Breathe
By Brenda Macias
On October 20, 2024, the second wave feminist Marta Acevedo, author of the book A 100 años del 10 de mayo (100 Years after May 10th), died in Mexico City at the age of 84. The book had been republished in 2023 and presented by UNAM's Center for Gender Research and Studies at the Elena Garro Cultural Center in Coyoacán. Marta Acevedo was accompanied by Marta Lamas, Hortensia Moreno, Marisa Belausteguigoitia, María Teresa Priego and Stephanie Brewster.
Marta Acevedo fought all her life for the rights of women and children. With her book A 100 años del 10 de mayo she openly questioned Mother's Day, a celebration created by Rafael Alducín, owner of the newspaper Excélsior in 1922, to honor the "labor of love" of Mexican mothers.
For more than a century, this "labor of love" has made invisible the unpaid domestic and care work performed by housewives. May 10, one of Mexico's most emblematic holidays, has reinforced submissive roles, exalted motherhood as women's manifest destiny, and exalted sacrifice and abnegation to the detriment of autonomy.
Marta Acevedo, inquiring about the origin of May 10, did not hesitate to suspect that the date was a conservative response to the First Congress of Mexico held in Merida in 1916, where issues such as motherhood and free choice were debated.
For these reasons, and because of the demonstration in the United States 50 years after women's suffrage, on May 9, 1971, Marta Acevedo, together with the group Mujeres en Acción Solidaria (MAS), protested at the Monumento a la Madre, the first public act of the feminist movements in Mexico. After that date, those of us who have continued to take to the streets to march and protest inequalities and violence against women every March 8 have been inspired by Marta Acevedo's walk.
The myth of the all-powerful "holy mother," who is never arbitrary, never angry, never abusive or cruel in her upbringing, was dismantled by Marta Acevedo in A 100 años del 10 de mayo. So next May 10 do not fall into the clutches of marketing and better celebrate your mother every day, but above all recognize her work as a skilled worker and caregiver.
Finally, do you know Los libros del rincón? Marta Acevedo was the creator of this strategy for children readers and writers that is still in force.
It is a joy to have met Marta Acevedo. Good bye. Thank you.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
Comments ()