Josefina Pla

Josefina Pla
Statue on Isla de Lobos, Canarias, Spain
Background information
Birth name	Josefina Pla
Born	(1903-11-09)9 November 1903 Isla de Lobos, Canarias, Spain
Died	11 January 1999(1999-01-11) (aged 95) Asuncion, Paraguay
Occupation(s)	Poet, Painter, Journalist

Josefina Pla (9 November 1903 in Isla de Lobos, Canary Island, Spain – 11 January 1999 in Asunción, Paraguay) was a Spanish poet, playwright, art critic, painter and journalist.

She received numerous awards and distinctions for her literary work, for defending human rights and the equality between men and woman.

Living the other one that I am that wasn’t what would have been.
Living what would have been dying which I am still not.
Sleeping all was I, another waking I go.

Josefina Pla was born in Isla de Lobos, Canarias, the daughter of Leopoldo Plá and Rafaela Guerra Galvani. She spent her childhood in diverse cities of Spain with her father, a functionary of provinces.

In 1924, she met the Paraguayan artist Andres Campos Cervera in Villajoyosa, Alicante; they married two years later.

In 1925, she went to Paraguay and first established herself in Villa Aurelia and Asunción. In that same year, she presented her writings in the youth magazine, Speaker of the Writers' Generation of Paraguayan Postmodernism. From there until 1938, she traveled twice to Spain with her husband.

Her husband died in 1937. She came back to Paraguay a year later and headlined with Hérib Campos Cervera, nephew of her husband.

Throughout her life, she received several awards, gabardines and nominations, including: The Lady of Honour of the Order of Isabel la Católica (1977); the member of the International Ceramic Academy in Geneva, Switzerland; the founding member of the PEN Paraguayan Club; the "Ollantay" trophy to the theatre investigation of Venezuela (1984); the "woman of the year" in (1977); the Bicentenary Medal of the United States of America (1976); the condition of Counsel of the Vice Minister of the Paraguayan Culture, the National Order of Merit in the commendatory grade of the Paraguayan Government in (1994), her Human Rights defence recognition given by the International Society of Jurist, the Beautiful Arts Gold Medal of Spain (1995), the Johann Gottfried von Herder Medal, member of the Paraguayan Linguistic Academy of Paraguayan and Spanish history, finalist of the Merit Contest for the “Príncipe de Asturias” award (1981), the postulation for the "Cervantes award", top recognition for the Hispanic letters in the years 1989 and 1994, the "Ciudadanía Honoraria" given by the Paraguayan Parliament in 1998, among others.