Poet · 1927-2007
Poet
Inocencia Páez Betancort was a poet from La Graciosa whose work turned everyday life, the sea and the island's memory into literature. Self-taught, her voice has become a cultural reference for the Graciosa community.
She was born on La Graciosa on 27 June 1927 and wrote her first verses at twelve. Her learning was self-taught and her writing emerged from island experience: work, fishing, neighbourly relations and the material hardships of life in what was then an isolated community.
Her poetry has a strongly local and testimonial character. It features landscape, sea, festivities, religious life and the lives of La Graciosa's women, as well as a defence of the island and the needs of its population. She published El alma de una isla in 2000 and Poemas in 2006.
La Graciosa's Sociocultural Centre took her name in 2000 and she is included in the public Constelación de Escritoras Canarias collection. After her death in 2007, her work has remained connected with the island's educational and cultural initiatives.
