Contemporaries of Catalina Bustamante can be mentioned. For example, María Escobar, a noblewoman from Extremadura who introduced cereal farming in America. Related to the evolution of society, it must be mentioned that mestizo and native teachers started to teach in the 16th century. In the political sphere, the figure of the queen consort, Isabella of Portugal, is noteworthy, as she became involved in American affairs, attending to Catherine's demands and organising two trips in her support, one by a group of women and a Franciscan monk, and the other by three Franciscan tertiaries, Elena Medrano, Juana Grau and Catalina Hernández.
Reseña
She is considered the first teacher of America, probably from a noble family, since she knew reading and writing. She was a Franciscan secular tertiary. She denounced injustice suffered by native girls and created a school for girls in Texoco (Mexico) where she taught catholic religion and she gave practical classes in decorum and household management. To do so, she was surrounded by a group of women who spoke Nahuatl and had pedagogic skills. She was supported by the queen consort, Isabella of Portugal, who recruited a group of women to go to Mexico to teach native girls.
España > Geografía e Historia > 1º ESO > Sociedades y territorios. Geografía. Historia. Historia del arte
España > Geografía e Historia > 2º ESO > Sociedades y territorios. Geografía. Historia. Historia del arte
Justificaciones
She is considered the first teacher in America.
She played an important role in the evangelisation of native population through the missions.
She defended native women's rights opposing local governments, the crown and the Church.
She brought more women who became teachers in America.
Biografía
She was born in Llerena, Extremadura, around 1490. Catalina probably belonged to a noble family, since it was not common for a woman to be able to read and write. There is no record of her childhood and adolescence in Castile. The first reference to her has been found in the books of passengers to America of the Casa de Contratación. Catalina Bustamante goes to America from Sanlúcar de Barrameda on the 5th of May 1514, with her husband, Pedro Tinoco, her two daughters, María and Francisca, and her two sisters-in-law, María and Juana. After several weeks travelling, the family disembarked in Santo Domingo. Probably, she started her vocation as teacher in Santo Domingo by teaching captains and nobles' daughters who were established over there. She was a Franciscan secular tertiary.
Some years later, Catalina was widowed and moved from Santo Domingo to Mexico. Catalina had seen injustice suffered by native girls in the new Hispanic society and was decided to make things change. Thus, taking advantage of her membership of the Franciscans, she contacted the Franciscan monk Toribio de Benavente, who managed to get the Order to give her an old palace in Texcoco, where Catalina established a school for native girls. She taught her pupils the Catholic religion, how to read and write, and also tried that indigenous girls were no longer considered in their society as merchandise to seal alliances between tribes in the area with marriages, and that they began to consider themselves entitled to choose their own husbands and to form a monogamous family without their father having the power to decide.
Catalina had to surround herself from the beginning with a group of women who were pedagogically gifted and who knew the Nahuatl language, since practically all the students at the school were still ignorant of the Spanish language [...].
One night in May 1529, Juan Peláez de Berrio, the mayor of the town of Antequera in the Guaxaca valley, who had become obsessed with Inesica, the daughter of a local cacique, sent some Indians to jump the convent wall and kidnap Inesica and her Mexican maid. That night, Catalina visited Bishop Juan de Zumárraga requiring that her students were returned. As neither Zumarraga's proclamations nor her complaint to the Audiencia of Mexico were successful, Catalina wrote a letter to King Charles, supported by Zumarraga and the Franciscans who taught in the valley of Mexico. When Isabella of Portugal, king Charles' wife and the one who attended affairs of state when her husband was travelling around Europe, read the letter; she was outraged by the kidnapping of the girls and, at the same time, she was impressed by the educational work carried out in Mexico. Immediately, Isabella ordered her secretary to respond to Catalina Bustamante and showed her support.
Subsequently, in response to her letter, Isabella of Portugal received a letter from Zumárraga. The Mexican bishop told the violence against maids and the arrogance of mayor Peláez de Barrio. In addition, Zumárraga told Isabella about the lack of female teachers and the enormous effort that the few female teachers in the Mexican valley had to make. Regarding the situation, the queen ordered to a trusted friar to look for cultivated women of exemplary conduct who would instruct the girls and women of New Spain.
A small group accepted the proposal. They were determined to go to Mexico to teach. The grouped was formed by Elena Medrano, who was accompanied by her niece; Juana Grau and her niece; and Catalina Hernández and her daughter.
Some years after the arrival of new instructors to the Mexican valley, in 1535, Catalina Bustamante decided to travel to the Iberian Peninsula to complain about the lack of support to the educational task provided by the authorities of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. For the second time, Catalina was assisted by the Queen Regent. Isabella of Portugal allowed her to look for three Franciscan tertiaries from Seville to teach in her Mexican school. They left Seville on the 3rd of October 1535 and some weeks later they disembarked in the port of Veracruz with no problem. After coming back from the Iberian Peninsula, Catalina's life becomes more and more difficult to follow.
In 1530s, the educational work led by bishop Zumárraga was developing more and more intensively in the Mexican valley. Ten years later, the first generation of female teachers born in Mexico, practically all of them mestizo or native, replaced the teachers born in the peninsula, as some of these peninsular teachers returned to Castile, while others had already died.
Catalina Bustamante and most new Mexican teachers died due to the plague that devastated New Spain in 1545, 1546 and 1547, where around 800.000 people died. It is likely that she died at the beginning of the epidemic, in 1545.
Her legacy of educating Mestizo and Mexican girls and trying to improve their lives has not been forgotten. In Texcoco, a statue in her honour immortalises her life and work with the motto: "Teacher Catalina de Bustamante, first educator of America".
Bel Bravo, María Antonia (2012). “La mujer como generadora de una nueva cultura. Una lectura diferente de la colonización española de América”. Hispania Sacra. N.º 64, pp. 212-235.
Gómez-Lucena, Eloísa (2013). Españolas del Nuevo Mundo. Madrid: Cátedra.
Maura Oliver, Juan Francisco (2005). Españolas de ultramar en la Historia y en la Literatura. Valencia: Universidad de Valencia.
Muriel, Josefina (1995). La sociedad novohispana y sus colegios de niñas. Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas UNAM. Vol. 1. Mexico.
Ruiz Banderas, Julián (2013). “Catalina de Bustamante, primera educadora de América”. In Lorenzana de la Puente, Felipe (coord.). España, el Atlántico y el Pacífico y otros estudios sobre Extremadura. pp. 155-168.
Through this character, we can work on the theme of the geographical discoveries and the conquest and colonisation of America, and especially its consequences on indigenous societies in 2nd of ESO, in geography and history.
It is important to highlight the importance of women as educators and as essential agents in the evangelisation of Spanish America from the first moments of the conquest. It is also possible to work in Secondary Education for Adults: II Social Module.
Documentos
Instrucciones para realizar búsquedas
Women's Legacy te permite encontrar lo que estás buscando. Te explicamos a continuación como hacerlo.
Búsqueda en todos los campos de texto: Lo que escribas en este campo se buscará en todos los campos de texto, en todas las categorías. Puedes escribir una única palabra, o buscar una frase completa si la escribes entre comillas. También te permite encadenar distintas palabras utilizando AND o OR, por ejemplo puedes buscar "familia aristocrática" AND "poeta" y los resultados deberán contener las dos palabras o "familia aristocrática" OR "poeta" y entonces conque contengan una de ellas, ya saldrán en la lista de resultados.
Búsqueda por jerarquías: Encontrarás diferentes jerarquías que podrás desplegar pulsando sobre ellas, podrás seleccionar el nivel o niveles de la jerarquía que quieras, los elementos seleccionados se buscarán utilizando un criterio OR, es decir, con que cumplan uno de ellos ya saldrá en la lista de resultados.
Búsqueda por textos: Encontrarás diferentes campos de texto que aplican a las distintas categorías, las reglas de uso son las mismas que se utilizan en el punto 1, pero en este caso estás búscando en un campo en concreto, no en todos a la vez, es decir, por ejemplo, puedes buscar "familia aristócrata rusa", solamente en el campo Biografía de un personaje.
Unión de los filtros de selección: También en la parte superior encontrarás un selector en el que establecerás el criterio de ordenación de la salida.
