From the Enlightenment of Flora Tristán: the abolition of private property, women as human beings and education for the poor

Abstract

Through narrative categories, this text reflects on the influences of the Enlightenment on the thought of Flora Tristán, a French-Peruvian revolutionary worker from the first half of the 19th century. It is necessary to explore Rousseau's ideas and the criticisms of him by one of the most important Enlightenment women—recognized by feminism—Mary Wollstonecraft. Through three important themes: the abolition of private property, women are human beings, and education for the dispossessed, Tristán approaches the proposals of these two authors, situating us, throughout her work, in her own perspective as a dispossessed, mestiza (with Peruvian roots), and activist woman; with which she constructs a project, a socially possible utopia. Tristán affirms the principles of a critical Enlightenment of capitalist modernity from the perspective of women, indigenous people, and the world's dispossessed, thus joining the political struggle of the social movements of her time.