Quote by Armonía Somers: “One must be naked to understand cruelty.”

This intense statement suggests that to truly grasp the raw, painful reality of cruelty, one must strip away all defenses, pretenses, and social masks. It implies a need for extreme vulnerability and honesty to confront and comprehend the most brutal aspects of human behavior and suffering.

From 'La mujer desnuda,' published in the wake of WWII and amidst Cold War anxieties, this quote reflects a profound engagement with human suffering and vulnerability. Somers's work often stripped away social facades to expose raw truths about human nature and societal violence.

Uruguayan novelist and educator whose surrealist and unsettling fiction challenged the conservatism of mid-twentieth-century Uruguayan society. Her 1950 novel La mujer desnuda was one of the most transgressive works of Latin American fiction written by a woman in its era.