Printing peace: cultural and pedagogical negotiation through children's periodicals in Costa Rica, 1912-1947

At the turn of the twentieth century, in the context of the budding nation-state formation process throughout Latin America, liberalism, nationalism, and social reforms dominated Latin American intellectual political discourse in its relentless quest for modernity. Popular literacy movements and the expansion and centralization of the educational sphere, which was essential for cultivating national identities and reinforcing allegiance, proliferated throughout Latin America. In Costa Rica, the Olympians, a group of elite intellectuals intricately connected with the agro-export oligarchy, directed social and political reforms. The Olympians were overwhelmingly patriotic and patriarchal, and aimed to create a national culture that would reinforce existing economic, gender, and racial hierarchies. This project focuses on revolutionary feminists Carmen Lyra and Luisa González, who negotiated the cultural politics of education as intermediaries between students and the state through the publication of children’s periodicals. Specifically, this project analyzes the periodicals San Selerín (1912-1913, 1923-1924) and Triquitraque (1936-1947) to elucidate the ways in which these educators used children’s literature and Montessorian pedagogy to create a culture of inclusion and engagement rather than the patriotic and patriarchal pedagogy the Olympians. Contemporary memory has forgotten the revolutionary ideals of these educators, but this project affirms Carmen Lyra and Luisa González cannot be separated from their legacies as active members of the Costa Rican Communist Party, as fervent proletarian internationalists, and as revolutionary feminists. To do so would be to neutralize the potency of their memory.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Latin American Studies

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2017

Author dc:creator

• Beam, Krysta Renee

Contributors dc:contributor

• Jacobsen, Nils

• Costa Rica
• Carmen Lyra
• Children's Literature
• Education
• Nationalism
• Feminism
• Memory.

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Krysta Beam

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/95249

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/95249