María Laffitte y Pérez del Pulgar, Countess of Campo Alange [es] (15 August 1902 – 9 July 1986[1]) was a Spanish aristocrat, writer, art critic, women's rights activist, and founder of the Seminar on Women's Sociological Studies.
Biography
María Laffitte y Pérez del Pulgar was born in Seville, where she spent her childhood. At age 20 she married and moved to Madrid. Though born to a family of privileged economic status, she nevertheless did not have academic training, something which marked her throughout her life. By age 24 she had three children. "During the best years of my life," she would later write, "I walked disoriented without knowing where to find my path."
"I began to write almost without realizing it, like the dictation of an internal and authoritarian voice," she explained about her process, and a short time later she had in her hands her first work, La biografía crítica de María Blanchard (The Critical Biography of María Blanchard). Unable to obtain a publisher, after offering it to several, she decided to edit the book on her own, and published it in 1944.[2] Years later she also wrote a biography of Concepción Arenal.
Little by little her name became known in the press and certain intellectual circles.
María Laffitte y Pérez del Pulgar signed her books as María Campo Alange, or Countess of Campo Alange, a title she held from her marriage to José de Salamanca, Count of Campo Alange.
She founded, directed, and sponsored the Seminar on Women's Sociological Studies (Seminario de Estudios Sociológicos de la Mujer; SESM) which, from 1960 until her death in 1986, gathered a group of professionals, university professors, and researchers, such as María Salas Larrazábal, Lilí Álvarez, and Elena Catena, dedicated to investigating the situation of women in Spain.
María Laffitte studied and theorized about the situation of women and their subordination, and sought answers in history, anthropology, art, and science.[2] In 1948, a year before Simone de Beauvoir wrote The Second Sex, Laffitte published La secreta guerra de los sexos (The Secret War of the Sexes) in Spain. Her criticism of the role of science in the essentials of women preceded de Beauvoir's. Her essays and research on women and the social construction of femininity are historic and continue to pose challenging questions.[1][4]
In her honor, the Maria Laffitte Women's Federation was founded in 2008, based in her hometown of Seville.
Published books
Art criticism
1944 María Blanchard: Madrid, Hauser y Menet.
1953 De Altamira a Hollywood, metamorfosis del arte: Madrid, Revista de Occidente. A work which, among other aspects, relates the influence of science on various manifestations of culture such as painting and art. For example, the influence of Darwin on Zola and the cellular vision in the work of Miró.
1969 En Torno a Teilhard (printed text/presentation), Countess of Campo Alange. Ponentes, P. Dubarle (and others). Grupo Español De Trabajo Teilhard De Chardin. Madrid: Taurus, 1969.
1977 Memorias of the Countess of Espoz y Mina (prologue). Madrid: Tebas.
1986 La mujer española: de la tradición a la modernidad (1960–1980) (prologue). Madrid: Tecnos.
Narrative
1959 La flecha y la esponja: Madrid, Arión.
Biography and autobiography
1956 Mi niñez y su mundo: Madrid, Revista de Occidente.
2nd edition: Madrid, Castalia, 1990.
1973 Concepción Arenal (1820–1893). Estudio biográfico documental: Madrid, Revista de Occidente.
1983 Mi atardecer entre dos mundos. Recuerdos y cavilaciones: Barcelona, Planeta.
Barrera López, Begoña (2016). María Laffitte. Una biografía intelectual [María Laffitte. An Intellectual Biography] (in Spanish). University of Seville.
Salas Larrazábal, María (2002). "María Campo Alange: Una Mujer Singular" [María Campo Alange: A Singular Woman]. Arenal (in Spanish). Vol. 9, no. 1. pp. 163–181.
"Pensamiento y Feminismo en la España de 1961. María Campo Alange: La Mujer Como Mito y Como Ser Humano" [Thought and Feminism in Spain in 1961. María Campo Alange: Woman as Myth and How to Be Human]. Arenal (in Spanish). Vol. 9, no. 1. 2002. pp. 185–196.
