Correos pays tribute to the writer and feminist activist Consuelo Berges Rábago with a commemorative stamp

Correos has issued a new stamp, within its series ‘Characters’which pays tribute to the Spanish writer, journalist, translator and feminist activist Consuelo Berges Rabagobelonging to the Sinsombrero current.

With a circulation of 65,000 units, this issue represents recognition and an invitation to rediscover the power of the written word. The stamp can be purchased at the Post Office, through Correos Market, by contacting the Philatelic Service at the email [email protected] or by calling 915 197 197.

According to Correos, Consuelo Berges stood out for defending women’s rights and translating great French authors into Spanish, work for which she received the prestigious Fray Luis de León translation award. The writer was born in Ucieda (Ruente, Cantabria) and although she barely went to school, she managed to become interested in reading from a very young age, self-taught.

At the age of 15 she moved with her mother to Santander and graduated from the Normal School of Teachers. Once graduated, she settled in Cabezón de la Sal and taught at the academy of Matilde de la Torre, who was her cousin. Then she became a writer and began to publish in the press, making friends through correspondence with other modern young women such as Clara Campoamor, María Zambrano, Concha Méndez or Rosa Chacel, among others.

In 1926 she went into exile to Peru fleeing the repression of Primo de Rivera and settled with relatives in Arequipa, where she worked as a teacher and journalist. Two years later he moved to Buenos Aires where, with the intention of inserting himself into the literary environment, he collaborated with El Diario Español and La Nación and became friends with Alfonsina Storni, Norah Borges and Ana María Benito, among others.

In the Argentine capital he published his first book, ‘Escalas’, in 1930, which he later disowned. After the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, she returned to Europe and, after a brief stay in Paris (there she treated another cousin of hers, the painter María Blanchard), she settled in Madrid, already becoming a representative of the new woman of the avant-garde. She published in a multitude of literary and feminist magazines and worked as a librarian at the Archive of the Provincial Charity Board.

In 1935 he published his booklet ‘Explanation of October’, a compressed history of four years of the Republic in Spain, in which he denounced the repression of the Cedista government. When the war broke out she moved to Barcelona, ​​a city where she strengthened her collaboration with the intellectual and political core ‘Free Women’.

Consuelo Berges Rábago went into exile to France in 1939, through Portbou, and was imprisoned in the Puy-en-Velay concentration camp. She returned to Spain in 1943 and opted for translation as a way of life, dedicated to the greatest authors of French literature: Descartes, Rousseau, Saint-Simon, Flaubert, Balzac, Proust and above all to Stendhal, whom she also biographed in 1963.

He received the Fray Luis de León Prize for translation in its first call and the Silver Medal for merit in Fine Arts. She was the first Spanish translator to have her translation rights recognized. and in 1954, together with Marcela de Juan, he promoted the APETI (Spanish Professional Association of Translators and Interpreters).

In 1983 he created a Foundation with his name, but his financial problems began. Later, he created the Stendhal Prize (1989), which has awarded each year since then the best translations from French to Spanish. He died in Madrid in 1988.