

Ancestry

Poems