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María Jesús Alvarado Rivera was born on May 27, 1878, in Chincha Alta to a farming family. She was a journalist, writer, and social activist for the cause of Peruvian women in the second decade of the twentieth century, and her struggle not only broke barriers for women, but also for workers and the indigenous. She studied formally only until elementary school, and then continued her education on her own. She admired Plato and Victor Hugo, and became known for her work in the field of philosophy, arguing for a humanistic education centered on ethical values and providing a critical approach to the traditional education of the time.
In the same way, she contributed to Peruvian philosophical thought, creating academic and cultural institutions and helping to establish a solid base for philosophical study and reflection in the country. Because of that, she is considered a precursor of Peruvian and Latin American feminism. She argued that in Peruvian history there had been no “genius” women because women were oppressed and remained ignorant.
Geographical Society Lecture on Feminism, October 28, 1911
At the Geographical Society conference, Alvarado gave a speech diagnosing the conditions of women in Peru and proposed four reforms to equalize the status of them in comparison to men:
- Educational Equality
- Employment Equivalence
- Equal Human Rights
- Identical civil rights
According to those objectives, she fought for a wider scope of and greater access to women’s education, so that women could develop their intellect and attitudes in the same way as men. She also promoted women obtaining public jobs in the liberal professions so that they could support themselves and improve their economic and social situation.
Besides that, she fought for married women’s liberty from their husbands since, according to a law from 1911, women lost many rights after becoming married. Furthermore, she battled for married women to be granted political rights, so they could participate in national affairs. It should be noted that women’s suffrage, in the United States and England, was only granted in 1920, and that she was already fighting for those rights in 1911, positioning her as a pioneer of her time.
Social Context
By acknowledging the historical context in which Alvarado lived, it is possible to understand why many tried to silence her. Born in a pessimistic Peru, suffering in the aftermath of defeat from the war with Chile, there were many inequalities and a great deal of mistreatment of the natives and the working class. In a certain way, the intellectuals of the time set as their mission of the incorporating of all social sectors into a national project, but unfortunately there was no firm national identity, and there were many signs of exploitation against the working class. In that context, the feminism encouraged by Alvarado stood out, being oriented towards native women and workers. She defended education as a platform by which such women could be heard. María Jesús wrote on economics, and read scientific magazines, which informed her view that Peru was corrupt, without meritocracy and with great prejudices against women.
From a very young age, Alvarado had very high expectations of herself, encompassing what she wanted to be and what she could not. She wanted to be a professional, despite having only studied until the third grade, which was at the time the highest education women could receive. Despite this, she took an exam to become a teacher, but was only qualified to become a third-grade instructor. This frustrated Alvarado, as she desired to finish high school and go to university, but she did not have the requisite financial resources to achieve that goal.
In this context, she wrote a lot about the status of women and attacked several conditions that affected women: marriage as the only path to financial security, the oppression of the Catholic Church, and deficient female education. (Alvarado, a supporter of the right to divorce, was against the church for its opposition to this reform.) These things led her to write about the economic crisis in Peru, which caused many women of the lower and working class to be forced into prostitution, due to the lack of educational and employment opportunities.
Feminism
In 1914, she founded an institution called Feminine Evolution in favor of culture and women’s rights. This institution sought the establishment of public secondary schools for women to extend their academic life, a position then on the vanguard of Peruvian progressivism. At the same time, she promoted industrial work for the honest and honorable development of women. The institution made notable achievements, with the Chamber of Deputies of Peru approving the entry of women into public benefit societies; in 1922, the same entry was approved in the Chamber of Senators. Alvarado, through Feminine Evolution, helped draft a bill in 1923 which freed women from being under the legal and financial authority of their husbands. For the first time, women of Peru could manage their own assets. The law was approved in 1936, and it was considered one of the most important achievements for equality in Peruvian society.
Defense for Workers and Indigenous Work
In 1913, Alvarado was a member of the steering committee of the Pro-Indigenous Association. At the same time, she wrote articles in defense of Peru’s natives and defended equal employment opportunities for women and men. During this time, there were numerous strikes, such as the land usurpations in Puno (1913), the Ruma Maqui rebellion (1915), and others in Puno (1923). In this timeof violence, Alvarado supported a university for workers.
Imprisonment and Self-Exile:
After the events explained above, in 1924, a conflict arose between farmers and miners due to the Road Conscription Law, enacted by President Augusto B. Leguía, in which workers were forced to perform labor in the construction and maintenance of Peruvian roads, which many considered unfair. At the same time, another project undertaken in Peru by American company caused serious environmental problems and diseases in people and animals, due to the pollution it emitted.
In this situation of injustice, various printers refused to print leaflets protesting these injustices and supporting civilians because they feared reprisal from the government. However, the peasants found support in Alvarado, who agreed to print the materials at the Moral and Labor Institute. Despite this, the press was raided by the police to stop the protests and the dissemination of information about the problems that occurred. To protect the student workers, Alvarado refused to provide the names of the students who participated in the printing of pamphlets. As a result of her refusal, and by direct order of President Leguía, the Moral and Labor Institute was closed, and its press was destroyed.
In 1924, she was imprisoned and spent six months in the prison of Santo Toribio; after these months, she was forced to go into self-exile for eleven years, and was welcomed in Argentina, where she worked as a teacher while she finished the works she wrote. With the absence of Alvarado, and without a prominent leader, the first feminist movement in Peru weakened over time and its followers were absorbed into political parties, thus concluding the first stage of feminism in Peru’s republican history.
References
Mexican National Commission of Human Rights (s. f.). María Jesús Alvarado Rivera: Educator, journalist, writer, and social activist, considered the first Peruvian feminist. https://www.cndh.org.mx/noticia/fallece-maria-jesus-alvarado-rivera-educadora-periodista-escritora-y-luchadora-social
Ministry Of Women and Vulnerable Population (s. f.). María Jesús Alvarado Rivera (1911-2011): biography and manifest. https://www.mimp.gob.pe/files/direcciones/dgignd/campanias/MJAlvarado_Historia_Manifiesto.pdf
The Republic (2020). María Jesús Alvarado: 49 years without the first great Peruvian feminist. https://larepublica.pe/cultural/2020/05/06/maria-jesus-alvarado-49-anos-sin-la-primera-gran-feminista-peruana-feminismo-mdga
Wikipedia (2024). María Jesús Alvarado Rivera. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Jes%C3%BAs_Alvarado_Rivera
Zagarra, M. D. (2011). María Jesús Alvarado: The Construction of a Feminist Intellectual in Lima, 1878-1915 [Master Thesis, National University of San Marcos]. Cybertesis. https://cybertesis.unmsm.edu.pe/handle/20.500.12672/1372
Claudia Macarena Silva Alfaro
Lina Salazar is a Colombian philosopher and lawyer, serving as a translator for the APA Blog and our Spanish-language partner, Filosofía en la Red. Currently, she is interested in Philosophy of Technology; especially in analyzing the implications of the interactions between humans and artificial agents.
