Interesting Facts about Soledad Acosta de Samper, a Colombian writer, and journalist

Google Doodle is featured on May 5, 2023, to celebrate the 190th birthday of Colombian writer and journalist Soledad Acosta de Samper, one of the most important and influential people in Latin America of the 19th century. Here are some interesting and fun facts about Soledad Acosta Kemble.

Here is a look at the life and work of Soledad Acosta de Samper.

Who was Soledad Acosta de Samper?

Quick Look

• Birth date: 5 May 1833
• Birth place: Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia
• Died on: 17 March 1913 (aged 79)
• Death place: Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia
• Resting place: Central Cemetery of Bogotá
• Famous as: Writer, journalist, historian, and novelist
• Nickname: Aldebarán, Renato, Bertilda and Andina
• Nationality: Colombian
• Language: Spanish
• Literary movement: Costumbrismo
• Father name: Joaquin Acosta
• Mother name: Carolina Kemble
• Spouse: José María Samper Agudelo
• Children:
  • María Josefa Samper Acosta
  • Carolina Samper Acosta
  • Bertilda Samper Acosta
  • Blanca Leonor Samper Acosta

25 Interesting Facts about Soledad Acosta de Samper

1. Soledad Acosta de Samper was a sophisticated, well-traveled, and social woman who got a better education than most women did in her time and country. She also had a high social standing because of her literary work and her family’s history.
2. Soledad Acosta de Samper was born in Bogotá on May 5, 1833, to Caroline Kemble Rowe and Tomás Joaquín de Acosta y Pérez de Guzmán. Her father was a scientist, diplomat, and general who was born in Guaduas, New Kingdom of Granada. He was the son of Spanish settlers; Her mother was born in Kingston, Jamaica, the daughter of American Scotsman Gideon Kemble and his wife Tomasa (née Rowe), Collector of the Port of Kingston.
3. The family set out for Europe, stopping in New York and Halifax, Nova Scotia, along the way. Soledad and her mother spent one year in Halifax.
4. Joaquín Acosta and his family moved to Paris in 1846. Joaquín studied history and geography in New Granada during these years, giving his daughter the first steps toward a solid education.
5. Because of the French Revolution of 1848, the family needed to get back to Colombia, they moved to St Nick Marta, and Joaquín Acosta was named General in 1851. General Acosta died of fevers he had caught in Magdalena on February 21, 1852.
6. In 1853, Soledad Acosta de Samper met José María Samper in Guaduas during a few local festivals. They tied the knot on May 5, 1855. Bertilda Samper Acosta, her first daughter, was born on July 31 of the following year. Carolina, the couple’s second daughter, was born on October 15, 1857.
7. The author’s mother traveled with the Samper Acosta family to Europe in 1858. They settled in Paris.
8. The position of secretary for the Colombian Legation was held by José María. As a correspondent, Soledad Acosta started working with the newspapers El Mosaico, which describes itself as a “youth newspaper, dedicated exclusively to literature,” the Biblioteca de Señoritas, which is a Bogotá publication with an eight-page literary newspaper, from which 67 numbers appeared between 1858 and 1859, and El Comercio, which is based in Lima. Book reviews, reviews of opera and music, fashion commentaries, translations, and travelogues made up the majority of his output.
9. Aldebarán, Renato, Bertilda, and Andina were the pseudonyms that Soledad Acosta used in her writing. In a similar vein, she worked with José María Samper to produce the newspapers.
10. As Aldebarán y Andina, Soledad Acosta de Samper worked with El Iris, an illustrated literary newspaper “dedicated to the fair sex” published in Bogotá from 1866 to 1868.
11. Their third daughter, María Josefa, was born in London on November 5, 1860, and their last daughter, Blanca Leonor, was born in Paris on May 6, 1862. El Comercio appointed Samper as its chief editor at the end of this year.
12. The American Magazine was founded and edited in Lima by the Samper Acosta family after they relocated there. In 1863 they got back to Colombia, Samper ran as a delegate for Cundinamarca within the first government of the Rionegro Constitution of 1863.
13. The first of Soledad Acosta’s works, “La Perla del Valle,” appeared in El Mosaico in 1864. In 1867 she published her first novel, Dolores. Images of a woman’s life were published in the newspaper El Mensajero as a serial.
14. Novelas y cuadros de la vida sur-Americana, the author’s first collection of short stories, was published as a book in 1869. José Antonio Galán. Episodes of the War of the Communards, her first historical novel, was published the following year.
15. An epidemic claimed the lives of Carolina and María Josefa in Bogotá in 1872. Samper was imprisoned for political reasons three years later, her property was taken, and her printing press was shut down.
16. The first Colombian magazine directed and written entirely by women, La Mujer (The Woman) was founded by Soledad Acosta in 1878 and published until 1881.
17. In 1883, Soledad Acosta de Samper published the Biography of General Joaquín París, which won first place in a historical-literary competition held to commemorate Simón Bolívar’s first century of life.
18. There were around 21 historical productions that she published throughout he life. The next year he published her first play, The Victims of War.
19. After a six-month illness, José María Samper died on July 22, 1888. After four years, while in Paris, Soledad Acosta de Samper is named Official Delegate of the Republic of Colombia to the IX International Congress of Americanists in Madrid.
20. Soledad Acosta de Samper published Women in Modern Society in 1895. Years after the fact she is named an honorary member of the Colombian Academy of History.
21. Soledad Acosta de Samper is in charge of the celebration of the First Centennial of Independence in 1910. Her long-suffering daughter Bertilda passed away in the same year. After three years, on March 17, Soledad Acosta de Samper died in Bogotá, at just about eighty years old.
22. She worked with El Comercio, El Deber, and Revista Americana, among other periodicals, as a collaborator.
23. Soledad Acosta de Samper was a feminist who was well ahead of her time thanks to her writings. She advocated for equal education for women and wrote about a variety of topics related to female participation in family and society, encouraging others to take an active role in the workforce and in restoring society.
24. According to The Soledad Acosta de Samper digital library, a project carried out by the Universidad de los Andes with the support of the Ministry of Culture, La The National Library of Colombia, and the Caro y Cuervo Institute, more than 380 documents authored by Soledad Acosta de Samper were compiled and classified into four large collections; Acosta is one of the pioneering women in Colombia in terms of publications. She is the author of multiple texts with a variety of Books, manuscripts, periodicals, and albums.
25. Soledad Acosta de Samper published novels, plays, short stories, literary studies, and historical treatises over the next 35 years. In honor of her life and works, the Colombian Ministry of Culture declared 2013 “Soledad Acosta de Samper Year.”