La Paz (Bolívia), 1916 -1999

By Flávio Aguiar

Daughter of the writer Juan Francisco Bedregal, she spent her youth among writers such as José María Arguedas, attending literary gatherings at her family’s home in La Paz. She actively participated in intellectual movements in her country during the late 1940s. She dedicated herself to writing poems, novels, short stories, essays, anthologies, and articles. She also wrote works for children, focusing on myths, folklore, and indigenous Aymara and Quechua arts. These themes populate her biographical universe, along with the indigenous “mamas,” who have been present since Naufragio, her first poetry book published in 1936. That same year, she lived in New York to further her studies in fine arts.

A great promoter of her country’s literature, she organized the first Antología de la poesía boliviana in 1977. One of the defining features of her work—testimonial literature—can be seen in the novel Bajo el oscuro sol (1971), which is set against the backdrop of the revolution against the government of Hernando Siles Reyes. She received the National Erich Guttentag Prize and the Gabriela Mistral Medal from the Chilean government (1996). She was also a recognized sculptor. Other works include Almadía (1977) and Escrito (1994).