POET CLARIBEL ALEGRIA : 1924-2018

Claribel Alegria : Will always be remembered as Poet of  sorrow and struggle. A poet who wrote of the harsh realities of  Central American life and the search for identity and hope-

Work informed by her own uprooting, first from Nicaragua and then from EI Salvador - died on Jan 25, in Managua, the Nicaraguan capital. She was 93.

Reporting on her funereal in Managua two days after her death, the newspaper EI Nuevo Diario wrote that her ashes would be divided between the two countries.

Her parents had taken her to EI Salvador from Nicaragua when she was a baby, but she returned their to live years later.

''EI Salvador is the fatherland because it's where i grew up.'' she told an interviewer in 1999. ''But my motherland, Nicaragua, has welcomed with open arms.''

During her lifetime she saw both countries torn by struggles for liberation. That tumult was reflected in the dozen of books she wrote, not only poetry but also novels and histories, some written with her husband, Darwin J. Flakoll.

Hers was a sometimes a blunt vision, as in ''Documentary,'' a poem about EI Salvador that includes these lines:

*Besides the coffee
They plant angels
In my country.
A chorus of children
And women
With the small white coffin
Move politely aside
And the harvest passes by.*

Ms. Alegria's many books of poetry include  ''Flowers From the Volcano'' [1982] and the bilingual collection ''Sundade/Sorrow'' 1999.

She also wrote children's books.