Victoria Urbano Papers, 1940-1986

Biographical Note

Central American feminist author Victoria Eugenia Urbano was born June 4, 1926 in San José, Costa Rica to Victor Urbano and Aida Pérez Urbano. Urbano began to show a passion for writing at an early age and went on to compose and publish numerous works of poetry, essays, short stories, articles, and plays throughout her lifetime.

As a girl at the Escuela República Argentina in San José, Urbano won the Premio José Arce in 1940 for her composition about Argentine national heroes. Four years later, she started RITMO, the first student newspaper at the Colegio Superior de Señoritas. After graduation from secondary school, Urbano moved to San Francisco, Calif. to work and study. She worked as a secretary at the Connell Bros. Company from 1947 to 1952, and in her free time wrote poetry, prose, and many travel articles for local newspapers. Urbano also presided over the Círculo Hispanoamericano and its series of programs and lectures. It was during this time in San Francisco that she wrote Marfil, cuentos y poesías, published in 1951 by Ediciones Botas of Mexico City.

In 1952 Victoria Urbano moved to Madrid to study dramatic writing at Spain's Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático. There she wrote several plays that were produced in Madrid and well reviewed, including Agar, la esclava, and La Hija de Charles Green. After she graduated with honors, Urbano went on to study at the University of Madrid where she received her M.A. and Ph.D., Magna Cum Laude.

Urbano accepted a teaching position at Lamar University in Beaumont, Tex and returned to the U.S. in 1966. She was a primarily a professor of Spanish language, but also taught Spanish literature and Italian. She was active in numerous campus committees, activities, and professional organizations, including the Lamar Spanish Circle, the Lamar Italian Circle, the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, the American Association of University Professors, the Pan American Round Table, and the South Central Modern Language Association. Urbano was named a lifetime Regents' Professor in 1972 for her outstanding work in research and instruction. She also received several awards from the Lamar Research Center, and with those grants wrote literary criticism on Central American and Spanish theatre, Chaucer's Woman of Bath, Yolanda Oreamuno, and Clarice Lispector. Dr. Urbano remained at Lamar University until her death in 1984.

Throughout her career Victoria Urbano received many international prizes and honors for her writing and leadership, including the title of Vice-Consul of Costa Rica in Texas and the Ribbon of Honor of Spain. She was also awarded the Premio Cultura Hispánica on History for her book Juan Vázquez de Coronado, and the international poetry prize Fray Luis de León for her book Los Nueve círculos. However, perhaps the most famous and prestigious honor came in 1969 when Dr. Urbano won the Premio León Felipe in Mexico. She was awarded this first international prize for literature for her collection of six short stories entitled Y era otra vez hoy, which was later published by Editorial Costa Rica in 1978. The winning of the Premio León Felipe took Urbano on an international tour throughout Mexico, Central America, and Europe for numerous speaking engagements, interviews, and readings of her work.

In 1974 Dr. Urbano founded the professional organization Asociación de Literatura Femenina Hispánica (ALFH) and its literary journal Letras Femininas. She envisioned an association where writers, both women and men, could converse and contribute to the genre of Latin American/feminist literature. The ALFH had hundreds of members from numerous countries, including the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Venezuela. Besides publishing papers and poetry in Letras Femininas, the group met several times yearly, usually in conjunction with the annual conventions of the Modern Language Association, the South Central Modern Language Association, or the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association. Dr. Urbano acted as director of the ALFH and the editor if its journal until 1984 when she died in Houston of a renal illness.

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Scope and Contents Note

The collection is comprised of the personal papers of Costa Rican author, poet, and university professor Victoria E. Urbano. Materials date from 1940 to 1986 and measure 17.5 linear feet. The collection is arranged into eight series: Personal and Biographical, Employment, Correspondence, Conferences and Speaking Engagements, Written Works, Asociación de Literatura Femenina Hispánica, Audiovisual Materials, and Oversize Materials.

The first series,   Personal and Biographical, is divided into seven subseries and consists of material types such as clippings, programs, notes, interviews, correspondence, printed materials, and photographs. There are items relating to Urbano's education from primary school through university studies. Also included are awards and honors she had received throughout her career, perhaps the most well-known being the Premio Internacional León Felipe of Mexico. In addition, this series contains entries about Urbano from biographical directories, publicity items about her, and varied collected materials. Finally, there are posthumous materials collected about her death in 1984 as well as scrapbooks Urbano had compiled of various items from throughout her life.

Series two,   Employment, includes a few materials relating Urbano's job at Connell Bros. Company in San Francisco. However, the bulk of this series is made up of her files from the many years she was a professor at Lamar University. These materials consist of letters and memos from university faculty, staff, and students, as well as printed materials, forms, research notes, clippings, lesson plans, and other items relating to Urbano's courses, committees, and projects.

  Correspondence, the third series, contains letters to and from various organizations, publications, and presses, as well as faculty at numerous universities. It is arranged alphabetically by correspondent or the entity which he or she represents.

The fourth series,   Conferences and Speaking Engagements, is comprised of clippings, written speeches, photographs, and printed materials from and about various events at which Urbano gave talks, presented papers, or participated in some way. The items in this series are arranged alphabetically, usually by the name of the organization hosting each event.

Series five,   Written Works, includes drafts, printed articles, correspondence, clippings, and several published monographs. Various types of literature written by Urbano throughout her career exist in this series along with publicity and critiques of these works. Written Works is divided into different subseries by literary format, including: Articles, Poetry and Prose, Short Shories, Travel Impressions, and Monographs. Each subseries in arranged alpahabetically by title or subject of the work.

The sixth series contains the records of the professional organization Victoria Urbano founded in 1974 and directed until her death in 1984. The   Asociación de Literatura Femenina Hispánica materials include newsletters and other printed materials, clippings, programs, forms, and letters. The organization's records are divided into the following subseries: Administrative, Financial, Publications, Meetings, and Correspondence/Member Files. The Correspondence/Member Files are the bulk of the series and are arranged alphabetically by member name.

The   Audiovisual Materials in series seven include audiotapes and audiocassettes of Urbano reciting poetry and giving readings of her works, as well as presentations and acceptance speeches. There is also an analog video recording relating to her winning the Premio León Felipe in 1969.

Finally, the eighth series houses   Oversize Materials. It consists of items that were separated from their original series because of size. These materials inlcude four issues of RITMO, the newspaper Urbano started as a student at the Colegio Superior de Señoritas in San José, articles from the Mexican magazine Impacto about her winning the Premio León Felipe, and a newspaper supplement to La Prensa Libre with travel information about the Costa Rican volcano El Irazu. There is also an issue of the magazine Mujeres that contains an article about Mexican journalist Helia D'Acosta. Finally, this series houses an issue of the newspaper La Gaceta separated from Urbano's file on Vice-Consul of Costa Rica and an oversize scrapbook separated from the other scrapbooks in series one.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Unrestricted.

Use Restrictions

Standard copyright restrictions apply.

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Separated Material

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Cite as: Victoria Urbano Papers, Benson Latin American Collection, the University of Texas at Austin Libraries.

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Box and Folder Inventory

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