Matilde Huici
MATILDE HUICI
Pamplona, August 3rd 1890 - Santiago, April 13th 1965
Matilde Huici was a teacher, suffragist, educator and lawyer born in Pamplona on August 3, 1890. She was part of a liberal and republican family. Matilda Huici's husband was Luis San Martin Adeva and they had 5 children.
At the age of 17, she got her first teacher's degree in Bilbao and after she studied and Law at the Complutense University of Madrid. She founded the “Association of Spanish University Women” together with Clara Campoamor, María de Maeztu and Victoria Kent. Thanks to a scholarship she moved to Vermont (USA), where she specialized in Pedagogy.
In 1931 she joined the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) with her husband.
She started to be renowned for her defense of children and women’s rights. Then she worked in favour of abolition of the prostitution. In 1933 she was one of the first people to suggest gender quotas in political representation positions. She had different political positions during the Second Spanish Republic, and when the war broke out she worked in the League of Nations. She was a part of the national women's committee against fascism and war. She and her family were republicans and liberals, this caused them many problems when Franco got the power.
During the Spanish Civil War she moved first to Valencia, and later to Barcelona, as the headquarters of the republican government moved. When the Republic was comepletely defeated, in 1939, she escaped to France. Some months later, she ended up in exile in Chile in 1940 together with her family. Two years after the death of her husband, in 1950, she became a Chilean citizen. She then developed the rest of her successful career in Chile.
SOURCES:
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matilde_Huici
http://grupo.us.es/generoysocdelcto/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Matilde-Huici.pdf
https://blogs.deia.eus/el-paseante/2018/03/08/8-de-marzo-recordando-a-matilde-huici/