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María Álvarez de Guillén
Álvarez de Guillén in 1929
Born	María Álvarez Ángel 1889 (1889) El Salvador
Died	1980 (aged 90–91) El Salvador
Other names	María Álvarez de Guillén Rivas, Amary Zalvera
Occupation(s)	Coffee plantation operator, writer
Known for	Women's rights activism
Children	Marta Guillén Álvarez Álvaro Guillén Álvarez
Father	Rafael Álvarez Lalinde

María Álvarez de Guillén (1889–1980), pen name Amari Zalvera, was a Salvadoran businesswoman, writer and women's rights activist. She was one of the first Salvadoran women to publish a novel and was one of the first delegates to serve on the Inter-American Commission of Women.

Early life

Her parents moved to El Salvador to join her uncle Emilio and his family in establishing a coffee business. They arrived on 5 June 1889 and initially the family lived in San Salvador with Emilio and his family, but soon moved ten miles away to Quezaltepeque to the Colombia coffee farm. Rafael, who had been a shopkeeper in Colombia, served as manager of Emilio's farms Colombia and Santa Isabel and soon opened the first water-powered depulping machinery in El Salvador.

María Álvarez Ángel was born 24 August 1889 in El Salvador to Julia Ángel Macias and Rafael Álvarez Lalinde. When Álvarez was eight years old, the family moved to Santa Ana, where she attended the Colegio de la Asuncion. Her father continued managing his brother's farms and began purchasing his own properties for coffee production as well. After graduating, she married Dr. Joaquin Guillén Rivas in 1914.

Career

Over the next several years, Álvarez, who would continue to work on her family coffee plantation, had five children. Besides raising her children, she was active in charitable and social programs, as well as the movement for suffrage. She was one of the suffragists who won the right for the enfranchisement of women, which was enshrined in the constitution developed by the Federal Republic of Central America. But when the Republic fell apart in 1922, she founded the Sociedad Confraternidad de Señoras de la República de El Salvador (Confraternal Society of Women of the Republic of El Salvador) and led campaigns for voting and nationality rights of women in El Salvador. Publishing articles on social welfare and political issues, Álvarez published her first literary work in 1926. Her book, La Hija de Casa (Daughter of the House) won second prize in the national literary competition Queremos and was the first novel published by a woman in El Salvador.

In 1928, the Pan American Union created the Inter-American Commission of Women (Spanish: Comisión Interamericana de Mujeres, CIM) to review data and prepare information comparing women's civil and political equality in the region. The inaugural delegates to the CIM, selected by lot, included Álvarez, along with chair Doris Stevens (United States), Ernestina A. López de Nelson (Argentina), María Elena de Hinestrosa (Colombia), Alice Téligny Mathon (Haiti), Clara González (Panama), and Lucila Luciani de Pérez Díaz (Venezuela). Not only did Álvarez work to compile the information, over the course of her ten-year service to the CIM, she frequently urged the government of El Salvador to amend the constitution to protect women's citizenship, so that upon marriage they did not lose their nationality and had equal civil rights to men.

Throughout her career, Álvarez continued writing, creating several theatrical works, as well as another unpublished manuscript which had been completed by 1929. Her second published novel, Sobre el puente (Over the Bridge, 1947) wove a love story throughout a historical account of Panama's relationship with Colombia and the United States. She continued to work in coffee production and in her later years published a book of poetry El pregón del café (The Proclamation of Coffee). She retired from the farm in 1965, leaving production to her daughter and as she aged, Álvarez lost her sight.

Death and legacy

Álvarez died in 1980 and was buried in the Cementerio de Los Ilustres [es] in the family mausoleum. Her letters to Doris Stevens, during her service on the CIM, are housed in the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her daughter, María "Marta" (born 1915) became a noted opera singer.

Selected works

• Zalvera, Amary (1926). La Hija de Casa. San Salvador, El Salvador.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Zalvera, Amary (1947). Sobre el puente. San Salvador, El Salvador. OCLC 20950513.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Zalvera, Amary (1965). Hola América (in Spanish). San Salvador, El Salvador: Institute of Hispanic Culture. OCLC 1124922540.
• Zalvera, Amary (1975). El pregón del café: poemas (in Spanish). Madrid, Spain: Afrodisio Aguado. ISBN 978-84-202-0318-8.

Notes

1. According to her great-granddaughter, Álvarez's pseudonym was an anagram of her real name, Amari Zalvera. Some references spell the first name as Amari, and others use the spelling Amary.
2. Reports of her birth date and place vary. Her great-granddaughter states she was the first member of her family to be born in El Salvador, and that the family arrived in 1898. Fernández Asenjo indicates she was born in 1896, as does Sermeño Melara. In 1929, L'Égyptienne published her birth year as 1889, citing that the information came from the Inter-American Commission of Women. That date is confirmed by immigration records for a border crossing in 1944 to the United States from Mexico. Baptismal records in Colombia, indicate a María Álvarez Ángel was born 20 February 1887 in Manizales, Colombia to Rafael Álvarez and Julia Ángel.

References

1. ^ Zalvera Estate Coffee 2019, p. 1.
2. Peschke 2006, p. 62.
3. ^ Sermeño Melara 2014, p. 13.
4. ^ Lara-Martínez 2018.
5. Lamperti 2006, p. 23.
6. Lamperti 2006, p. 22.
7. Lamperti 2006, p. 24.
8. ^ Zalvera Estate Coffee 2019, p. 2.
9. ^ Fernández Asenjo 2016, p. 271.
10. ^ L'Égyptienne 1929, p. 41.
11. ^ United States Border Crossings 1944.
12. Bautismos 1887, p. 182.
13. Lamperti 2006, p. 25.
14. Lamperti 2006, pp. 25–27.
15. Alvarez Geoffroy 1999.
16. ^ Bulletin of the Pan American Union 1929, p. 53.
17. ^ Cañas Dinarte 2017.
18. Cañas Dinarte 2018, p. 1.
19. Perry 1922, p. 42.
20. Leonard 2012, p. 156.
21. ^ Toruño 1958, p. 254.
22. Sermeño Melara 2014, p. 4.
23. Lee 2004, p. 3.
24. Lee 2004, p. 4.
25. ^ Doris Stevens Papers 1938.
26. Quirante Amores 2017, pp. 188–189.
27. ^ Todos Tus Libros 1975.
28. Osmín Monge 2001.

Bibliography

• Alvarez Geoffroy, Mauricio (15 July 1999). "Rafael Alvarez, pionero de la industrialización del café" [Rafael Alvarez, Pioneer of Coffee Industrialization]. El Diario de Hoy (in Spanish). San Salvador, El Salvador. Archived from the original on 14 January 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
• Cañas Dinarte, Carlos (3 July 2017). "El largo camino hacia el voto femenino" [The Long Road to the Female Vote]. ecumenico.org (in Spanish). El Salvador: Servicio Informativo Ecuménico y Popular. Archived from the original on 13 January 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
• Cañas Dinarte, Carlos (7 March 2018). "La manifestación de mujeres del 25 de diciembre de 1922" [The Demonstration of Women on 25 December 1922]. issuu.com (in Spanish). El Salvador. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
• Fernández Asenjo, Mercedes (October 2016). "Activismo político y feminismo en la República Dominicana. Petronila Angélica Gómez y Fémina (1922–1939)" [Political Activism and Feminism in the Dominican Republic: Petronila Angelica Gomez and Femina (1922–1939)]. Meridional: Revista Chilena de Estudios Latinoamericanos (in Spanish) (7). Santiago, Chile: University of Chile: 251–277. ISSN 0719-4862. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
• Lamperti, John W. (2006). Enrique Alvarez Cordova: Life of a Salvadoran Revolutionary and Gentleman. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-2473-3.
• Lara-Martínez, Rafael (5 January 2018). "Masculinidades salvadoreñas III" [Salvadoran Masculinities III]. Diario Co Latino (in Spanish). San Salvador, El Salvador. Archived from the original on 15 June 2019. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
• Lee, Muna (2004). "The Inter-American Commission of Women: A New International Venture" (PDF). In Cohen, Jonathan (ed.). A Pan-American Life: Selected Poetry and Prose of Muna Lee. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-20230-5.
• Leonard, Thomas (2012). "Central American Conference, Washington, 1923". In Leonard, Thomas; Buchenau, Jurgen; Longley, Kyle; Mount, Graeme (eds.). Encyclopedia of U.S. – Latin American Relations. Vol. 1: A-E. Los Angeles, California: SAGE Publications. pp. 156–157. ISBN 978-1-60871-792-7.
• Osmín Monge, José (29 August 2001). "Alondra con voz de cristal" [Lark with a Crystal Voice]. El Diario de Hoy (in Spanish). San Salvador, El Salvador. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
• Perry, Edward (February 1922). "Central American Union". The Hispanic American Historical Review. 5 (1). Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press: 30–51. doi:10.2307/2505979. ISSN 0018-2168. JSTOR 2505979.
• Peschke, Michael (2006). International Encyclopedia of Pseudonyms. Munich, Germany: K. G. Saur Verlag. ISBN 978-3-598-24961-7.
• Quirante Amores, Gabriela (July 2017). La novela histórica escrita por mujeres en centroamérica durante la primera mitad del siglo XX [The Historical Novel Written by Women in Central America during the First Half of the 20th Century] (PDF) (PhD) (in Spanish). San Vicente del Raspeig, Spain: Universidad de Alicante.
• Sermeño Melara, Nuria Jenniffer (May 2014). Mujer y literatura en El Salvador [Women and Literature in El Salvador] (Licenciatura) (in Spanish). San Salvador, El Salvador: Universidad de El Salvador.
• Toruño, Juan Felipe (1958). Desarrollo literario de El Salvador: Ensayo (in Spanish). San Salvador, El Salvador: Ministerio de Cultura, Departamento Editorial. OCLC 1012061025.
• "Bautismos 1885 nov-1888 ago, Catedral Basílica Nuestra Señora del Rosario: María Álvarez Ángel". FamilySearch (in Spanish). Cartagena, Colombia: La Arquidiocesis de Caragena. 13 March 1887. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
• "Doris Stevens Papers: Inter-American Commission of Women. Correspondence and office files. Salvador: María Alvárez de Guillén Rivas, 1928–1935". Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. 1938. MC 546, folder 90.3. Retrieved 14 January 2020. and "Doris Stevens Papers: Inter-American Commission of Women. Correspondence and office files. Salvador: María Alvárez de Guillén Rivas, 1933–1938". Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. 1938. MC 546, folder 90.4. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
• "Glanes" (PDF). L'Égyptienne (in French). 5 (46). Paris, France: 35–43. February 1929. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
• "One Hundred Years of Zalvera: Our Story, Part 1". Zalvera Estate Coffee. Vienna, Austria. 22 January 2019. Archived from the original on 13 January 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2020. and "One Hundred Years of Zalvera: Our Story, Part 2". Zalvera Estate Coffee. Vienna, Austria. 30 January 2019. Archived from the original on 14 January 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
• "El pregón del café". Todos Tus Libros (in Spanish). Spain. 1 May 1975. Archived from the original on 14 January 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
• "Salvador's Representative in Pan American Commission of Women". Bulletin of the Pan American Union. 63 (1). Washington, D. C.: Pan American Union: 53–54. January 1929. OCLC 220726766. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
• "United States Border Crossings from Mexico to United States, 1903–1957". FamilySearch. San Francisco, California: Ancestry. 9 January 1944. Retrieved 13 January 2020.

• 1889 births
• 1980 deaths
• People from Santa Ana, El Salvador
• Salvadoran feminists
• 20th-century Salvadoran writers
• 20th-century Salvadoran women writers
• Salvadoran people of Colombian descent
• Salvadoran suffragists