Elena Caffarena

Elena Caffarena Morice[lower-alpha 1] (Latin American Spanish: [eˈlena kafaˈɾena]; March 23, 1903 - July 19, 2003)[2] was a Chilean lawyer, jurist and politician. Contemporary historians and humanists consider her to be one of the most important 20th-century public figures in Chile.[3]

Elena Caffarena
Born(1903-03-23)March 23, 1903
Iquique, Chile
DiedJuly 19, 2003(2003-07-19) (aged 100)
Santiago, Chile
Burial placeCementerio General de Santiago[1]
NationalityChilean
Alma materUniversity of Chile
Occupation(s)Attorney, Social Activist
Spouse
Jorge Jiles
​
(m. 1929)​
RelativesPamela Jiles (granddaughter)
Ricardo Izurieta (nephew)

Biography

Elena Caffarena was born in Iquique, Chile, to Ana Morice and Blas Caffarena, an Italian immigrant.[3] When Caffarena was young the family moved to Santiago from Iquique.[3] Caffarena attended the University of Chile, and her time there was very influential in her career.[3] When at college in her sophomore year she worked at Defensa Jurídica Gratuita (English: Free Legal Defense). During this work she met her husband, Jorge Jiles. Caffarena devoted much of her life to the struggle for women's emancipation. Her granddaughter is the journalist Pamela Jiles. Caffarena died on July 19, 2003, at the age of 100.[4]

Career and MEMCh

Caffarena and Olga Poblete were the founders of Movimiento Pro-Emancipación de las Mujeres de Chile (MEMCh) (English: Pro-Emancipation Movement of Chilean Women) in 1938 and were honored as "founding matriarchs" by MEMCh 1983.[5] The MEMCh fought for many different women's rights issues including, workers rights, abortion rights, breastfeeding and also decreasing infant mortality rates.[2] The main motivations of Caffarena and MEMCh were to increase democracy in Chile this is within and outside of the home.[6] The MEMCh's goal was not to completely over through the social system but to point out the flaws in the system.[6] MEMCh created a monthly bulletin called La Mujer Nueva that covers a range of topics from discussing the issues faced during daily life of women to international politics.[7] Caffarena herself was a major advocate for women to be financially independent from their husbands.[6] Caffarena was very curious about what the possible reason could be to keep women out of politics.[6]

During the Pinochet Dictatorship (1973-1990), Caffarena ran a series of organizations out of her own house, which was within a Seminary.[3] Two of the organizations she founded and ran Comité de Defensa de los Derechos del Pueblo (CODEPU) (English: Committee in Defense of the Rights of the People), and Fundación para la Protección de la Infancia Dañada por los Estados de Emergencia (PIDEE) (English: Foundation for the Protection of Children Damaged by States of Emergency).[3] Both of these organizations goals was to help the repressed under Augusto Pinochet.[3]

Her work let her interface with politicians. An example of this is when President González Videla was speaking to the Second National Congress of Women, Caffarena and her followers were in attendance. At one point during his speech he mentioned that he would use the army against the Chilean people for order to remain. At this point in the speech Caffarena interrupted and voiced her concerns, left in protest with a large group of women flowing her out.[8]

Selected works
  • Capacidad de la mujer casada en relación a sus bienes (1944)
  • Regímenes matrimoniales en Latinoamérica (1948)
  • Un capítulo en la Historia del Feminismo. Las sufragistas inglesas (1952)
  • El recurso de amparo frente a los regímenes de emergencia (1957)
  • Diccionario de Jurisprudencia Chilena" (1959)

Tribute

On 23 March 2022, Google celebrated Elena Caffarena’s 119th birthday with a doodle.[9]

Notes
  1. In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Caffarena and the second or maternal family name is Morice.

References
  1. "Con emotiva ceremonia despidieron los restos de Elena Caffarena". El Mercurio (in Spanish). Chile. 20 July 2003. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  2. Cortes, Gloria (2019). ""Actividades femeninas" Collective exhibitions of women in Chile between 1914 and 1939". Artl@s Bulletin. 8: 124–136.
  3. "Elena Caffarena (1903-2003)". Chilean Memory. 2018.
  4. "Elena Caffarena (1903-2003)". Memoria Chilena (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  5. Winn, Peter (1 January 2006). Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean. University of California Press. pp. 348–. ISBN 978-0-520-24501-3.
  6. Dunham, Reagan. "A School of Civics": MEMCh and Chilean Femminism at Home and Abroad(1935-1941).
  7. Pernet, Corinne A. (November 2000). "Chilean Feminists, the International Women's Movement, and Suffrage, 1915-1950". Pacific Historical Review. 69 (4): 663–688. doi:10.2307/3641229. JSTOR 3641229.
  8. Antezana-Pernet, Corinne (1994). "Peace in the World and Democracy at Home: The Chilean Women's Movement in the 1940s". In Rock, David (ed.). Latin America in the 1940s: War and Postwar Transitions. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520084179.
  9. Desk, OV Digital (2023-03-23). "23 March: Remembering Elena Caffarena on Birthday". Observer Voice. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
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