Carolina Coronado - Youth

Youth

Carolina Coronado was born in Almendralejo, Badajoz in the province of Extremadura on 21 August 1821. Her family was well-to-do, but they adhered to a progressive ideology that caused her father and grandfather to be persecuted. After moving to the provincial capital of Badajoz, Carolina received the formal education for girls of her time: fashion and housework. Despite this, she demonstrated at an early age an interest in literature, and she began to read works from widely varying genres. Thanks to this activity she gained a natural ability to compose verses. Though she employed somewhat sloppy language and committed grammatical errors, her lines were spontaneous and charged with feeling. Many of her poems were based on impossible loves. Her most notable subject was Alberto - who may not even have existed. Her earliest poems were written when she was 10 years old.

Her romantic temperament could also have been influenced by the chronic catalepsy from which she suffered. She even appeared to "die" on several occasions, leading her to become obsessed with death. She would eventually embalm her deceased husband, refusing to bury him, and she even had several "premonitions" in which she predicted the deaths of her children.