Thursday, 05 January 2012 10:57
The cover of the book Trip to Havana
María de la Mercedes Baltrán Santa Cruz y Cárdenas Montalvo y O'Farrill, who everyone knows simply as the Countess of Merlín, was born in 1879 in San Cristóbal de La Habana.
Considering that she was one of the first writers was born on the island, this woman created a literary production, fundamentally autobiographical, not in Castilian, rather in French. Hardly twelve years hold, the future Countess of Merlín started her european life in Madrid. Living with her mother, Lady María Teresa Montalvo y O'Farrill, she concluded her formation of a woman of high society.
While living in Spain, which was occupied by the French at the time, she met the Gallic General Antonio Cristóbal Merlín at an evening party. The Countess of Merlín later married him in 1811 at the age of 20. In 1814, with the end of the French occupation, the family moved to París, integrating themselves in high society, the evening parties that the Countess organized gained notoriety, delighting her guests with her grace, intelligence, beauty, and exquisite soprano voice. Among the habitual partygoers were Rossini, Mayerbeer, Musset, Listz, Chopin, Balzac, and other notable guests.
The most representative work of the Countess of Merlín without a doubt is La Havane (Also edited as Viage á La Habana); a book of travels, made up of 36 letters which she wrote to friends and family. In the letters she describes and narrates the traditions and colors of this luminous city with a certain ambivalence… she felt european but did not forget her American origin, Cuban and from Havana.
Doña Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, another celebrated Cuban, had taken charge of the prologue of this book in which she reflected, "the style of Mrs. Merlín is, in general; calm, composed, easy, elegant, and humorous. In her writing one can find an acute judge and an admirable harmony of ideas."
The various works of the Countess of Merlín accredit her as a pioneer of Cuban feminine literature. She has left us her beautiful testimonies that allow us to better know this eternally-loved city.
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