El dieciocho de enero/January 18th
¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Elena Arizmendi Mejía! (1884-1949) Cover of the 2010 biography of Arizmendi written by historian Arizmendi founded the Neutral White Cross (when the Red Cross refused to treat insurgents in the Mexican Revolution), the feminist magazine Femenismo Internacional , and the organization Mujeres de la raza , which aimed to unite Latina women in the struggle for rights. Born to a wealthy family in Mexico City in 1884 (her mother's father was Ignacio Mejía, a general and close ally of Benito Juárez, and her great grandfather was Manuel Cristóbal Mejía, who had fought in the Mexican War of Independence against Spain), Arizmendi spent the early years of her life with her grandfather in Oaxaca. When she was only fourteen, her mother died, and she became responsible for the care of the household and her siblings. When her father remarried two years later, Arizmendi also hastily married, perhaps to escape the house, but that marriage fell apart (some say due to a...