In 1922, over 2000 women from 23 countries arrived in Baltimore for the Pan-American Conference of Women. The conference, organised by the delegates from the United States, aimed at creating a Transnational Women’s movement across the Americas in order to combat European Influence in the region. Nonetheless, the conference failed at incorporating the needs of women in the North and South, by being heavily centred on the aims of North America and providing an overwhelmingly imperialistic tone towards the Latin American Women. Shortly after the conference, delegates such as Paulina Luisa from Uruguay and Elena Arizmedi from Mexico discussed the creation of an Ibero-American alliance, which brought together the women from the Iberian Peninsula and latin America who shared a common culture and religion inherited from the colonial relations between Iberia and Latin America. The League of Iberian and Hispanic-American women was then formed in 1923, with sections in Madrid and most Latin American capitals. 

Despite the creation of this League arising from a desire on behalf of Latin American women to form a movement which better suited their aims – therefore implying some kind of shared cultural experience of womanhood – historiography regarding first wave feminist transnationalism has failed to explore both the Alliance itself and the aims of Latin American and Iberian Feminists. Studies on movements in which Ibero-American women were a part of, such as the Pan-American Conference have an overwhelmingly Eurocentric focus and relate solely to the needs of North American and European Women. There has been a surge however, by historians such as Pamela Caughie and Francesca Miller to combat the Eurocentrism in the literature by creating links between first wave feminist movements in Britain and its Colonies, demonstrating the relevance of colonial interactions in early feminist movements. This is especially the case for Latin America, who’s liberation movements in the early 19th century must have undoubtedly impacted the first wave feminists which emerged merely decades later. 

There is therefore a gap in the historiography of the field, which this project aims not only to fill but to spark further research on the transnational gender relations between Latin America and Iberia. This project strives to explore the questions as to why the League was formed and argues that the aims of Iberian and Latin American women relate due to cultural interactions as a result of colonialism. The research questions are built upon the idea of a common, cultural experience of womanhood between Ibero-America which then shapes the aims of transnational first wave feminist movements these women participated in:

  • Why is there is desire from women on both sides of the Atlantic to form this Ibero-American relationship? 
  • Is there a common experience of womanhood, shaped by ‘Machismo’ as well as the Catholic Religion in Latin America as a result of Spanish and Portuguese colonisation?
  • To what extent is this relationship the drive for first wave feminists in Ibero-America to unite?
  • What were the precise aims of the Ibero-American first wave feminists?

The focus of this project is therefore the transnational exchange of cultural gender norms as well as the translational interaction of first wave feminism.The project will look firstly texts which speak of feminist and gender history and philosophy in Iberia and Latin America, in order to search for a common cultural experience of womanhood. It will then move onto analysing the Ibero-American Alliance itself, through an exploration of letters, periodicals (La Raza, El Imparcial, La Epoca), speeches and legal documents which a precise focus on the aims of the alliance.

Due to the lack of historiography on the League itself, it will rely heavily on the personal correspondence and publications by the members of the League, specifically: Carmen de Burgos (Spain), Belén Sarraga (Spain & Portugal), Paulina Luisi (Uruguay), Elena Arizmedi (Mexico) and Bertha Lutz (Brasil). The timeline relevant to the project is that of 1900-1935, as first wave feminism arose later in Latin America and Iberia, and feminist movements were haltered due to the Spanish Civil War starting in 1936 and the rise of Franco’s right-winged authoritarian government. 

Transnational movements between feminists in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, 1900-1935.