María Laffitte
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María Laffitte y Pérez del Pulgar, (15 August 1902 – 9 July 1986) was a Spanish aristocrat, writer, art critic, women's rights activist, and founder of the Seminar on Women's Sociological Studies.


Biography

María Laffitte y Pérez del Pulgar was born in Seville, where she spent her childhood. At age 20 she married and moved to Madrid. Though born to a family of privileged economic status, she nevertheless did not have academic training, something which marked her throughout her life. By age 24 she had three children. "During the best years of my life," she would later write, "I walked disoriented without knowing where to find my path." "I began to write almost without realizing it, like the dictation of an internal and authoritarian voice," she explained about her process, and a short time later she had in her hands her first work, ''La biografía crítica de María Blanchard'' (The Critical Biography of María Blanchard). Unable to obtain a publisher, after offering it to several, she decided to edit the book on her own, and published it in 1944. Years later she also wrote a biography of
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. Little by little her name became known in the press and certain intellectual circles. María Laffitte y Pérez del Pulgar signed her books as María Campo Alange, or Countess of Campo Alange, a title she held from her marriage to José de Salamanca, Count of Campo Alange. She was an active member of the , vice president of the Ateneo de Madrid, and a member of the Real Academia Sevillana de Buenas Letras. She founded, directed, and sponsored the Seminar on Women's Sociological Studies (''Seminario de Estudios Sociológicos de la Mujer''; SESM) which, from 1960 until her death in 1986, gathered a group of professionals, university professors, and researchers, such as
María Salas Larrazábal María Presentación Salas Larrazábal (22 November 1922 – 15 November 2008), also known as Mary Salas, was a Spanish writer and journalist who specialized in adult education and was a pioneer of women's laity. She was linked to Catholic Action ...
, Lilí Álvarez, and
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, dedicated to investigating the situation of women in Spain. She collaborated closely with the most important intellectuals of the Spanish post-war period, such as
Eugenio d'Ors Eugenio d'Ors Rovira (Barcelona, 28 September 1882 – Vilanova i la Geltrú, 25 September 1954) was a Spanish writer, essayist, journalist, philosopher and art critic. He wrote in both Catalan and Spanish, sometimes under the pseudonym of ''Xèn ...
, José Ortega y Gasset, and Gregorio Marañón, though she also had to confront their
patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of Dominance hierarchy, dominance and Social privilege, privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical Anthropology, anthropological term for families or clans controll ...
tendencies.


Women's rights

María Laffitte studied and theorized about the situation of women and their subordination, and sought answers in history, anthropology, art, and science. In 1948, a year before
Simone de Beauvoir Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, and even th ...
wrote '' The Second Sex'', Laffitte published ''La secreta guerra de los sexos'' (The Secret War of the Sexes) in Spain. Her criticism of the role of science in the essentials of women preceded de Beauvoir's. Her essays and research on women and the social construction of femininity are historic and continue to pose challenging questions. In her honor, the Maria Laffitte Women's Federation was founded in 2008, based in her hometown of Seville.


Published books


Art criticism

* 1944 ''María Blanchard'': Madrid, Hauser y Menet. * 1953 ''De Altamira a Hollywood, metamorfosis del arte'': Madrid, Revista de Occidente. A work which, among other aspects, relates the influence of science on various manifestations of culture such as painting and art. For example, the influence of
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on
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and the cellular vision in the work of Miró. * 1958 ''La poética ingenuidad de Pepi Sánchez'': Madrid, Ateneo de Madrid. * 1967 ''Aquella y esta Sevilla'' (lecture)


Essays and research on women

* 1948 ''La secreta guerra de los sexos'': Madrid, Revista de Occidente. ** 2nd edition: Madrid, Revista de Occidente, 1950. ** 3rd edition: Madrid, Revista de Occidente, 1958. ** 4th edition: Madrid, Horas y Horas, 2009. * 1961 ''La mujer como mito y como ser humano'': Madrid, Taurus. * 1964 ''La mujer en España. Cien años de su historia'': Madrid, Aguilar. * 1968 ''Los Derechos Humanos''. Madrid: Ciencia Nueva, 968 5th edition Book written together with , Ramón Tamames, and Faustino Cordón. * 1969 ''En Torno a Teilhard'' (printed text/presentation), Countess of Campo Alange. Ponentes, P. Dubarle (and others). Grupo Español De Trabajo Teilhard De Chardin. Madrid: Taurus, 1969. * 1977 ''Memorias'' of the Countess of Espoz y Mina (prologue). Madrid: Tebas. * 1986 ''La mujer española: de la tradición a la modernidad (1960–1980)'' (prologue). Madrid: Tecnos.


Narrative

* 1959 ''La flecha y la esponja'': Madrid, Arión.


Biography and autobiography

* 1956 ''Mi niñez y su mundo'': Madrid, Revista de Occidente. ** 2nd edition: Madrid, Castalia, 1990. * 1973 ''Concepción Arenal (1820–1893). Estudio biográfico documental'': Madrid, Revista de Occidente. * 1983 ''Mi atardecer entre dos mundos. Recuerdos y cavilaciones'': Barcelona, Planeta.


Works in collaboration

* 1967 ''Habla la mujer. Un sondeo entre la juventud actual''. Madrid:
Cuadernos para el Diálogo ''Cuadernos para el Diálogo'' was a Spanish monthly cultural magazine published between 1963 and 1978 in Madrid, Spain. History and profile ''Cuadernos'' was established in October 1963 by Joaquín Ruiz-Giménez, a former minister of education ...
. * 1970 ''Mujer y aceleración histórica''. Madrid: Cuadernos para el Diálogo. * 1977 ''Diagnosis sobre el amor y el sexo''. Barcelona: Plaza y Janés.


References


Further reading

* * * *


External links


Maria Laffitte Women's Federation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laffitte, Maria 1902 births 1986 deaths 20th-century Spanish women writers Writers from Seville Spanish art critics Spanish women art critics Spanish autobiographers Spanish feminist writers 20th-century Spanish nobility Women autobiographers