Claudia Lars, born in Armenia, El Salvador

Armenia, Sonsonate

Armenia is a municipality in the Sonsonate department of El Salvador.The current mayor is Carlos Rivera Molina . Molina was first elected in 2002, taking the place of Moises Alvarado of the FMLN, and was re-elected to a second term in March 2006....

 on December 20, 1899 as Margarita del Carmen Brannon Vega, was a Salvadoran poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

. She died in San Salvador

San Salvador

The city of San Salvador the capital and largest city of El Salvador, which has been designated a Gamma World City. Its complete name is La Ciudad de Gran San Salvador...

 in 1974. She was the daughter of Peter Patrick Brannon and Carmen Vega Zelayandía.

Early life

Her parents were Peter Patrick Brannon (Irish) and Carmen Brannon Vega Zelayandía (Salvadoran) During her early years, she was a friend of Consuelo Suncín, the future wife of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry , officially Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint Exupéry , was a French writer, poet and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of France's highest literary awards, and in 1939 was the winner of the U.S. National Book Award...

. She started her education at home, and later studied at the Colegio La Asunción de Santa Ana as a teenager.

General Juan José Cañas, who got a booklet of poems written by her, published the book, without Claudia's autorization, under the title of "Triste Mirajes".

In 1919, Claudia started a relationship with Nicaraguan poet Salomón de la Selva

Salomón de la Selva

Salomón de la Selva born in León Nicaragua on March 20, 1893 and died in Paris, France on February 5, 1959 was a Nicaraguan poet and honorary member of the Mexican Academy of Language.-Biography:...

, but her parents ended the relationship, by sending Claudia to the United States. In the United States Claudia met her first husband: Leroy F. Beers Kuehn. Claudia worked as a Spanish Teacher at the famous Berlitz School in Brooklyn.

Travels and Publications

Claudia returned to El Salvador with her husband in 1927, aftern Leroy was appointed United States consul, the same year she gave birth to her only son Roy Beers Brannon.

Claudia became friends with other poets and writers in El Salvador, among those were Salarrué, Alberto Guerra Trigueros, Serafin Quiteño and Alberto Masferrer. In 1933 she began using the pseudonym Claudia Lars. In 1934 her first book was published: "Stars in the Well"

At the beginning of the next decade, Claudia Lars won second place in the 1941 Floral Games in Guatemala thanks to her work "Sonnets of Michael". Then came "The Glass House" (Santiago de Chile, 1942); "Romances of North and South (1946), "City under my Voice" *(1947), which was the winner of the events commemorating the fourth centenary of the title of City San Salvador.

Claudia was appointed as cultural attaché to the Embassy of El Salvador in Guatemala. She went to Guatemala in 1948, where she met her second husband Carlos Samayoa Chinchilla

Carlos Samayoa Chinchilla

Carlos Samayoa Chinchilla was a Guatemalan writer. For decades he worked in various roles in the government of Guatemala, but is best remembered for his writing, both fiction and non fiction....

, who was divorced in 1967. However, before getting married, she endured a hectic life in which she worked packing peaches in the United States, translating stories for Walt Disney and Salvadorans working together to anti-fascist newspapers.

Late Career Years

Back in El Salvador, she worked at the editorial department of the Ministry of Culture (now the Directorate of Publications and Printing) where she led the Culture magazine. Some of her books of this stage include: "Where the Steps Arrive"(1953), "School of birds" (1955), "Tale of a truth" (1959) and "Land of Childhood".

She wrote other books among them: "About the Angel & Man", which won the second prize on a National Contest in 1962.

"Of a Fine Dawn" shared the first prize at the Floral Games

Floral Games

Floral Games were any of a series historically related poetry contests with floral prizes. In Occitan, their original language, and Catalan they are known as Jocs florals . In French they became the Jeux floraux...

in Quetzaltenango in 1965. Also, a collection of her work was produced by poet Matilde Elena Lopez for Claudias "Complete Poetry". Before her death, Claudia received a Degree Honoris Causa from the Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Cañas; besides, she was awarded the Order of José Matías Delgado.

David Escobar Galindo selected her best poems, edited by the Publications Department in 1976. In 1999, in commemoration of the centenary of her birth, the National Council for Culture and the Arts published two volumes of her "Complete Poetry", compiled by Carmen González Huguet.

Claudia produced 14 books of poetry and a memoir.

Selected works

• Estrellas en el Pozo, (1934).
• Cancion Redonda (1934)
• Romances de Norte y Sur, (1946).
• Donde Llegan los pasos, (1953).
• Fábula de una Verdad, (1959).
• Tierra de Infancia, (1959) tr. as Land of Childhood, Writers Club Press (2003), ISBN 059527353X
• Presencia en el Tiempo, (1960).
• Girasol, (1961).
• Sobre el Angel y el Hombre, (1962).
• Del fino Amanecer, (1964).
• Nuestro Pulsante Mundo (apuntes sobre una nueva edad), (1969).
• Poesía Última, (1972).