Juana Manso’s 198th Birthday

About
Born on this date in 1819 in Buenos Aires, Juana Paula Manso was a feminist long before the word took on its modern-day meaning. Manso wore many hats, including journalist, novelist, translator, activist, and educator.

Raised in an era when much of society felt that a woman’s place was in the home, and a time when few but the wealthy sent their children to school, Manso defied the cultural conventions of the day. As a young woman, she set up a school in Montevideo (Uruguay), sowing the seeds of her impactful career. Over the ensuing years she zigzagged between Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil, with stints in the U.S. and Cuba.

Steadfast in her convictions, Manso wrote articles about women’s emancipation, as well as a compendium of Argentine history that was used in the country’s schools. She also wrote the historical novels  La familia del Comendador  and  Misterios del Plata, which spoke out against slavery and racism. Manso was an early advocate of co-education and found a like-minded collaborator in fellow intellectual Domingo F. Sarmiento, who made her the head of an experimental school for boys and girls in Buenos Aires in 1858.

Today we remember Manso with a playful Doodle from guest artist Mariana Ruiz Johnson, an Argentine illustrator of children’s books, including  Mama  and  Sleep Tight. “As a feminist and a children's books creator, I was interested in Juana Manso's legacy,” says Johnson. “It was a honor to make this Doodle.” The artist, who describes her work as “colorful, ornamented, surrealistic,” counts Latin American folk art, fairy tales,  childhood memories, and her five-year-old son among her key inspirations