Talk:Rosa Smester Marrero

Notes on sources, March 2023
In their encouraging review of this article, I have been kindly asked by the reviewer at Template:Did you know nominations/Rosa Smester Marrero to provide some comments on the sources used. I edited much of this article since it was first rejected at AfC, and my notes here refer to the current version of the article.

Background
 * The rejected first and second drafts at AfC closely followed the Spanish-language entry, which cites minimal sources. The first phase of my work was to reference the claims made in the article.
 * One of my major obstacles here is that while many Dominican sources include Smester in lists of influential educators or mentioning her very favourably in passing, they presume knowledge of whom she was. This leads me to believe that the online penetration of Smester's life and works has not matched her local recognition, and unfortunately, I do not have access to sources that might exist in the Dominican Republic.  (Indeed, two sources point out that Smester's publications are quite scattered.  This also speaks to her notability as a conference speaker, which receives somewhat more emphasis in the Spanish-language article.)
 * On that note, some disclosure: Most of the available sources are Spanish-language.  The translations of these sources in the article are my own, but I speak limited Spanish.  Most of the available sources are from the Dominican Republic.  I am not from the Dominican Republic, nor have I ever visited.


 * It seems like the most comprehensive source on Smester could be a book by Julio Jamie Julia, to which I do not have access. It is referenced in some sources, and twice in the article have I copied their reference in citations.  In both of these cases, there are other reliable online references cited that are sufficient.
 * Much of the article collates together sources that individually discuss different aspects of Smester's life in isolation, e.g. sources on her work at the St Vincent de Paul hospice, or a chapter in her book discussing her writings, or passing mentions in newspaper articles.

Sources


 * The most substantive and reliable sources come from mentions of Smester in PhD theses and published books (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4).
 * In this category, the reviewer asked for a comment on the reliability of this book; it seems like a published book, the cited chapter being from an American academic, Dr. Valentina Peguero. The URL merely provides a link to where the book has been published online.  I have now added the ISBN in the reference.  The same applies for this book, which appears to have been published by the Dominican national archives.


 * The article makes extensive use of a publication by a local history institute in Monte Cristi. This was a town where Smester resided for many years, and the organisation seems legitimate.
 * The article also draws on an entry from the Dominican Geological Institute. In terms of reliability, other than that this seems like a legitimate organisation, the claims in the article are referenced by historical archives (to which I do not have access), and the entry was also published in a Dominican newspaper.
 * There are a few sources (1, 2) from an academic journal published by the Institute of History at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo.
 * There are also some newspaper sources, including from El Caribe (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4), a national Dominican newspaper (Spanish-language Wikipedia entry here), and from La Información (1), which seems to be centred in Smester's home city of Santiago.
 * Finally, there are some self-published sources, e.g. from the St Vincent de Paul Society's website for the Dominican Republic and the Dominican Constitutonal Court, for rather specific claims relating to her life and legacy for which these organisations can be considered reliable.

Claims still in need of verification
 * Collectively, the above sources were able to reference almost fully the claims in the Spanish-language entry, and indeed add further content. It also qualified the rather improbable claim that Smester founded the St Vincent de Paul society; as the current version reads, it seems she chaired the local chapter and then set up a branch for the foundation of the hospice.
 * Three claims from the Spanish-language article, however, still needed verification:
 * (1) that Smester wrote about her opposition to the American occupation in newspapers/journals in Barcelona;
 * (2) that the Amantes de la Luz society founded the first library in the Dominican Republic; and
 * (3) that the reason why Smester refused to speak English was because then the Americans would also have occupied her mind.
 * Claim 1 receives some support from Peguero's book chapter, which talks about Smester and Abigaíl Mejía writing in literary journals and newspapers including Noticias de Barcelona. Unfortunately, however, it is not clear from the source if Smester, Mejía, or both writers published in Barcelona.  It doesn't seem improbable that Smester did, given her later connections to the city's university and Lyceum Club when she lived in Paris.  Equally, though, this source records that Mejía published in La Vanguardia in Barcelona during the occupation.  I have now retracted the reference and removed the claim from the article, but I would be delighted to come across a reliable source showing that Smester was active in Barcelona's journalistic scene during the occupation.
 * Claims 2 and 3 were previously referenced by this French-language publication and tagged with "better source neeed". I have likewise now retracted this reference and removed the claims from the article.  The publication in question was written as a project by a language school in Santiago, whose only stake in reliability is if it has access to local sources which we do not (see Background above).
 * Amantes de la Luz is only ever mentioned in very vague terms in the sources, such that I'm still not sure entirely if it was anything more than a library/archive with an attached literary/intellectual circle. Nevertheless, that it was the first public library in the Dominican Republic feels implausible (and contradicted by a blogger here).
 * There are sufficient reliable sources that Smester refused to speak English. Whether this was lest she felt the Americans would also occupy her mind, who knows.  Again, I would be delighted to come across a reliable source to verify this claim.

_ MB190417  _ (talk) 01:26, 10 March 2023 (UTC)