Born: 30 January 1820, Spain
Died: 4 February 1893
Country most active: Spain
Also known as: Concepción Arenal Ponte
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Spanish publicist and social worker, born January 30, 1820, in El Ferrol, province of Coruna, Spain, and died in Vigo, province of Pontevedra, February 4, 1893. Her father was a lawyer who abandoned his career to take up arms during the Peninsular War. Her parents moved to Madrid when she was very young. She at this time demonstrated her passion for learning, reading every book that came to hand and becoming very proficient in the French and Italian languages which she learned by herself. She married a distinguished lawyer and writer in 1847, collaborating with him in Iberia, the most important political publication of the time. Some time later her first work appeared, a novel entitled Historia de un Corazon, which was followed by Fabulas en Verso (1851), both of which showed her to be a good observer of real life. When her husband died in 1855, she withdrew with her children to a small village in the province of Santander and later to her native Galicia. She always led a quiet life, giving all of her time to the unfortunate and writing her numerous works, many of which were translated into modern languages while she lived. She spent much time in social work, visiting the poor, the hospitals and prisons, organizing social welfare agencies, such as home assistance to the poor, the Ladies Board for visiting and teaching women in prison. She organized the Red Cross Society for the assistance of the wounded in the Carlist War, during which she was the head for five months of the Red Cross Hospital Unit in Miranda de Ebro, She also founded the association called La Constructora Benefica with the purpose of building homes for laborers and the poorer classes. She was always carried by her love for the destitute, the prison inmates and the unfortunate. She was general inspector of women’s prisons, a post she held in 1864 later during the reign of Amadeo I and the first Spanish Republic. As a result she wrote many enlightening reports about prison life and her Proyecto de Reglamento de Cdrceles, a project for prison reform which was never put into practice. In 1870, together with Antonio Guerola, she founded the review La Voz de la Caridad, devoted to prison and social welfare matters, in which she published nearly five hundred articles during the fourteen years of publication. In prison matters she was considered an authority throughout Europe. She sent many contributions to the Congresses for prison reform held in Stockholm, Rome and St. Petersburg, which were well received and for which she was congratulated. She was a talented woman, with truly exceptional endowments. The Howard Association for Prison Reform of London, when making her a corresponding member addresses her with “Sir” believing her to be a man. And true it is that her writings do not seem to be the work of a woman. She wrote in a marvelous style, very concise, energetic and elegant in its simplicity. In his State Prisons, Dr. Wines published in full the report which she made to the Congress for prison reform held in Stockholm, praising her very highly and comparing her, on the strength of her arguments, to Jonathan Edwards. She wrote many books about many subjects, but mostly dealing with women and prison life and prison reform.