On May 30

On this day in ...
... 1918, a daughter, Guadalupe, was born in Mexico City, the youngest of 7 children, to aristocrats of French, German, and Spanish heritage. Called audacious and rebellious for her acting and modeling exploits, the girl -- who as a poet came to be known as Pita Amor -- counted among her friends many of Mexico's artistic and intellectual elite, including Diego Rivera, who created the ca. 1950s portrait of Amor at left (credit), and an IntLawGrrls foremother, Gabriela Mistral. Amor's poetry is noted as 1st-person musings on metaphysics; among the poets who inspired her was another foremother, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Amor died in 2000, at age 81, in the city of her birth.


(Prior May 30 posts are here, here, and here.)

Welcome IntLawGrrl Susana SáCouto

Delighted to announce that Susana SáCouto has joined Rebecca Bratspies this week as IntLawGrrls' newest members.
Susana (left) is the Director of the War Crimes Research Office at the Washington College of Law (WCL), American University, Washington, D.C., which promotes the development and enforcement of international criminal and humanitarian law. A Professorial Lecturer in Residence at WCL, Susana teaches courses on gender and human rights law and on the responses of international humanitarian law and international criminal law to women in conflict, and further directs WCL’s Summer Law Program in The Hague.
Susana he has a rich background and expertise in the fields of human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law:
► Her most recent publications include "Reflections on the Judgment of the International Court of Justice in Bosnia’s Genocide Case against Serbia and Montenegro,"15 Human Rights Brief 2 (Fall 2007); with Katherine Cleary, "Victim Participation before the International Criminal Court," 17 Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems 73 (2008); and "Advances and Missed Opportunities in the International Prosecution of Gender-Based Crimes," 15 Michigan State Journal of International Law 137 (2007).
► Susana has directed the Legal Services Program at Women Empowered Against Violence, clerked for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and worked with the Center for Human Rights Legal Action in Guatemala.
► She currently serves as co-chair of the Women’s International Law Interest Group of the American Society for International Law, and was recently awarded The Women’s Law Center 22nd Annual Dorothy Beatty Memorial Award, by the Women's Law Center of Maryland, for significant contributions to women’s rights.
Susana's chosen to dedicate her IntLawGrrls contributions to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz who, as Susana describes in her post below, was a 17th century Mexican nun known as the America's 1st feminist writer. Sor Juana joins IntLawGrrls' other transnational foremothers in list at right, just below the "visiting from ..." map.
Hearfelt welcome!

Introducing Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

In this 1st post at IntLawGrrls blog, I will explain why I have selected as my transnational foremother Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648 or 1651-1695), a Mexican nun recognized for her extraordinary knowledge of the arts and sciences of her day and for her fierce defense of a woman's right to education. She has been called the first feminist of the Americas because of her outspoken advocacy of women's right to learn, a dangerous position to advance during the Inquisition in 17th century Mexico.
In one of her most famous writings, Reply to Sor Philothea—written in response to a letter from the bishop of Puebla, who had posed as "Sor Philothea", which reprimanded her for neglecting religious literature—Sor (that is, Sister) Juana vigorously defended women's right to be educated and to take up intellectual pursuits, citing over forty women who had made significant contributions throughout history. Her reply incited harsh criticism from the Church. Although toward the end of her life Sor Juana renounced worldly learning, disposed of her library of 4,000 volumes (considered at the time to be the largest private library in Mexico), and devoted herself to penance, her story and reputation “as the first published feminist of the New World and as the most outstanding writer of the Spanish American colonial period” remain.
Many of her writings can be found online using the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Project.