Elena Caffarena
Elena Caffarena | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | March 23, 1903 Iquique, Chile |
| Died | July 19, 2003 (aged 100) Santiago, Chile |
| Burial place | Cementerio General de Santiago[1] |
| Alma mater | University of Chile |
| Occupation(s) | Attorney, Social Activist |
| Spouse |
Jorge Jiles (m. 1929) |
| Relatives | Pamela Jiles (granddaughter) Ricardo Izurieta (nephew) |
Elena Caffarena Morice[a] (Latin American Spanish: [eˈlena kafaˈɾena]; March 23, 1903 - July 19, 2003)[2] was a Chilean lawyer, jurist and politician. Contemporary historians and humanists consider her to be one of the most important 20th-century public figures in Chile.[3]
Biography
[edit]Elena Caffarena was born in Iquique, Chile, to Ana Morice and Blas Caffarena, an Italian immigrant.[3] When Caffarena was young the family moved to Santiago from Iquique.[3] Caffarena attended the University of Chile, and her time there was very influential in her career.[3] When at college in her sophomore year she worked at Defensa Jurídica Gratuita (English: Free Legal Defense). During this work she met her husband, Jorge Jiles. Caffarena devoted much of her life to the struggle for women's emancipation. Her granddaughter is the journalist Pamela Jiles. Caffarena died on July 19, 2003, at the age of 100.[4]
Career and MEMCh
[edit]Caffarena and Olga Poblete were the founders of Movimiento Pro-Emancipación de las Mujeres de Chile (MEMCh) (English: Pro-Emancipation Movement of Chilean Women) in 1938 and were honored as "founding matriarchs" by MEMCh 1983.[5] The MEMCh fought for many different women's rights issues including, workers rights, abortion rights, breastfeeding and also decreasing infant mortality rates.[2] The main motivations of Caffarena and MEMCh were to increase democracy in Chile this is within and outside of the home.[6] The MEMCh's goal was not to completely over through the social system but to point out the flaws in the system.[6] MEMCh created a monthly bulletin called La Mujer Nueva that covers a range of topics from discussing the issues faced during daily life of women to international politics.[7] Caffarena herself was a major advocate for women to be financially independent from their husbands.[6] Caffarena was very curious about what the possible reason could be to keep women out of politics.[6]
During the Pinochet Dictatorship (1973–1990), Caffarena ran a series of organizations out of her own house, which was within a Seminary.[3] Two of the organizations she founded and ran Comité de Defensa de los Derechos del Pueblo (CODEPU) (English: Committee in Defense of the Rights of the People), and Fundación para la Protección de la Infancia Dañada por los Estados de Emergencia (PIDEE) (English: Foundation for the Protection of Children Damaged by States of Emergency).[3] Both of these organizations goals was to help the repressed under Augusto Pinochet.[3]
Her work let her interface with politicians. An example of this is when President González Videla was speaking to the Second National Congress of Women, Caffarena and her followers were in attendance. At one point during his speech he mentioned that he would use the army against the Chilean people for order to remain. At this point in the speech Caffarena interrupted and voiced her concerns, left in protest with a large group of women flowing her out.[8]
Selected works
[edit]- Capacidad de la mujer casada en relación a sus bienes (1944)
- Regímenes matrimoniales en Latinoamérica (1948)
- Un capítulo en la Historia del Feminismo. Las sufragistas inglesas (1952)
- El recurso de amparo frente a los regímenes de emergencia (1957)
- Diccionario de Jurisprudencia Chilena" (1959)
Tribute
[edit]On 23 March 2022, Google celebrated Elena Caffarena's 119th birthday with a doodle.[9]
Notes
[edit]- ^ In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Caffarena and the second or maternal family name is Morice.
References
[edit]- ^ "Con emotiva ceremonia despidieron los restos de Elena Caffarena". El Mercurio (in Spanish). Chile. 20 July 2003. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
- ^ a b Cortes, Gloria (2019). ""Actividades femeninas" Collective exhibitions of women in Chile between 1914 and 1939". Artl@s Bulletin. 8: 124–136.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Elena Caffarena (1903-2003)". Chilean Memory. 2018.
- ^ "Elena Caffarena (1903-2003)". Memoria Chilena (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 April 2019.
- ^ Winn, Peter (1 January 2006). Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean. University of California Press. pp. 348–. ISBN 978-0-520-24501-3.
- ^ a b c d Dunham, Reagan. "A School of Civics": MEMCh and Chilean Femminism at Home and Abroad(1935-1941).
- ^ Pernet, Corinne A. (November 2000). "Chilean Feminists, the International Women's Movement, and Suffrage, 1915-1950". Pacific Historical Review. 69 (4): 663–688. doi:10.2307/3641229. JSTOR 3641229.
- ^ Antezana-Pernet, Corinne (1994). "Peace in the World and Democracy at Home: The Chilean Women's Movement in the 1940s". In Rock, David (ed.). Latin America in the 1940s: War and Postwar Transitions. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520084179.
- ^ Desk, OV Digital (2023-03-23). "23 March: Remembering Elena Caffarena on Birthday". Observer Voice. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
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External links
[edit]
Media related to Elena Caffarena at Wikimedia Commons- Elena Caffarena, La emancipación de la mujer Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
- Caffarena Morice, Elena (1903 - 2003) Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
- Elena Caffarena de Jiles, jurista (in Spanish)
- Corinne A. Pernet, "El Movimiento Pro Emancipación de la Mujer Chilena en provincia: Mobilización femenina y sus obstaculos, 1935-1942," in Lorena Godoy, Elizabeth Hutchison, Karin Rosemblatt and Soledad Zarate (eds.), Disciplina y desacato: Construcción de identidad en Chile, siglos XIX y XX, Santiago, SUR/CEDEM, 1995, p. 287-329.
- Corinne A. Pernet, "El MEMCh hizo Historia", Santiago: Fundación Biblioteca y Archivo de la Mujer, 1997.
- Elena Caffarena "Un Capítulo en la Historia del Feminismo. Las Sufragistas Inglesas" (in Spanish)
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