Intellectual biography of Latin American academic women

Abstract

The text that we present here constitutes the progress of a collective investigation that emerged in the inter-institutional seminar on the history of women's education Aquelarre (Coven), named as a metaphor of the power of women and as a way to summon and describe the heterogeneous and vigorous group of academics that conform it, and who meet to debate, reflect and take action in the violent times in which we are living. From our first meetings, it was clear that the reason that brought us together was the need to understand –more deeply– the academic and Mexican women that we are approaching in this paper. But, in which way can we determine the main characters of these narratives? In what manner can we approach them? How to explain the plots these women have weaved to become the text they wanted to become? To apprehend these complex stories, we opted for a multidisciplinary perspective that combines history with gender perspective and intellectual biography. From there we tried to decipher the women summoned to our Coven. They are the Mexicans Luz Elena Galván (educational historian, author of multiple investigations and researcher trainer; we are focusing on her in this presentation), Belinda Arteaga and Marcela Santillán, as well as Peruvian Lucrecia Janqui. All of them willing to assert themselves to make their emotions, rational choices, alliances, proclamations and sedition acts visible. All of this with the intention of breaking apart, and emerging in the midst of silence, prohibition and obscurantism as victorious women who make their own way as they walk (as the poet once sung [reference to song]).