Iris Cabral (1906 – June 1936) was an

Afro-Uruguayan Afro-Uruguayans are Uruguayans of predominantly African descent. The majority of Afro-Uruguayans are in Montevideo. History For most of the colonial period, the port of Buenos Aires (see Afro-Argentines) served as the exclusive entry point for e ...

feminist and labor activist.

Life

Cabral organized the first domestic workers' union in

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

. In the 1930s she and Clementina Silva founded the first Anti-Fascist Committee of Uruguay. She and Maruja Pereyra were the "most visible, militant and outspoken" contributors to the Afro-Uruguayan paper ''

Nuestra Raza ''Nuestra Raza'' (''Our Race'') was a Afro-Uruguayan periodical. The "longest running Black Uruguayan periodical", it was published from 1917 to 1948. It was cofounded by lead editor Pilar Barrios Pilar Barrios (1889–1974) was an important po ...

'' after it was restarted in 1933. Both Cabral and Pereyra participated in the April 1936 National Congress of Women. However, Cabral died young in June 1936.

Legacy

Pereyra remembered Cabral in glowing terms: In 2016 Cabral's memory was honoured by the legislature of

Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

References

1906 births 1936 deaths Uruguayan feminists Uruguayan people of African descent Uruguayan trade unionists Women trade unionists {{Uruguay-activist-stub