Elvira Nosari

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Luisa Elvira Nosari Salgado (Uruapan, bapt. 25 January 1883[1] – ) was a Mexican educator, writer, playwright, and promoter of the education of Mexican women. She is considered a founder of Mexican feminism.[2][3]

Biography[edit]

Elvira Nosari was the daughter of Italian immigrant Giuseppe Nosari (known in Mexico as José Nosari or Nozari), a homeopathic doctor and entrepreneur who had been living in Mexico since the mid-1860s, who was engaged in construction. In 1888, Giuseppe Nosari was granted a concession by the government from the state of Guerrero to exploit the Cacahuamilpa Caves. Giuseppe Nosari died in Mexico in 1908, and his remains were repatriated to his hometown of Guastalla, Italy, where they lie in the communal cemetery. Within his project for the caves was the proposal to build a railway to the cave, with the main objective of facilitating access for both foreigners and Mexicans to admire the cave.[4] As part of the promotion of the project and with the purpose of attracting visitors, Elvira Nosari wrote the work Un viaje a Cacahuamilpa at that time. She intended to stage this play at the National Theater, with Cacahuamilpa as the stage, to publicize what she considered to be a natural wonder of Mexico. The work was reproduced in the cave but it was not possible to carry out its objective, since her father ran out of money by investing everything in the project. She had to use her savings for the scenery used in the cave, losing the opportunity to cover the rent of the theater.[3][5]

Elvira had four siblings: Elena, Enriqueta, Eugenia and José Gaudiano, all born in Mexico from the marriage of their father Giuseppe with María de la Paz Salgado, a Mexican native of Puebla.

Education[edit]

Elvira completed her studies at the Normal School for Teachers in Mexico City in 1898 and graduated in 1900 as a primary education teacher. In 1900, she received a scholarship to study in Europe and moved to study in Italy accompanied by Professor Silvina Jardón, taking a course in experimental psychology to specialize in special education with the teacher Maria Montessori . Upon returning, she wrote several educational books, such as Plane and Space Geography, other geometry books for didactic use in teaching mathematics, and a reading book for primary schools.[6]

Career path[edit]

Pedagogy[edit]

Elvira dedicated herself to studying different pedagogical methods, and even changed curricular contents in search of better teaching and knowledge acquisition. In 1915 she was director of the Normal School for Teachers and Arts and Crafts. During her administration, she criticized the traditional teaching method with the aim of introducing new modifications, such as the creation of subjects in various areas as an antecedent of an internationalist method, she also taught the subject of Experimental Psychology and managed the transfer of the Normal School to the building on Independence street.[7][8][9]

Around 1919, Elvira participated in the campaign advocating for textbooks written by Mexican authors, forming part of the Society of Mexican Educational Authors, which strongly criticized the list of American books that were established as the main works for primary education by the Technical Commission of the General Directorate of Primary Education for the 1919-1920 cycle, and which were determined to be supplementary to the books written by Mexican teachers. This association achieved its objective by declaring the aforementioned list non-existent and designated new books; additionally, the Director of Elementary Schools resigned.[10]

Literary and performance works[edit]

Nosari was a woman who defended her literary work. At an early age, with her father as an intermediary, she recorded the work Un viaje a Cacahuamilpa.[11] In October 1899, she requested the right of ownership of literary and representational works for her work Jacinta or the martyr of the cave, a four-act drama, a statement that was ordered to be published in the Official Gazette on October 14, 1899. This work was later published under the title Jacinta: drama in a prologue and three acts by the publisher El siglo  xx in 1917, which is in the Reserved Fund of the National Library of Mexico.[8][12] There is a record of a letter that she wrote to the Minister of Public Instruction, outlining a strategy to have her work by Christopher Columbus accepted and published, expressing her intention to instruct the people. In her words:

I write for the people: for that social class, without education, that ignores what our ancestors did for the soil that shelters it (...)

Elvira Nosari addresses the issue of women within Mexican political movements, representing the role of a woman who leaves aside the traditional and social ideals of the time. She proposes the construction of her own identity, breaking gender roles and directly exhorts women to have an active participation in politics. From her works, she is considered one of the main contributors to feminism.[8] She is also identified as part of the first generation of playwrights, along with Gertrudis Gómez, Teresa Farías, Laura Méndez, Mariana Peñaflores, Victoria González, Francisca Montes, and Encarnación Alcaraz. An interesting fact regarding Elvira Nosari is that for many years she used the male pseudonym Mario Dill in her texts.[13][14]

  • A trip to Cacahuamilpa, 1899.
  • Wisp and Saint Elmo's Fires, 1899
  • Jacinta or the martyr of the cave, 1899.
  • The Penitentiary, 1900
  • Christopher Columbus or The Discovery of America, 1906.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Mexico, Select Baptisms, 1560–1950
  2. ^ Nación, Archivo General de la. "#AGNResguarda el legado femenino de las artes y la ciencia de la primera mitad del siglo XX". gob.mx (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-08-26.
  3. ^ a b Noyola, Teresa (November 2019). Crítica social y politización femenina en la obra dramática Jacinta, drama en un prólogo y tres actos (1917) a partir de un análisis del espacio (PDF). Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla.
  4. ^ "El poder legislativo del estado de México en el siglo XIX y en los albores del siglo XX. Índice de decretos (Del 2 de Marzo de 1824 al 12 de Agosto de 1914)" (PDF).
  5. ^ Gómez-Aguado de Alba, Guadalupe C; Palacio Prieto, José Luis (January–April 2016). La gruta de Cacahuamilpa: un siglo de historia (1835-1936) (PDF). ISSN 0186-0348.
  6. ^ "Magisterio 86 by Revista Magisterio - Issuu". issuu.com. 2019-10-22. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
  7. ^ Galeana, Patricia (2016). Educadoras y maestras (PDF) (in Spanish). Secretaría de Educación Pública. ISBN 978-607-9419-73-8.
  8. ^ a b c Granados, Nancy (July–December 2015). Comentario hermenéutico de Jacinta o el Mártir de la caverna de Elvira Nosari (PDF).
  9. ^ "1500 mujeres A-Z.pdf". pdfcoffee.com. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
  10. ^ Galvan Lafarga, Luz Elena (2016). Derecho a la educación (PDF) (in Spanish). Grandes Temas Constitucionales. ISBN 978-607-8507-06-1.
  11. ^ Bernal, Concepción Reverte (2013-01-01). Diálogos culturales en la literatura iberoamericana: Actas del XXXIX Congreso del Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana (in Spanish). Editorial Verbum. ISBN 978-84-7962-965-6.
  12. ^ Dublán, Manuel; Lozano, Jose María (1899). Legislación mexicana. Colección completa de las disposiciones legislativas expendidas desde la Independencia de la República (PDF) (in Spanish). p. 764.
  13. ^ Amaro Gutiérrez, Víctor Hugo (May 2015). El continuo de la dramaturgia escrita por mujeres en México. María Luisa Ocampo, Rosario Castellanos y Luisa Josefina Hernández (PDF).[permanent dead link]
  14. ^ Collet Sedola, Sabina (1995). Historia y pedagogía: Cristóbal Colón de Elvira Nosari (s. XIX) (PDF).
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