Sara Casal de Quirós explained
Sara Casal de Quirós |
Birth Name: | Sara Rosa Zoila Casal Conejo |
Birth Date: | 6 September 1879 |
Birth Place: | San José, Costa Rica |
Death Place: | San José, Costa Rica |
Other Names: | Sara Casal, Sara Casal v. de Quirós |
Occupation: | teacher, writer, community worker, women's rights activist |
Sara Casal de Quirós (6 September 1879 – 17 November 1953) was a Costa Rican teacher, writer and community worker. She was a pioneer of the women's rights movement in Costa Rica and wrote the first book defending women's rights in the country.
Early life
Sara Rosa Zoila Casal Conejo was born on 6 September 1879 in San José, Costa Rica to Rafaela Conejo and Carlos Casal. She married Teodoro Quirós Blanco (1876–1902), but became a widow at the age of 23. By profession, Casal was a sewing instructor.
Activism
A member of the charitable society Damas de San Vicente de Paul (Ladies of San Vicente de Paul),in 1913, Casal de Quirós worked with Ángela Acuña Braun, Ana Rosa Chacón, and Marian Le Cappellain to found the program "La Gota de Leche" (A Drop of Milk), which provided milk to disadvantaged children and taught women about breastfeeding and proper nutrition. She also was a secretary of the Liga de Acción Social de Damas Católicas (League for Social Action of Catholic Ladies) and in 1921 worked with Amparo de Zeledón to bring the Sisters of Jesus the Good Shepherd from León, Nicaragua to attend to the inmates in the women's prison. In 1922, Casal de Quirós and Acuña traveled to the United States attending the Pan-American Conference of Women hosted by the National League of Women Voters in Baltimore, visited Boston, and then attended the Pan American Women's Conference in New York City.
Along with Acuña, Chacón, Esther de Mezerville, and other graduates, students, and teachers from the Colegio Superior de Señoritas, in 1923, Casal de Quirós became a founding member of the Liga Feminista Costarricense (Costa Rican Feminist League), the first feminist organization in Costa Rica. In 1925, she founded the Consejo nacional de mujeres de Costa Rica (National Council of Costa Rican Women) and published, El voto femenino (The Female Vote) the first booklet defending the civil and political rights of women in Costa Rica. It was widely distributed among educators, feminists, and politicians, and frequently discussed in the press. She advocated for a restricted vote for women, limiting participation to those who were educated or who had sufficient life experience, like mothers and widows.
Casal de Quirós was outspoken in her defense of the right of women to vote, believing that women had a moral nature which was crucial for shaping society. Along with the Liga, she supported laws which provided for the care of abandoned children, for removal of discriminatory pay scales for women, and for the political enfranchisement of women. From 1924, women's suffrage legislation was introduced by the Liga and its supporters to the legislature in 1925, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1934 and 1939, without success. She published articles in various newspapers, like La Tribuna, throughout the 1920s and in April 1931 became the director and editor-in-chief of Revista costarricense (Costa Rican Magazine), continuing as director until 1948, when the publication ceased production. The magazine aimed to address a wide range of women's issues from home management, to education, to hygiene and childcare, to civic responsibilities, and the moral and religious development of women and children.
Death and legacy
Casal de Quirós died on 17 November 1953 at the in San José and was buried in El Carmen the following day. Along with Acuña, de Chacón, and de Messerville, she is remembered as one of the leading feminists of her era in Costa Rica.
References
Bibliography
- Book: Barahona Riera . Macarena . Las sufragistas de Costa Rica . 1994 . Editorial de la University de Costa Rica. San José, Costa Rica. 978-9977-67-257-1 . 1. Spanish . The Suffragettes of Costa Rica.
- Book: Camacho De la O . Ana Lorena . Valitutti Chavarría . Gina . Mujeres destacadas de Costa Rica . 2007 . Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres . San José, Costa Rica . 978-9968-25-102-0 . Spanish . Featured Women of Costa Rica.
- Casal de Quirós . Sara . (Masthead) Directora: Sara Casal Vda. de Quiros . Revista Costarricense . 26 December 1948 . XIX . 785 . 1 . 20 January 2020 . San José, Costa Rica . Spanish.
- Evans Benavides . Teodoro . Aspectos históricos, tratamiento quirúrgico de la Neuralgia del Trigémino en Costa Rica . Neuroeje . December 2011 . 24 . 2 . 39 . 20 January 2020 . Historical Aspects, Surgical Treatment of Trigeminal Neuralgia in Costa Rica . Asociación Costarricense de Ciencias Neurológica . San José, Costa Rica . Spanish . 1011-5684.
- Book: Lehoucq . Fabrice E. . Molina . Ivan . Stuffing the Ballot Box: Fraud, Electoral Reform, and Democratization in Costa Rica . 2002. Cambridge University Press . Cambridge, UK . 978-1-139-43415-7.
- Book: Ovares, Flora . Crónicas de lo efímero: revistas literarias de Costa Rica . 2011 . Editorial Universidad Estatal a Distancia . San José, Costa Rica . Spanish . Chronicles of the Ephemeral: Literary Magazines of Costa Rica.
- Web site: . Ramírez U. . Carmen María . Vásquez A. . Hilda . Herrera Q. . Marta . Zúñiga V. . Patricia . El Buen Pastor en Centroamérica y Puerto Rico . Congregacíón de Nuestra Señora de la Carídad del Buen Pastor . Casa Generalizia, Suore del Buon Pastore . 20 January 2020 . https://archive.today/20200120200920/http://rgs.gssweb.org/old/centro_america/historia_663 . 20 January 2020 . Rome, Italy . Spanish . The Good Shepherd in Central America and Puerto Rico . 2020.
- Rodríguez Sáenz . Eugenia . Cronología de la participación socio-política femenina en Costa Rica (1890–1952) . 10.15517/dre.v5i1-2.6254 . August 2005a . Diálogos Revista Electrónica de Historia . 5 . 1–2 . . San José, Costa Rica . Spanish . Women's Socio-Political Participation in Costa Rica (1890–1952) . 695–722 . 1409-469X. free .
- Rodríguez Sáenz . Eugenia . "Dotar de voto político a la mujer". La Liga Feminista y la redefinición de las relaciones de género, (1923–1949) . 10.15517/dre.v1i1.6123 . August 1999 . Diálogos Revista Electrónica de Historia . 1 . 1 . 142 . . San José, Costa Rica . Spanish . "Provide the Political Vote to Women". The Feminist League and the Redefinition of Gender Relations, (1923–1949) . 1409-469X. free .
- Rodríguez Sáenz . Eugenia . "¿Hábrase visto cosa igual?" El trasfondo doméstico de la lucha por la aprobación del voto femenino . November 1996 . Actualidades del C.I.H.A.C. . 3 . 4 . . 20 January 2020 . San José, Costa Rica . Spanish . "Have Equal Things Been Seen?" The Domestic Background of the Struggle for the Approval of the Female Vote . 1–4.
- Web site: Rodríguez Sáenz . Eugenia . La redefinición de los discursos sobre la familia y el género en Costa Rica, (1890–1930) . 1997 . LASA International . . 19 January 2020 . Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania . Spanish . The Redefinition of Speech about Family and Gender in Costa Rica, (1890–1930) . https://web.archive.org/web/20110921073200/http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/LASA97/rodriguezsaenz.pdf . 21 September 2011.
- Rodríguez Sáenz . Eugenia . Visibilizando las facetas ocultas del movimiento de mujeres, el feminismo y las luchas por la ciudadanía femenina en Costa Rica (1890–1953) . 10.15517/dre.v5i1-2.6230 . August 2005b . Diálogos Revista Electrónica de Historia . 5 . 1–2 . . 19 January 2020 . San José, Costa Rica . Spanish . Visibilizing the Hidden Dates of the Women's Movement, Feminism and the Fight for Female Citizenship in Costa Rica (1890–1953) . 36–61 . 1409-469X. free .
- Solano Arias . Marta E. . A 90 años de la fundación de la Liga Feminista Costarricense: los derechos políticos . Revista de Derecho Electoral . June 2014 . 17 . 357–375 . 19 January 2020 . 90 Years after the Founding of the Costa Rican Feminist League: Political Rights . Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones de Costa Rica . San José, Costa Rica . https://web.archive.org/web/20190726041807/http://www.tse.go.cr/revista/art/17/solano_arias.pdf . 26 July 2019 . Spanish . 1659-2069.
- News: . . Boston Host to Pan-Americans . 19 January 2020 . 5 May 1922 . . Boston, Massachusetts . 13 . Newspapers.com.
- News: . . La batalla de las sufragistas ticas . . https://web.archive.org/web/20190726051450/https://www.nacion.com/viva/cultura/la-batalla-de-las-sufragistas-ticas/BRABYIL47VEZVP2H5IOSQCLGWM/story/ . 26 July 2019 . 19 January 2020 . San José, Costa Rica . Spanish . 27 July 2014 . The Battle of Tica Suffragists.
- . . Memoria de Educacion Publica correspondiente al año 1940 . 1940 . Gobierno de Costa Rica . San José, Costa Rica . 20 January 2020 . Public Education Report for the Year 1940.
- . . Pan American Conference of Women . Bulletin of the Pan American Union . 54 . 6 . June 1922 . . Washington, D. C. . 220726766. 637–638.
- Web site: . . Registros civiles, Nacimientos 1860–1889: Sara Rosa Zoila Casal Conejo . FamilySearch . Tribunal supremo de elecciones . 18 January 2020 . San José, Costa Rica . Spanish . 6 September 1879.
- Web site: . . Registros civiles, Defunciones vols. 5–6 1900–1906: Teodoro Quirós Blanco . FamilySearch . Tribunal supremo de elecciones . 20 January 2020 . San José, Costa Rica . Spanish . 20 January 1902.
- Web site: . . Registros parroquiales, Bautismos 1879–1881: Sara Rosa Soila Casal Conejo . FamilySearch . El Carmen parroquia de la Iglesia Católica . 18 January 2020 . San José, Costa Rica . Spanish . 11 September 1879.
- Web site: . . Registros parroquiales, Defunciones 1881–1970: Casal Conejo de Quirós, Sara . FamilySearch . El Carmen parroquia de la Iglesia Católica . 18 January 2020 . San José, Costa Rica . Spanish . 18 November 1953.
- Web site: . . Revista costarricense: publicación semanal para el hogar . Sinabi . Sistema Nacional de Bibliotecas . 20 January 2020 . San José, Costa Rica . Spanish . 2020.