Abstract

Frasquita Larrea was a woman ahead of her time. Born in Cadiz, Spain, in 1775 of Spanish and Irish parentage, Frasquita became a translator, a writer, a political activist, and the host of important gatherings in her home to discuss politics, literature among other contemporary issues. However, nowadays she is known as the wife of Juan Nicolas Bohl von Faber or as the mother of the writer Celicia Bohl de Faber, who signed her work as Fernan Caballero.

Feminism in Spain had not taken a very aggressive form in the early nineteenth century, and it was enough that a woman have a mind of her own and a desire to take part in the intellectual and political life of her times to gain her the name of feminist. Frasquita Larrea was animated by such desire throughout her active years. She received a privileged education,  she loved to read Shakespeare, Chateaubriand, Walter Scott and she translated works by Byron and Mary Wollstonecraft. Frasquita, like Wollstonecraft, was a strong defender of gender equality. Her husband criticized her for reading such works as Vindication of the Rights of Women and in general for not being the ideal wife he wanted.

Frasquita witnessed the War of Independence in Spain and this awakened her own political conscience. She lived in Chiclana (in the province of Cadiz) in 1810 at a time when the French occupied this territory, and she used the only weapon that was available to her: literature, to represent through her writings her feminist patriotism. The purpose of this research project is to recover Spain’s feminist tradition by bringing to light important contributions of women, like Frasquita Larrea, who have been marginalized and forgotten, and who deserve a place in the history of Spanish literature.