Poems by Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda

Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda was a writer and translator into Spanish. Born in Cuba, at the age of twenty-two she settled in Spain, although she always felt longing for her homeland, to which she could only return temporarily. She is considered the most characteristic poet of Hispanic romanticism.
Unlike European romanticism, the Hispanic American faces its historical reality. There is an attempt at social criticism and defiance in the face of the political chaos of his time. However, when placing Avellaneda in the field of Spanish-American romanticism —and specifically Cuban— we must not overlook that she developed most of her work in Spain, so it is a romanticism different in its form and content.
Beyond the central themes of nineteenth-century romantic literature: nature, love and every sentimental explosion, poetry is also as a rational exploration of being, search for knowledge and weapon of subordination.
For Avellaneda, the power of poetry is ultimately as a woman and as a Cuban, a tool of liberation.

The return to the homeland
Greeting

Pearl of the sea! Beautiful Cuba!
After such a long absence
That for more than four decades
I recounted his unhappy hours,
Around the end, around stepping 5
Your ever-beloved beaches,
With joy swollen the breast,
Of enthusiasm burning the soul.
Cheers, O blessed land,
Quiet Eden of my childhood, 10
That you hold so many memories
From my dreams of hope!
Cheers, cheers, noble sons!
From this my sweet homeland!
Brethren, who make his glory! 15
Sisters, you are his gala!
Bless you!… If deep affections
Translating can words,
For the beloved areas
Bear, —perfumed breezes, 20
That you have rocked my cradle
Between bananas and palms!—
Bring the tender greetings
That my love consecrates to Cuba.
Take them through those fields 25
May your breath embalm,
And in whose living environment
My heart is restored:
For those happy fields,
That the cierzo never mistreats, 30
And whose perennial pomp
Melifluous mockingbirds sing.
Those fields of the ceiba
Even the clouds lift
From its crown the green awning, 35
What a pleasant freshness it spills:
Where cedar and mahogany
They confuse their large branches,
And the yarey and the coconut tree
Its cute stalks link 40
Where the orange and pineapple
They pour their fragrance into the pair;
Where Audible Responds
To your kisses the cane;
Where the coffee trees hold 45
Its filigree flowers,
And its ruby grains
And its emerald leaves.