5 Notable Women Who Transformed Latin America

Warfare, literature, education, and politics were long the purview of men before these five notable Latin American women made their voices heard. Many of them defied societal gender norms, facing discrimination and harsh treatment, sometimes even exile. Nevertheless, these determined women exhibited exceptional strength and courage, leading them to greatness while opening spaces for women in Latin America.

During the 17th century in New Spain, knowledge and education were exclusively reserved for the male world. Women belonged to other spheres of everyday life: they were expected to take care of the family and the home. Education provided to the privileged few was limited to basic literacy, as girls were primarily taught domestic labor and to exercise Christian virtues. Submissive, honest, and domestic women were desired.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was born into an affluent family around 1650. From a young age, she was believed to be a prodigy due to her aptitude for learning. After serving as a lady-in-waiting to the viceroy’s wife, highly esteemed for her erudition, intelligence, and poetry, she entered a convent of the Order of Saint Jerome, where she took perpetual vows to be confined for life.

She wrote numerous poems about life, love, and heartbreak but was a master of all genres, writing plays as well. She expressed her ideas and emotions through satire, metaphor, and philosophical reflection, driven by the pursuit of truth and the struggle for freedom.

Her style was considered inappropriate by the Christian standards of 17th-century New Spain, doubly so for a woman. Her writings were deemed “worldly”; a bishop advised her to focus on religion and leave such profane matters to men. In response, she penned a manifesto, far ahead of her time, defending women’s right to education. Her work reflects her intelligence, sensitivity, and commitment to society.

From humble origins, Eva Perón arrived in Buenos Aires at the age of 15 with the dream of pursuing acting. She gained some fame in cinema, radio, and theater before meeting her husband and future president of Argentina, Juan Perón, when she was 25.

Eva Perón managed to carve out a path in politics despite having everything against her. She was a woman and an actress, working at a time when it was not viewed favorably by society and was particularly challenging in the political sphere. Yet she continued despite the criticism. She managed to open the doors for women to participate in politics and defended the rights of those most in need. Along with her husband, she consolidated Peronism as a political and social movement. They became charismatic figures, leaders who supported the masses and gave workers a voice in changing the course of power.

Eva was either loved or hated, there was no middle ground. Confident and charismatic, she navigated criticism with grace. Her sensitivity to connecting with people and passion for her causes transcended the limits imposed by society on a first lady.

She died at the very young age of 33 from cancer, after which her embalmed body was desecrated and stolen. However, her brief years in the spotlight were enough for her to become a prominent figure in Argentina and beyond. Posthumously, she was granted the title “Spiritual Leader of Argentina.” After her death, appreciation for her grew, creating a mythology around her figure that persists today.

Rigoberta Menchú was born in 1959 into a Mayan peasant family in Guatemala. In her childhood, she suffered poverty, racial discrimination, and violence. At the tender age of five, she began working with her parents on farms, and in her adolescence, she was employed as a domestic worker in the capital.

During this time, Guatemala was experiencing an armed conflict between the government and a guerrilla group fighting for social justice. The government sought to suppress the movement, choosing the path of violence and extermination of the Mayan population. Rigoberta experienced firsthand the ravages of this conflict: her mother and brother were tortured and killed by soldiers, while her father was burned alive during a protest.

From a very young age, she became involved in social movements protesting violence and seeking better living conditions. Her participation earned her exile, and at the age of 21, she was forced to seek refuge in Mexico. She has continued to participate in international forums, advocating for the rights of indigenous populations and educating on the impacts of violence. As a UN ambassador and mediator in the peace process with the guerrillas, she sought to promote dialogue and social justice in Guatemala, highlighting the importance of indigenous peoples being permitted to make decisions about their own needs and rights. In 1992, she won the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first indigenous woman to receive the award.

4. Manuela Sáenz 

Manuela Sáenz was born in Ecuador in 1797, the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy Spanish merchant and a lower-class Creole woman. From a young age, she was influenced by the movement for independence in the Americas, which rejected the privileges that peninsular Spaniards had over the Creoles, such as access to political positions. As a bastard daughter, she knew well what it felt like and had a rebellious spirit in her blood.

Manuela wanted to fight for freedom and not only financed the revolutionary cause but also participated in the fight herself, mounted on horseback with sword and pistol in hand. She was a great strategist and politician. She fought in the Battle of Pichincha, which won freedom for Ecuador in 1822, and the liberator José de San Martín granted her the title of Knightess of the Order of the Sun of Peru.

She met Simón Bolívar, and they quickly fell in love, becoming companions in the fight, political advisers, and lovers. Manuela firmly believed in his ideals of liberty and equality for America, so she became a key ally for Bolívar. She saved his life in the Bógota assassination attempt in 1828.

Her relationship with Bolívar should not overshadow her personal merits as a defender of the independence of South American countries and women’s rights—particularly because, in her time, such actions were not acceptable for women. Yet she was able to voice her opinion and operate at the same level as men in political intrigues. She scandalized many with her rebellious, provocative, and outgoing behavior, but above all, her influence and political power frightened the male rulers, resulting in her exile from Ecuador.

Born Lucila Godoy in 1889 in the small community of Vicuña in northeastern Chile, Gabriela Mistral’s childhood was spent surrounded by women. She was almost entirely self-taught, dropping out of school at the age of 11 but continuing to read any book that came her way. She began her path in teaching as a teacher’s assistant.

At 17, she published a column in a local newspaper titled “The Education of Women,” in which she argued that women have potential beyond homemaking and advocated for their intellectual instruction. She wrote that educating women “es hacerla digna y levantarla”—dignifies and uplifts them.

While continuing her training as a teacher, she wrote poems in her spare time until her first major literary success, which made her known throughout Latin America: “Sonnets of Death.” She wrote this work after experiencing her first disappointments in love. From then on, she began to use the pseudonym “Gabriela Mistral” for fear of affecting her job as a teacher.

In 1922, already famous, she traveled to Mexico in order to contribute to education crusades, participating in the design of a new educational program and teaching in rural and indigenous areas, primarily focused on instilling the value of reading. She put her whole soul into this task. She lived her life between indigenous peoples and high intellectual and elite groups. Later, she dedicated herself to diplomacy and held important positions as consul in Madrid and New York.

She was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945 “for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world.” She gained prominence for her sensitivity and beautiful poems, as well as for her commitment to society, particularly to children.