author
Rosalía de Castro
1837–1885
A pioneering voice of modern Galician literature, this 19th-century poet and novelist wrote with unusual intimacy about longing, injustice, memory, and homeland. Her work helped bring the Galician language into the center of literary life and still feels vivid today.
3 Audiobooks
Cantares gallegos
by Rosalía de Castro
Follas Novas: Versos en Gallego
by Rosalía de Castro
En las orillas del Sar
by Rosalía de Castro
About the author
Born in Santiago de Compostela on February 23, 1837, Rosalía de Castro became one of the defining writers of 19th-century Spain and the central literary figure of Galicia’s Rexurdimento, the cultural revival that restored prestige to the Galician language. She wrote in both Galician and Castilian Spanish, and her poems are remembered for their musical language, emotional honesty, and deep sympathy for ordinary people.
Her best-known books include Cantares gallegos (1863), a landmark in Galician literature, and Follas novas (1880), along with the Castilian collection En las orillas del Sar (1884). Across poetry and fiction, she returned again and again to themes of exile, poverty, social pain, women’s lives, and the pull of home, giving her work both local roots and lasting universal appeal.
She married the historian Manuel Murguía in 1858 and spent much of her life between literary work and family life. Rosalía de Castro died in Padrón on July 15, 1885, but her influence only grew after her death; she is now widely regarded as Galicia’s great cultural icon and one of the most important lyric voices in Spanish literature.