Livia Veloz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
September 11, 1892
Livia Veloz | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Livia María Veloz September 11, 1892 |
| Died | March 21, 1980 (aged 87) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic |
| Occupations | Writer, teacher |
| Notable work | Historia del Feminismo en la República Dominicana |
Livia María Veloz (September 11, 1892 – March 21, 1980) was a Dominican writer, teacher, and feminist activist. Her poetry, novel, and primary school textbooks received several national and international awards. Veloz was a founding member of Acción Feminista Dominicana (AFD), an early feminist organization in the Dominican Republic. Veloz campaigned for women's suffrage and contributed to AFD initiatives such as teaching in night schools for working class women. She is considered a feminist pioneer, and her 1977 book Historia del Feminismo en la República Dominicana is an important source for historians of feminism in the Dominican Republic.
Livia María Veloz was born on September 11, 1892, to Juan Pablo Veloz and Adelina Echavarría.[1] Her father was a stonemason and bricklayer. Veloz attended the Instituto de Señoritas, a teacher training college in Santo Domingo, graduating in 1913.[2]
Career
Along with Abigail Mejia, Veloz was a founding member of Club Nosotras (literally "our club"), a literary and cultural society for Dominican women.[3] Veloz's first book of poetry, Preludios Sentimentales, was published in 1929 to positive reviews. In 1931, one of her sonnets received an honorable mention in a literary contest sponsored by the Azua Chamber of Commerce. She published another collection of poems in 1936, Accordes, which was also critically well received.[1]
Veloz published the first volume of Libro Dominicano de Lectura, a primary school textbook, in 1939. At the time, the work was unique because Veloz wrote the entire book herself, rather than compiling excerpts from other source books. The Dominican National Council on Education selected it as a recommended textbook for primary school curricula. Veloz continued publishing new editions of the textbook for the next two decades. In 1964, the Secretary of State of Education awarded her the national Salomé Ureña prize for the fourth volume of Libro Dominicano de Lectura.[1]
In 1940, a jury selected Veloz's novel La Más Chiquita to represent the Dominican Republic in a Farrar & Rinehart contest to find the best unpublished Latin American novel. Veloz received an honorable mention, but the book remained unpublished. It was eventually released posthumously in 1992 under the title Ojos Entreabiertos.[1][3] Her final book of poetry, Transparencias, was published in 1971.[1]
Veloz composed the school hymn for Colegio Serafín de Asís, a Franciscan school where her sister Sor Leticia Veloz was principal.[4]
