Today being the 8th of March, we want to tell you about María de la O Lejárraga, one of the protagonists of our book Maravillosas, written by Ana Rosetti and Jesús Galbán. This wonderful author, more known by her pseudonym María Martínez Sierra, was a feminist educator, writer, editor, and politician. She was born in San Martín de la Cogolla (Rioja) in 1874 but mainly grew up in Madrid.
María studied commerce at the Women’s Teaching Association since education was always one of her greatest passions. Another one of her most significant interests was writing. However, she could not function as an author, as it was considered improper, and she did not want her career to be tarnished by it.
In 1900 she married Gregorio Martínez Sierra, with whom she had had a great friendship due to their interests in common, which included their love for literature and theatre. Apart from their interests, they shared the same name to sign their work since María could not write under her real name without impairing her reputation. Regardless, the rumor soon spread that María was using her husband’s name. Shen then became popular, but it wasn’t until Gregorio signed a release with present witnesses in which he officially recognized their work’s coauthor-ship. Nonetheless, it is difficult to distinguish each writer’s authorship in each book. Apart from this name, it is also known that María had previously written works under other male pseudonyms.
As a part of their collaboration, María and Gregorio started working at modernist magazines such as Germinal, El País, Vida Nueva, and La Vida Literaria. Later, they founded their own magazines: Helios (1903) and Renacimiento (1907). From all their work, what shines most is their theatrical librettos. Within those, we want to highlight Song of the Cradle, adapted to film in Spain, Argentina, and Hollywood. They also collaborated with the prestigious Spanish composer Manuel de Falla. They wrote the librettos for Love, the Magician (1915) and The Three-Cornered Hat (1919), among others.
Apart from being an author, María was also a political activist. She was not only one of the promoters of the Spanish feminist movement but a supporter of the Socialist Party during the Second Republic. In fact, she was named congresswoman by the Republic’s Congress. Because of this, during the Civil War, she had to go into exile and live in numerous countries until she eventually settled in Argentina, where she passed away in 1974 at almost 100 years of age.
Even though María and Gregorio had a very prolific body of work, we want to shine a light on those pieces she signed with her actual name (María de la O Lejárraga or María Martínez Sierra): Brief Tales. Recreational Reads for Children (1899); The Spanish Woman Before the Republic. Conferences read at the Ateneo in Madrid on the days 4th, 9th, 11th, 15th, and 18th of May, 1931 (1931); Doubts of the Moment, conference read at the Ateneo in Madrid, December 18th, 1932 (1933); A Woman Through Spain’s Paths. Memories of a Propagandist (1952); Gregorio and Me (1953); Travels of a Drop of Water (1954); and Party at The Olympus (1960).
To learn more stories about fascinating and silenced women you might not know, check out our book Maravillosas, written by Ana Rosetti and Jesús Gabán.
Clara Colás
