Hermila Galindo de Topete (29 May 1896 – 1954[1]) was a Mexican feminist and a writer who during the Mexican Revolution became a public supporter of Venustiano Carranza. She supported liberal ideas and was part of a liberal group that was created to lobby against Porfirio Díaz.
Born in Lerdo, Durango, she was discovered by Carranza while giving a speech to welcome him upon his return to the capital. He then offered her the opportunity to work with him in Veracruz. She then became his private secretary and continued rallying support for the Mexican woman and liberal ideologies.
After years of writing speeches, articles and treaties she created a magazine called La Mujer Moderna ("The Modern Woman"). Along with essays discussing feminist ideas, it also served as propaganda to support Carranza. The magazine also featured articles which expressed her disapproval of the Catholic Church and its methods of control. At the time her views of sex education and women's sexuality were considered to be extremely radical. Her approach seeking equality and women's rights were seen as controversial. During the Feminist Congress of 1916, César González, an education administrator for Carranza, read a statement in which Galindo attacks the male double standard in Mexico. After these statements were read, conservative women's groups went on the defensive and came back with a statement which supported the traditional role of women and opposed women's education. These counterattacks did not stop her. She continued to expose, challenge and question the problems that she saw existed in society.
She credited her work and pursuit of sex education for women to the philosophers August Bebel and Immanuel Kant. Her strong support for Carranza was evident in her writings, which expressed her faith in him and his potential to create a social revolution. Through him she believed that women could get the vote and that there was hope for social reform. In the end, Carranza failed to create the change he promised. Instead, because of corruption, he became an enemy of the revolution, and left Galindo disillusioned. She was unsuccessful in gaining suffrage for women but her efforts and her openness to publicly criticize the Catholic Church and to challenge the conditions of women living in Mexico were an important contribution to the Mexican Revolution. She ended her career in politics after she married in 1923. She continued, however, to speak out against inequality and injustice.[2]