Born: 29 May 1896, Mexico
Died: 19 August 1954
Country most active: Mexico
Also known as: Hermila Galindo Acosta de Topete
The following is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Hermila Galindo edited the feminist journal Mujer Moderna. In 1915, Galindo worked loyally for Carranza and frequently talked to women’s groups to encourage them to press for their rights. Galindo was precisely the kind of woman the moderates feared. She argued for general and sex education for women, and believed that women deserved every right granted to men, including the vote. Galindo supported General Pablo González to succeed Carranza, although the President himself had chosen Ignacio Bonillas. Consequently, she lost Carranza’s trust and became isolated and inactive after 1919.
In 1916, the first feminist congress of 620 delegates met in Mérida, Yucatan, organized by Consuela Zavala y Castillo, a private school teacher. Most attendees were school teachers, who went because Governor Alvarado gave them train tickets, leave time, and funds.
When Hermila Galindo’s radical “La Mujer en el Porvenir” (“Woman in the Future”) was read, many delegates were shocked to hear her advocacy of sex education, divorce, and anti-clericalism. At its last session, delegates proposed that women have the right to vote. By the second Congress, at the end of 1916, fewer than half of the delegates returned and there was not enough support to demand the vote.
Yet, thanks in part to the Congress, President Carranza issued the Law of Family and Relations the following year. The Law gave married women new rights and allowed for paternity suits, previously forbidden, and the recognition of illegitimate children.