Caught in the Colloquial Cell

In 1951, upon returning with her friend Dolores (‘Lolita’) Castro from a trip to Europe, where she met up with Gabriela Mistral and other writers, Rosario Castellanos published a small collection of poems, called Presentación al templo (1951). Forgotten by the public, the series of short poems functions as a metaphorical mirror for all of Castellanos’s poetic work. In these simple verses, she seeks ritual and acceptance by an unknown ‘tú’; her poems fragment into other lyrics found in her later work; she allows readers to view a woman imprisoned; and she looks to find a poetic home for herself, in the metaphorical and sacred space of her own body (‘¿Dónde ha de vivir este corazón mío? / ‘¿Dónde será mi casa? ¿Dónde mi mansión / duradera? Ah, sufro desamparo en la tierra’ [Where will my heart live? / Where will my house be? Where my ever-lasting / mansion? Oh I suffer from abandonment on this earth]). 1 Although many of the poems will be later incorporated into other verses, such as ‘Resplandor de ser’, and ‘Misterios gozosos’, there is one poem which stands out for its misplaced violent language and provocative themes.