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Spanish Professor Jorge González del Pozo is an avid reader. He’s been that way since childhood, when he’d look forward to finding new graphic novels and short stories at the library. As an adult, he lost a bit of enthusiasm for what was once a favorite pastime — that is, until picking up a 1943 book by Hispano-Philippine author Adelina Gurrea Monasterio, “Cuentos de Juana: Narraciones malayas de las Islas Filipinas."

“As we get older, we become busy. We become numb to news and current events. Reading can feel like a chore. But it is important to remember that fiction, when processing the world around us, can become more powerful than reality,” says González del Pozo, who learned about the author at a literature workshop presentation in 2022. “Reading Adelina’s short stories made me feel like a kid again. I couldn’t put them down. She weaves together a narrative that is all about human relationships, tolerance and coexistence.”

Enjoying Gurrea Monasterio’s short stories, González del Pozo wanted to know more about the writer who grew up in the Philippines but lived most of her adult life in Spain. Even though she was a prolific writer for 60 years until her death in 1971, González del Pozo learned there wasn’t much information out there.

“She has an artistic quality in her writing voice that is on par with the masters,” he says. “But she’s largely been ignored because she was marginalized by publishers in the mid-20th century — she didn’t fit into what their ideals were at that time.”

This led González del Pozo on a research journey to discover more. He traveled to Spain — where Gurrea Monasterio lived the last 50 years of her life — to conduct primary research and meet with the professor who gave the literature workshop presentation, Beatriz Álvarez Tardío from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. He reached out to Gurrea Monasterio’s extended family. And González del Pozo discovered, through old letters and documents, unpublished works written by her.

“I could not believe that I found unpublished stories of Adelina’s in the archive — and she even had her written annotations on the side. It was like opening a treasure chest. They were complete. She had tried to get them published, but was unsuccessful. It was like they were waiting for someone to find them,” says González del Pozo, who received a ������-Dearborn Office of Research grant, which enabled him to travel to Spain to do the primary research at Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid, where Gurrea Monasterio’s papers are kept. “I started this project thinking that I’d publish a paper. But the more I kept digging and the more new information I found, I realized that a book would be a better fit,”  González del Pozo says, He also did research through the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes.

González del Pozo’s new book,  (Island Woman Adelina Gurrea Monasterio: Balance and Identity), includes previously unpublished short stories. biographical information and photographs of Gurrea Monasterio from childhood into her older years. The book is currently only available in Spanish. González del Pozo is happy to share additional information, including translated materials, with interested readers. Contact him .

“My book is a little bit of her personal story, but it’s not a biographical book — its purpose was to put out these unpublished short stories,” he says. “I also found two theater plays that she wrote. I am currently in conversations with publishers to get those out too.” 

Born in the Philippines in 1896, Gurrea Monasterio — whose Spanish family, like many others in the 1800s, moved to La Carlota before Gurrea Monasterio’s birth to start a sugar cane hacienda — was influenced by her Filipino upbringing and Spanish heritage. Gurrea Monasterio wrote her first play, “Santa Escolástica,” at age 11, which was performed at her school. In her teens, she began winning awards for her sonnets and short stories. Gurrea Monasterio, who chose to write in Spanish, then studied at St. Scholastica’s College in Manila and documented Filipino folklore and life, which she fused into her short stories.

In her 20s, she moved to Spain with her parents and remained there until her death in 1971. While in Spain, she continued to be recognized by the literary community through awards like the Premio Zobel award 1956, which is given to Filipino authors who write in the Spanish language.

Despite awards, González del Pozo says Gurrea Monasterio was not a commercial success and was often overlooked from Hispano-Philippine fiction until recently.

During the majority of Gurrea Monasterio’s time in Spain, the country was under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. The author, an outspoken feminist who never married and resisted social norms, was impacted by governmental oppression. “She was a woman, an expat and there were hints that she was gay. This was problematic in Spain,” he says. “She was very active in the writing community and strengthened the Philippine Circle of Arts in Spain and was welcomed into the Spanish Royal Academy of Letters. Her talent was noticed, but she still had difficulties getting published.”

At the beginning of his book, González del Pozo included a quote from Gurrea Monasterio in Spanish that translates as: “They paved the way to normalize what was scandalous.”

In addition to not conforming to societal expectations, Gurrea Monasterio also gave voice to the influence multiple cultures can have on a person’s life, González del Pozo says. He says this especially resonates today because so many people call multiple places home — including González del Pozo. 

“I was born in Spain and grew up there. I moved to the U.S. at 21 for my graduate degree. I’m now 46. So I’ve lived in the U.S. longer than where I grew up. My identity is mixed and I don’t like when people want to know what side I identify with or where my real home is — I’m between worlds,” he says. “Her work resonated with me. I think many people, including many of my ������-Dearborn students, understand what this is like too.” 

In González del Pozo’s “Understanding Global Cultures” course, the class discusses identity and they raise questions like: Where do we come from? Where are you going? How do you define yourself in the world? He says Gurrea Monasterio’s story shows how staying true to yourself might not be popular at the time, but it will ultimately resonate with others.

He hopes his book is another step in getting the world more familiar with Gurrea Monasterio and her writing. “Her work, written 50-plus years ago, is still so current. She embraces the hybrid and reminds us that we are not 100% anything,” he says. “She reminds us instead of feeling like we need to pick sides to instead find the beauty in the blurred lines and make the most out of all the places that we call home.”

Story by Sarah Tuxbury