The Women of Mexico's Cultural Renaissance

This book consists of a collection of essays by Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska in their first English translation, and a critical introduction. The highly engaging essays explore the lives of seven transformational figures for Mexican feminism. This includes Frida Kahlo, Maria Izquierdo, and Nahui Olin, three outstanding artists of the cultural renaissance of the early twentieth century, and Nellie Campobello, Elena Garro, Rosario Castellanos, and Pita Amor, forerunner writers and poets whose works laid a path for Mexican women writers in the later twentieth century. Poniatowska’s essays discuss their fervent activity, interactions with other prominent figures, details and intricacies about their specific works, their scandalous and irreverent activities to draw attention to their craft, and specific revelations about their lives. The extensive critical introduction surveys the early feminist movement and Mexican cultural history, explores how Mexico became a more closed society by the mid-twentieth century, and suggests further reading and films. This book will be of interest both to the general reader and to scholars interested in feminist/gender studies, Mexican literary and cultural studies, Latin American women writers, the cultural renaissance, translation, and film studies.