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Maeztu Whitney, María de

Pedagogue from Alava, pioneer of modern pedagogy and women's liberation in Spain. She was born in Vitoria on 18 July 1881, to a father from Alava (an engineer in Cuba) and an English mother. She died on 7 January 1948 in Mar del Plata and her remains were transferred to Estella.

He studied at the Escuela de Estudios Superiores de Magisterio in Madrid and later at the University of Madrid and Salamanca (Philosophy and Letters), broadening his training at various European universities with professors such as Natorp and Cohen and at Smith College in America. His first teaching experience took place in Bilbao at the Residencia de Señoritas, which his mother opened when she was widowed and left in ruins. From 1902 and for ten years he ran a public school in Bilbao where he was able to begin to put into practice the educational reforms he advocated: enjoyment of the open air, anti-memorism, canteens and school colonies, etc. He soon made a name for himself and, in 1908, he was already a member of the Spanish commission attending the London Pedagogical Competition.

In 1915 he founded the Residencia Internacional de Señoritas, the first official university centre organised for women in Spain, corresponding to the Residencia de Estudiantes created by the Junta de Ampliación de Estudios. It was at this Residence that Lorca, one of the regular guests, together with Ortega, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Victoria Ocampo, etc., read his Poet in New York in 1932. The Institute-School, whose primary section Maeztu joined in 1918, was also a work of this distinguished Board.

Prestigious European and American universities called on him from these years onwards to give courses and lectures. She also represented Spanish women at several international congresses, such as the International Congress of University Women held at Bedford College in London from 12 to 15 July 1920. A few days after the congress closed, she attended the Second Congress of Basque Studies held in Pamplona, giving a general lecture on primary education. In 1923 she represented Spain at the World Congress of Education held in San Francisco (USA).

Years later (1926) she founded the first women's club in Spain, the Lyceum Club, of which she was the first president, later becoming honorary president. This club, even more than the residence for young ladies and the institute-school, aroused heated controversy due to its secular and feminist character, with its members being described as "women without virtue or piety" and as "eccentric and unbalanced females" by a member of the clergy, who was displeased by the lack of church tutelage over a women's organisation (a certain Lorven in Iris de Paz, Organo Oficial de la Archicofradía del Corazón de María). That same year she visited Argentina where she gave lectures at the universities of Buenos Aires, La Plata and Cordoba.

She collaborated in La Prensa and El Hogar. She was appointed extraordinary professor at Columbia University in New York, Doctor Honoris Causa of Smith College, councillor of Public Instruction in Spain, president of the Commission of School Reforms, member of the Hispanic Society of America, etc., developing a dizzying activity in universities such as La Habana, Mexico, London, Oxford, etc. In 1927 she was appointed member of the National Assembly in the "education and instruction" section.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, the shooting of her brother Ramiro left her stunned. Months later (1937) she took up residence in Argentina, where she continued her teaching and literary work at the University of Buenos Aires. In 1947 she returned temporarily on the death of her brother, the magnificent painter Gustavo.

Antonina Rodrigo, Maeztu's biographer (Tiempo de Historia no. 47, 1978) gives us the description of her left to us by Carlos Morla, a Chilean diplomat:

"María de Maeztu is a woman of exceptional quality, extremely cultured and of astonishing activity.... Her work at the Residencia de Señoritas is simply prodigious and there is no doubt that none has done what she has done for female culture in Spain. A remarkable lecturer, a magnificent pedagogue, an unsurpassable organiser, she has not, in my opinion, received the eulogy that befits her work. Blonde, small in stature, nervous, vibrant, she expresses herself with such loquacity that, at times, it is almost impossible to follow her. She dresses in any manner, without any coquetry, and there is no spirit of conquest in her. She wears a coat of indeterminate character and a little hat on the back of her neck, always the same one, to which Federico - García Lorca - has lovingly dedicated a harmless couplet with guitar accompaniment".

The thoughts of María de Maeztu can be summed up, with regard to the feminist question, in these sentences taken from her article "The only thing we ask for", published in La mujer moderna:

"I am a feminist; I would be ashamed not to be, because I believe that every thinking woman should feel the desire to collaborate, as a person, in the total work of human culture. And this is what feminism means to me in the first place: it is, on the one hand, the right of women to demand cultural work and, on the other hand, the duty of society to give it to them (...). It is right to proclaim loud and clear what has already been said many times: the greatest enemies of feminism are not men, but women: some out of fear, others out of selfishness. The former, when they hear talk of emancipation, of economic independence, see behind these suggestive clichés only the sad prospect of earning their living by working for wages in industry, victims of miserable exploitation. This independence is for them, quite rightly, the worst kind of slavery. Given the choice submission to their employer or to their husband, all women prefer the latter. 

Contrary to Stuart Mill's assertion, the submission of women to men through marriage is, in these circumstances, the only possible liberation. The latter do not want to hear about economic emancipation, because all they want is to find a husband on favourable terms, which becomes more difficult if women demand a position in the social economy. For both women and men, feminism is not a liberating idea, but a promise of enslavement. That is why the first task to be carried out is to prepare our women, and it is clear that I trust, as the only and exclusive means, in education, which, by saving the ideal substances within her, ignored by herself, will give her the strength to discover new worlds, hitherto unsuspected".

Madariaga said of María de Maeztu that she was "the best organised head" in her house, comparing her with her brothers Ramiro and Gustavo: "María, without being a beauty, was not without a certain feminine attraction. She was very intelligent, and her manner and way of expressing herself revealed an objective and normal person who seeks only to understand and be understood, without any second-guessing or reticence". (Salvador de Madariaga, Españoles de mi tiempo, p. 145).

A contributor to various specialist journals, she is the author of several works, including the following: Pedagogía Social ; La exposición general de la filosofía de Natorp ; El problema de la ética, La enseñanza de la Moral, 1939; Historia de la cultura europea, 1941; Antología-Siglo XX: Prosistas españoles; Ensayos de Ramiro de Maeztu (prologue and collection).

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