She cherished the thrill of the unpredictable and the curious, drawn to the unknown and the quiet resonance of unread pages. She preferred roaming in the moment, smelling things without dissecting them, and building a life that moved with the wind rather than lingering in fixed spots. Her philosophy invited a life not bound by routine, a vitality that refused to settle into a single place or a solitary fate. The image of a palace surrounded by a cemetery felt like a metaphor for choosing freedom of spirit over stability, a way to live and die with fierce independence.
Carmen de Burgos, known as Colombine, was a writer, journalist, translator, and tireless advocate for women’s rights. Her existence and literary career blend strong convictions with a determined, unapologetic character that pressed against the boundaries set by a male-dominated era.
From the moment she chose to leave an unsupportive husband to the passage of her life, Colombine’s trajectory persisted through a world shaped by men. Her biography unfolds in a landscape where autonomy was a radical act and ethical conviction demanded continual action.
She authored Divorce in Spain in 1903, a bold work for its time. As director of Revista Critica, she defended the Sephardic cause and stood up for Jews expelled by the Catholic Monarchs, insisting on justice even when it cost her politically.
As the first war correspondent during the summer of 1909, she witnessed the North African conflicts firsthand. Her diaries from Melilla reveal a temperament that embraced the harsh realities of conflict. After travels through the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, she published Letters Without an Address in Flanders in 1912, a work that positioned her at the forefront of nationalist discussions. During a third European journey with her daughter, World War I erupted and she was briefly detained in Germany on suspicion of assisting Russian interests.
She published La rampa in 1917, a novel about a long-suffering middle-class woman. Her ongoing emphasis on women’s lives through fiction sparked controversy and sparked a distance from some circles. Yet she persevered, insisting that to live is to fight, and that a life fully lived requires courage and defiance.
Health challenges, including a heart condition and the damp Madrid winters, led her to relocate to warmer shores in Portugal for a time. Mounting debts eventually forced the sale of the Estoril villa built by a renowned contemporary, and the family relocated to Naples to seek new horizons.
Returning to Madrid, she wrote Quiero vivir mi vida, with a foreword by a prominent physician and writer, marking a decisive shift in style and subject matter, particularly around gender and intersex experiences.
Her active feminism placed her at the forefront of the movement for women’s suffrage, alongside Clara de Campoamor. In 1921, she directed the first demonstration advocating legal equality before Parliament, a bold statement that underscored her lifelong commitment to political and social reform. Before her death, she supported adoption rights, founding a related initiative that reflected her belief in compassionate, inclusive family structures.
As a journalist, she contributed to major newspapers and magazines of the era and reported on national and international affairs. Her broad literary output, including books, magazines, and letters, has been preserved through diligent archivists and scholars, helping illuminate the life of a remarkable woman who helped shape early modern journalism and feminist thought.
Her work faced censorship at the end of the Civil War, and in subsequent decades she faced political persecution tied to broader anti-Masonic and anti-Communist campaigns. With Spain’s democratic transition, a gradually revived appreciation emerged for a woman who had been admired internationally as an educator, journalist, writer, and intellectual, even as she had been stigmatized in some circles for her outspoken ideas.
Over time, the memory of this formidable figure suffered neglect, a toll exacted by censorship and political shifts. Yet a new generation sought to restore recognition of her headstrong, independent spirit and the impact she left on Spanish cultural and civic life.
Asunción Valdés, a notable European legal and cultural figure, later led the College of Europe program in Bruges and served in the European Parliament’s office in Spain. He became a pioneer in communications at the royal residence and built a career in foreign relations across the Iberian press. A street in his hometown of Alicante bears his name, commemorating his journalistic legacy and public service.