Rosario Ferré, Puerto Rican writer, poet, and essayist, Died at 77

Rosario Ferré was born on September 28, 1938, and died on February 18, 2016.

She was a Puerto Rican writer, poet, and essayist.

Luis A. Ferré, her father was the third elected Governor of Puerto Rico and the founding father of the New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico.

Lorenza Ramírez de Arellano, was her mother, who died in 1970 during her father’s term as Governor, Rosario fulfilled the duties of First Lady until 1972.

Ferré was honored with the “Liberatur Prix” award by the Frankfurt Book Fair for “Kristallzucker”, the German translation of “Maldito Amor”

She started her literary career writing in Spanish.

Rosario Ferré published her first collection of short stories, “Papeles de Pandora”, in 1976.

Rosario published a collection of her literary essays entitled “Sitio a Eros”, which increase political and social themes, in 1977.

In 1986, Ferré published her first book, “Maldito Amor”, which she self-translated into English as “Sweet Diamond Dust”.

After publishing “Maldito Amor”, Ferré began to write the first versions of her other books in English

In 2002, Ferré published a bilingual edition of poems “Language Duel/Duelo del languaje”.

Ferré worked as a Professor at the University of Puerto Rico and was a contributing editor for The San Juan Star, which was once Puerto Rico’s English language newspaper.

Ferré has also been a visiting professor at Rutgers University and Johns Hopkins University.

Ferré won herself the first prize in a short story contest of the Ateneo Puertorriqueño in 1974.

In 1992, she was the recipient of the “Liberatur Prix” award from the Frankfurt Book Fair for “Kristallzucker”, the German translation of “Maldito Amor”.

Rosario was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Brown University, in 1997.

Ferré was a Guggenheim Fellowship recipient in 2004.

She was also known at Ponce’s Tricentennial Park for her contributions in the field of literature.

Benigno Trigo González was her husband, a businessman, by whom she has three children: Rosario Lorenza, Benigno, and Luis Alfredo.

The marriage lasted 10 yrs.

She received education at the Department of Hispanic Studies at the University of Puerto Rico, Ferré met her second husband, José Aguilar Mora, a writer and Professor of Mexican literature; they divorced after a few years.

Her third husband, Agustín Costa Quintano, a Puerto Rican architect, who she met at the University of Maryland, when living in Washington, D.C.

The couple later relocated to Puerto Rico, where they currently reside.

Rosario Ferré natural causes, surrounded by family on February 18th, 2016 in Puerto Rico.

Rosario Ferré passed away at 77 yrs old.