Graciela Quan

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Quan and the second or maternal family name is Valenzuela.
Graciela Quan
Born Graciela Quan Valenzuela
ca. 1920
Guatemala
Died 22 January 1999
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Nationality Guatemalan
Occupation Lawyer, women's rights activist, suffragette, diplomat
Years active 1943–1999
Notable work first female lawyer

Graciela Quan Valenzuela[1] was the first female Guatemalan lawyer and an active suffragette, writing a draft proposal for Guatemala's enfranchisement law. She was a social worker, adviser to the President of Guatemala, delegate to the United Nations and the President of the Inter-American Commission of Women.[2]

Biography

Graciela Quan Valenzuela was born circa 1920 in Guatemala and graduated from the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala in 1942 as the country's first female attorney. Quan's thesis, "Ciudadanía opcional para la mujer guatemalteca" (Citizenship is optional for Guatemalan women) proposed a draft law for granting enfranchisement to women.[3]

In 1944, Quan founded with a group of women including Angelina Acuña de Castañeda, Berta Corleto, Elisa Hall de Asturias, Gloria Méndez Mina de Padilla, Rosa de Mora, and Irene de Peyré the Unión Femenina Guatemalteca Pro-ciudadanía (Union of Guatemalan Women for Citizenship) favoring recognition of their civil rights, including suffrage for literate women. After the Guatemalan 1944 coup d'état the new Constitution, promulgated on 1 March 1945 granted the right to vote to all literate citizens, including women.[4] She was one of the organizers of the Primer Congreso Interamericano de Mujeres (First Inter-American Congress of Women) held on 27 August 1947 in Guatemala City, which had as one of its main themes equality of men and women.[5] That same year, she was one of the founders of the Altrusa Club Guatemala, an affiliate of the organization Altrusa International, Inc. The initial goal of the club was to provide impoverished girls with an education; it later expanded to assisting street children and founding the municipal children's library.[6]

Quan served as a delegate to the United Nations in 1956 and 1957 as well as an adviser to President Carlos Castillo Armas on social issues.[7] Between 1957 and 1961 Quan served as Guatemala's representative to the Inter-American Commission of Women and the organization's president.[2][8] In 1978, she was recommended as a regional adviser to the Agency for International Development on women's issues in Latin America based upon her previous experience on the United Nation's Human Rights Commission and her pioneering social work in Guatemala.[9]

Quan died on 22 January 1999 in Guatemala City, Guatemala.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Wellmann Castellanos, Irmgardt Alicia María (8 July 2014). "¿Eres doctora en Guatemala?". Empoderamiento Feminista (in Spanish). Guatemala: Empoderamiento Feminista. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  2. 1 2 Manley, Elizabeth S. (2008). Poner Un Grano de Arena: Gender and Women's Political Participation Under Authoritarian Rule in the Dominican Republic, 1928--1978. Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana: ProQuest. p. 284. ISBN 978-0-549-58277-9. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  3. ↑ Borrayo Morales, Ana Patricia (April 2015). "Mujeres y Ciudadanía: Un Enfoque Histórico-Social. Los Inicios 1921 y 1944" (PDF). Tesis (in Spanish) (Guatemala City, Guatemala: Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala Escuela de Ciencia Política): 48. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  4. ↑ Rodríguez de Ita, Guadalupe (March 2001). "Participación Política de las Mujeres en la Primavera Democrática Guatemalteca (1944-1954)". Participación política, persecución y exilio femenino al sur de la frontera mexicana (en la segunda mitad del siglo XX) (in Spanish) (San Jose, Costa Rica: Universidad de Costa Rica). Chapter 8. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  5. ↑ Flores Asturias, Ricardo (6 June 2011). "Las Mujeres no Votan Porque Sí: Congreso Interamericano de Mujeres, 1947". Politica y Sentido Comun (in Spanish). Guatemala City, Guatemala: Ricardo Flores Asturias. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  6. ↑ "Bilbioteca Infantil "Cristobal Colón"". Municipalidad de la Ciudad de Guatemala (in Spanish). Guatemala City, Guatemala: Municipalidad de la Ciudad de Guatemala. 8 May 2008. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  7. ↑ Way, J. T. (2012). The Mayan in the Mall. ; Globalization, Development, and the Making of Modern Guatemala. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-822-35131-3. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  8. ↑ Eads, Jane (9 July 1957). "Training Plan Being mapped by Women's Group". Bryan, Texas: The Eagle. Retrieved 22 July 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ Updike, Jean Linton (April 1978). "Feasability Study for a Social/Civic Participation Program in Latin Ameirica" (PDF). USAID. Washington, DC: United States Government. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  10. ↑ "Honor a Graciela". la Cuerda (in Spanish) (Guatemala City, Guatemaa). Año 1 (9). January–February 1999. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
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