Elvira Nosari (Uruapan, 1884 ) was a Mexican educator, writer, playwright and promoter of the education of Mexican women, considered one of the founders of Mexican feminism.
Biography
She was the daughter of the immigrant Giuseppe Nosari (known in Mexico as José Nosari or Nozari), an Italian homeopathic doctor and entrepreneur living in Mexico since the mid-1860s who was engaged in construction, who in 1888 was granted a concession by the government from the state of Guerrero to exploit the Cacahuamilpa Caves . Giuseppe Nosari died in Mexico in 1908 and her remains were repatriated to her hometown of Guastalla, Italy, where they lie in the communal cemetery. Within her project for the caves, was the proposal to build a railway to the cave, with the main objective of facilitating access to both foreigners and Mexicans to admire the cave. As part of the promotion of the project and with the purpose of attracting visitors, Elvira Nosari wrote the work Un viaje a Cacahuamilpa at that time . She intended to stage this play at the National Theater, with Cacahuamilpa as the stage to publicize what she considered to be a natural wonder of Mexico. The work was reproduced in the cave but it was not possible to carry out its objective, since her father ran out of money by investing everything in the project, and she used her savings for the scenery that was used in the cave, losing the opportunity to cover the rent of the theater.
Elvira had four siblings: Elena, Enriqueta, Eugenia and José Gaudiano, all born in Mexico from the marriage of their father Giuseppe with María de la Paz Salgado, a Mexican native of Puebla.
Education
She completed her studies at the Normal School for teachers in Mexico City in 1898 and graduated in 1900 as a Primary Education Teacher. In 1900 she received a scholarship to study in Europe, so she moved to study in Italy accompanied by Professor Silvina Jardón, a course in experimental psychology to specialize in special education with the teacher Maria Montessori . Upon returning, she wrote several educational books such as Plane and Space Geography , other geometry books for didactic use in teaching mathematics, and a reading book for primary schools.
Career path
Pedagogy
She dedicated herself to studying different pedagogical methods, and even changed curricular contents in search of better teaching and knowledge acquisition. In 1915 she was director of the Normal School for Teachers and Arts and Crafts. During her administration, she criticized the traditional teaching method with the aim of introducing new modifications, such as the creation of subjects in various areas as an antecedent of an internationalist method, she also taught the subject of Experimental Psychology and managed the transfer of the Normal School to the building on Independence street.
Around 1919 she participated in the campaign in favor of textbooks by Mexican authors, forming part of the Society of Mexican Educational Authors, which strongly criticized the list of American books that were established as main works for primary education by the Technical Commission of the General Directorate of Primary Education for the 1919-1920 cycle, and which determined as supplementary to the books written by the Mexican teachers. This association achieved its objective, by declaring the aforementioned list non-existent and new books were designated, additionally the Director of Elementary Schools resigned.