Evening Star Newspaper, December 15, 1929, Page 110

10 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER 15, 1929.7 A Movie Star Leads Mexico’s Hozw Dolores Del Rio Paved the Way for the Feminine Revolt Against Old Customs That for Centuries Have Held Back the Fair Sex in All Spanish-American Countrics and What Is Happening as a Result. BY RUTH FINNEY. ENORITA will always be a romantic word, but none of the stories it ‘con- jures up in the mind will ever be more romantic than the story of the Senor- ita of Mexico who stepped from her secluded balcony to live in the world where women are persons. One by one the dark-eyed girls of the land mext door have quietly been doing that for some time past. It has not been an easy step; but that is what makes it a story. What Mexican women have accomplished in the way of creating a new world for themselves has been accomplished in spite of the infinite difficulty. Custom, tradition and religion have all been against them. They have had to fight every step of the way these great forces in which the roots of their lives were grounded. Yet Mexican women have made tremendous strides out of medievalism in the few years past; Senorita Esperanza Velasquez Bringas, head of the famed National Library and one of Mexico’s leading feminists. they have won many of the privileges that women of the United States enjoy, and a few that they do not. The fight is still going on. As recently as 1925 the Archbishop of Mexico, Jose Mara y Del Rio, told the people of his country that the church in Mexico disapproves of women leaving the home to become wage earners. But about the same time a relative of the archbishop struck a mighty blow for the other side by becoming famous at earning her living. She was Dolores Del Rio. Dolores’ pretty face, flashing across the silver screen, has had a profound effect upon the social and economic -life of her nation, and forces to which she has imparted added motion \Will probably continue long after her dazzling wyes have been forgotten. The young relative of Archbishop Jcse Mara ¥ Del Rio is quite certain to be remembered in history as one who played an important part in winning a whole new order for the women of her country. It was the revolution which pro- vived Mexican women with their great oppor- tunity to break away from their old lives into a new economic freedom, but it was Dolores who provided the courage for many who would have faltered and hesitated to become inde- pendent wage earners. JJEXICAN women are of two divisions. There are those of Spanish blood, de- scendants of the conquistadores, and there are those of Indian blood, descendants of tie Aztecs and other peoples. The secluded status of Spanish women has become a byword through the world and in Mexice the usage was rigorously observed by those of Spanish birth or breeding. Mexican women of Indian blood—and &at includes the greater part of the population ot the country—bound by the restrictions of the ruling class, were also barred from active pur- sults, though they have always enjoyed a great- er degree of freedom in the social relationship: of life than have the Spanish women. It used to be that a Mexican girl of Spanish blood lived one of two lives. She married and bore children, managed her household unob- trusively and went often to church in her black Jace mantilla. Or she became a nun and spent even more time in prayer. In neither case did she receive more than a most casual and rudi- mentary education. If she married expéeting romantic devotion she was usually disappointed, for custom did not frown ypon men of many devotions and many affairs. She lookéd :-forward to no re- lease from an unhappy alllance, for the law, until a few years ago, offered “her none except death. She might, with the sanction of all, smoke long, thin cigars and she might retain her own name after marriage and pass it on to her chil- dren, but of the privileges enjoyed elsewhere by women she knew nothing. Thousands of Spanish girls chose a convent life instead of this. Girls sent to a convent school, the only kind there was for girls, learned to view the nuns and the religious life with all the intense emo- tion of adolescence. The process of taking the veil was a dramatic pageant in which the girl was the central figure, approved by all about her, and the appeal of all this proved great to youth. 'HAT used to be life in Mexico for a woman. Now there are some 60 woman doctors in Mexico City. There are at least a half dozen woman lawyers. Senorita Guadalupe Zuniga is a judge of the juvenile court. Senorita Esper- anza Velasquez Bringas is head of the National Library, and in charge not only of its great or- ganization in Mexico City, but aiso of its exten- sion work in all parts of the nation. Scores of other women hold prominent positions. Dark-haired senoritas—and some that have bleached their tresses to a tentative blond— swing along the streets on their way to office jobs. There are many girl secretaries and stenographers. There are girl waitresses in al- most every restaurant, and most of them have bobbed hair and rouged lips. There are girl clerks in the stores, and there are many, many girl teachers in the new public schools, both in the cities and in the country. Usually the senorita who labors as a secre- tary or stenographer is inclined to be rather haughty about it. She will come to work in long, dangling earrings, and her languorous manner will convey her conviction that her presence is a favor to all concerned. But she is there. And since the Mexican business day consists of a little work, a very long siesta and then some more work, she has to walk home, in the Winter months, through dark streets. One, more convention thus crashes, for the majority of the girls, even though the daughters of the few, the oldest families, are still chapercned whenever they leave their homes. IT is in teaching that Mexican girls are find- ing their greatest field of opportunity at the present time. The program of placing rural schools in every hamlet of the land is a new one and teachers have to be found before it can be successful. Since 1923 4,000 rural schoocls have been established, and the program is far from complete. The government has decided that women make better teachers than men, in the rural field at least, and it has started diligently to Senorita Dolores Del Rio, who plays the part of leading lady and guiding star in Mexico’s dramatic feminist revolution. train as many girls as possible to go out into the huts and jacals of the Mexican villages and teach the Mexican Indians the things they should know. This is task for stout hearts. Mexico is being educated in the face of staggering difficulties. A great number of Indian tribes, speaking a great number of different languages, compose the Mexican nation, Many of these do not know they belong to a nation at all, have not heard the world Mexico and have not seen the Mexican flag. They have to be taught Spanish and they have to be taught everything else, including play. The parents have to be taught as well as the children, and the girls who go out into the rural schools, often little more than chil- dren themselves, teach the young of the village in the daytime and the adults in the evening. Where there are not schools enough for all, cultural missions” are organized, and two or three girls together go from village to village, staying three weeks in each and' teaching the community what they can, in that time, of health, of agriculture, of art, of the social arts, of handiwork and of book learning. This kind of work calls for much more than a languorous manner and a rebellion against past conventions. The girls who do it ride on horseback over perilous mountain trails. They live in native homes and eat native food. Of the first group of girls to try it, all broke down after the second year. Yet girls from old Spanish families as well as the sturdier Indian maidens are volunteering for this crusade. Illiteracy among women is widespread in Mexico. A public lecter writer plying his trade, UCH an assignment calls for real talent, too, for art is a fundamental part of the instruc- tion of Indian children. Mexican Indians are a gifted race. The things they make with their hands all have a touch of grace and beauty, Some of their ancient handicraft they rememse ber and some they have to be shown ab:cut. There is an open-air school of art in the ~-midst of a community of Indian villages where young boys and girls go and are given colors and brushes and allowed to interpret as they will, with amazing results. There is an open-air schecol of sculpture where little chaps, scarcely big enough to hold a chisel, are turned loose with blocks of stone. A little training and the tiny Indian boy be- comes an orator with fire and poise. With scarcely any training the Indian boy and Indian girl learn to dance the jarabe, the ancient peas- ant dance that looks so charming done in Pob- lana costume, the boy in sombrero and gayly colored tight trousers, the girl in flaming red skirt, glittering with gold sequins and em- broidered blouse. Next to teaching the activity finding most favor among Mexico's new wcmen is nursing. Thousands of girls are training themselves for this work. There is a demand for nurses for the health centers being established in all the Mexican cities and the prenatal and postnatal clinics as well as in the hospitals. There is no feminist movement to speak of in Mexico. There is no demand for the ballo} and no cry for equal rights. The lady of Span- ish blood does not attain her ends in just that way. Instinct has taught her that there are other methods than parading, demanding and threatening by which advantage may be gained from men. HAT she wants she goes about getting by appealing with all the charm at her com- mand to husband, father, brother or acquainte ance, and the method has not been ineffective, for already Mexican laws contain many of the provisions for which women of other countries have sternly and righteously contended for many years. All colleges and universities in Mexico 4re co- educational and girls are admitted to them on equal terms with men, while in parts of the United States relics of prejudice against highes education for women still linger in a few State laws. Mexican women may study to be doctors or lawyers and may, so far as the law is concerned, enter any sort of business or profession. The Mexican constitution provides that equal pay shall be given for equal work, regardless of sex. Laws regarding property rights of married wemen_ are extremely liberal. But on the other hand, women may not vote in national electiocns and only four states have provided for voting by women in local elections. These are the radical states of Yucatan, and Tabasco, Chiapa and San Luis Potosi. Chickens More Numerous. FOR every 20 chickens that were raised on the farms of this country during 1928 there will be 21 this year. A survey covering 20,000 representative farms yielded figures to bear out this estimate.