Rosario Ferré, a formidable figure in Puerto Rican letters who wrote novels in both Spanish and English, and who was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1995 for the family epic “A House on the Lagoon,” which she translated herself from the original Spanish, died on Thursday at her home in San Juan, P.R. She was 77.
By Bruce Weber Feb. 21, 2016

Her son Benigno Trigo said the cause had not been determined.Ms. Ferré (pronounced fay-RAY) wrote about Puerto Rican identity, often in a historical context, often from a feminist perspective and often satirically. She depicted the mixture, that its people often express, of the exaggerated pride in the beauty and culture of the island and the exasperation with its patriarchal traditions and geographical and physical limitations.

She came from a family prominent in both business and politics — her father, Luis A. Ferré, was governor of the island, a United States commonwealth, from 1969 to 1973 — and often wrote about the island’s aristocratic class. Her sweeping sagas, arch, stylized prose and dissections of the Latin American character sometimes drew comparisons to Gabriel García Márquez.

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