PALEWELL PRESS

Arinda Ojeda Aravena was born in Temuco, Chile. She is an analytical chemist, a Usui Reiki Master, a teacher of Biodanza (SRT) and holds a diploma in gender studies from the University of Concepción. She is a survivor of Chile’s civil and military dictatorship. She was exiled in 1974 but returned to Chile in 1980 and was captured the following year. After eight years in prison she was freed and exonerated by the government. In 1988 she was awarded the Premio Periodístico Emisión for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights. Her prison memoir De Memoria: Entre Arpilleras y Carbón de Piedra was published in Spanish by Victorina Press in 2020. In 2026, the memoir's English translation by Barbara Mitchell will be published as The Hope We Still Hang Onto.

Arinda is also a writer and her first book of poetry Mi Rebeldía es Vivir, has been published in a number of countries and editions, such as: Letra Nueva, Chile, 1988; Literatura Alternativa, Chile 1988; La Pensée Sauvage, France, 1988; Casa de Chile, México, 1988; and Organizzazione Editorial FG, Vicenza, Italy, 1992. Her second book of poems, Cristal de Luna Negra was published in 1992 by Editorial Fértil Provincia, Chile. In 1990, she joined six other writers living in Concepción, Chile, to form the Grupo Literario Mujer, with whom she published two joint poetry books, Las Sirenas andan solas, pero navegan los mismos mares, Ediciones Brujas 1991 and Ventoleras, Ediciones Brujas, 1993. Arinda’s poetry has appeared in various anthologies, both in Chile and elsewhere. Examples include Girasoles en la Sombra, 1988; Un hombre rompe todas las fronteras, Santiago, 1988; Las plumas del Colibrí, Concepción, 1989; Antología, Miguel Debarge, France, 1991; and Por el ojo de la Cerradura, SECH filial, Concepción, 1991.