Juana Manso

Juana Paula Manso was born on June 26, 1819, in Buenos Aires. Forced into exile with her unitary family during the Rosas dictatorship, she lived in Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, and the United States, mastering progressive pedagogy and women's rights theory.

In 1854, Manso founded in Buenos Aires the Álbum de Señoritas, the first periodical in Latin America solely dedicated to female emancipation, equal education, and intellectual autonomy. Partnering closely with Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, she became the first female director of a co-educational public school in Argentina in 1859, founded the journal Anales de la Educación Común, and established public lending libraries across the country despite furious clerical resistance.