Abstract
The aim of this contribution is to offer a sociolinguistic characterization of Cuban women in the 19th century through autograph documents. For this purpose, the sources of study are letters written by mothers, wives, sisters, or friends and sent to their relatives during the last Cuban war of independence.
The study of epistolary material makes it possible to define female linguistic competence -both in its oral aspect and in its written manifestation- which makes it possible to determine uses and tendencies, as well as to establish a degree of correlation with the realizations which characterize current Cuban Spanish. More specifically, the contribution describes pronunciation trends, the authors' written competence, and their sociolinguistic uses.
This analysis is contextualized in epistolary documentation, construed as an egodocument written in a historical context of profound transformation in Cuban society and women s role in it.