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Book

A nation of women : an early feminist speaks out

Call Number

  • 305.42 C241 (CEN)

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Publication Information

[New York, New York] : Penguin Books, 2021.

Physical Description

l, 140 pages ; 20 cm.

Summary

"The groundbreaking feminist and socialist writings of Puerto Rican author and activist Luisa Capetillo. In 1915, Puerto Rican activist Luisa Capetillo was arrested and acquitted for being the first woman to wear men's trousers publicly. While this act of gender-nonconforming rebellion elevated her to feminist icon status in modern pop culture, it also overshadowed the significant contributions she made to the women's movement and anarchist labor movements of the early twentieth century--both in her native Puerto Rico and in the migrant labor belt in the eastern United States. With the volume A Nation of Women, Capetillo's socialist and feminist activism is given the spotlight it deserves with its inclusion of the first English translation of Capetillo's landmark Mi opinión sobre las libertades, derechos y deberes de la mujer. Originally published in Spanish in 1911, Mi opinión is considered by many to be the first feminist treatise in Puerto Rico and one of the first in Latin America and the Caribbean. In concise prose, Capetillo advocates a workers' revolution, forcefully demanding an end to the exploitation and subordination of workers and women. Her essays challenge big business in favor of socialism, call for legalizing divorce and the acceptance of "free love" in relationships, and cover topics such as sexuality, mental and physical health, hygiene, spirituality, and nutrition. At once a sharp critique and a celebration of the gathering fervor of world politics, A Nation of Women embraces the humanistic thinking of the early twentieth century and envisions a world in which economic and social structures can be broken down, allowing both the worker and the woman to be free"--

Notes

Translated from the Spanish.

First published in the United States of America in a dual-language edition as A Nation of Women: An Early Feminist Speaks Out = Mi opinión sobre las libertades, derechos y deberes de la mujer by Arte Público Press 2004. English translation published in Penguin Books 2021.

Contents

  • Introduction: "Mi patria es la libertad" : context and introduction to Puerto Rico's first feminist treatise / Félix V. Matos Rodríguez
  • Woman in the home, in the family, and in government
  • Free love by Magdalena Vernet
  • Varieties : feminism (from L'Avenir Médical of Paris)
  • On honesty
  • To my daughter Manuela Ledesma Capetillo
  • Your black scarf : to María Luisa Rodríguez
  • Special excerpts
  • Women during primitive times
  • To Jacinto Texidor : memories
  • Elisa Tavarez de Storer
  • To M. Martínez Rossello, Arecibo
  • To Tomás Carrión
  • My profession of faith : to Manuel Ugarte, Paris
  • Impressions of a trip, July 1909 : remembering the Federación Libre (Free Federation)
  • Thinking of you : for M.L., Arecibo.

Subjects