Journalism in Carmen Burgos’s life
Introduction.
As we have said in the previous part, journalism in the life of Carmen de Burgos occupied a fundamental role. Not only did he manage to survive economically, but he provided him with a certain fame – for his articles and the positions achieved within the newspapers, the recognition in countries that Spain – which served to make his literary works known, and will come to find several personalities , both political and artistic.
First of all, we have to remember that at the time – in journalism – the articles that tried matters of great importance and in fact could have a great achievement were mostly written by men. Women were away from serious themes, as Paíno says:
Developing.
The journalistic profession until well into the nineteenth century was mostly reserved, like many other trades, to the male sex, and there was hardly any room for women who wanted to participate in cultural and political life. While it is true that the mentality of this era began to accept the increasingly active role of women in society, it is no less true that the survival of certain structures of the old regime prevented its full development in the professional field.
Therefore, Carmen de Burgos achieved a distinction within this very closed and "elitist" area (in the sense that men were almost considered as true journalists): it was one of the first editors in a newspaper and the first War correspondent of the country.
This desire for journalistic writing was born very early. As we have said, Carmen de Burgos had worked as a box and started writing the first articles of her during the first years of her marriage. In 1902, she took greater reach the involvement of her, as we can check with the words of Cabanillas:
From this moment on, she multiply her collaborations in different publications: Comic Madrid, the correspondence of Spain, Universal Diario, the artistic correspondence, the globe and ABC; in which she signs with several pseudonyms.
It was from 1902 that his first articles began to be published, in the correspondence of Spain and in the globe, in which he was in charge of a new column, female notes, in which he published articles around the life of the Spanish woman :
In the beginning, they proposed that he will deal with the conventionally female issues in his column, but very soon broke those limits to deal with issues that affected the whole society: work, education, childhood, the situation of prisons, the penalty of death.
Núñez King Complete saying:
The incessant concern of her for the problems of Spain led her to promote various campaigns from the press: the first of them, in favor of divorce, had great resonance and caused a broad social debate; Then came others, against the death penalty, in favor of the female vote, against various discriminatory laws or against war.
A year later, in 1903, she began working for the Universal newspaper that would achieve her recognition as a professional journalist, the first in Spain. In fact, she managed to work in the same way as men, to leave to carry out surveys or interviews, write articles on more serious and more scope matters. During this period she adopted her pseudonym, Colombine, suggested by her editor Augusto Suárez de Figueroa. This pseudonym – which must protect Carmen’s identity – refers to a character from comedy dell’arte, but far away from the personality of women. Very quickly, it was known who signed under this pseudonym, since Carmen de Burgos continued to sign certain articles – set to other newspapers – with his name.
In her work, Carmen not only dealt with the issue of women, her defense, but also important issues, as Núñez Rey recalls:
Her relentless concern for the problems of Spain led her to promote various campaigns from the press: the first of them, in favor of divorce, had great resonance and caused a broad social debate; Then came others, against the death penalty, in favor of the female vote, against various discriminatory laws or against war.
As we said several times, Carmen de Burgos undertook a job around divorce. As of 1903, she militated in favor of a law that allowed it, and it was thanks to her work in the newspaper that she came to operate a reflection within society on the matter. In fact, the woman questioned several personalities, of all horizons (politicians, journalists, writers, artists, etc.) to gather her opinions about the matter and publish it under the title "The Divorce lawsuit". Years later she served the model of this survey to reiterate the experience, this time, to promote the female vote. This new survey entitled "The Women’s Vote" was published but it was not as large as the precedent.
The journalistic work of Carmen de Burgos was really colossal, for the large number of articles she wrote, the numerous newspapers for which she worked (not only Spaniards but some foreigners), and for having been the first professional journalist and first correspondent of war.
It was the Herald of Madrid that provided him with the possibility of becoming a war correspondent. In the beginning of the twentieth century, the war broke out in Morocco involving Spain in several conflicts and, naturally, the newspapers sent journalists to give accounts of today and the progress of the conquest there.
conclusion
Carmen de Burgos was the only woman in the group of journalists who could leave in the battles fields. In fact, in the society of the time, it was not appropriate for a woman to deal with such important issues and above all that she was in a war environment. But in 1906, under the "pretext" of following the Red Cross to inform the population about the work of nurses or doctors, Carmen de Burgos arrived in Melilla. It is summarized by Cabanillas Casafranca:
Recapitulating, in Melilla Carmen did a humanitarian work giving news of the situation of the soldiers to the relatives who requested it, and in the pages of Herald the lists of patients and injured were published daily. In her articles, she repressed at the moment her anti -war trials. Later, upon her return, she threw himself to a new campaign, this time against the war, which she considers supreme human barbarism.
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