Lavalle Urbina, María (1908–1996)

María Lavalle Urbina was a lawyer, public official, and early Mexican feminist. Born on May 24, 1908, in Campeche, she grew up in an important political family. After working as an elementary school teacher, she became the first woman to graduate in law from the state university in 1945 and immediately entered public life. A member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), in 1947 she became the first female magistrate of the superior court of justice of the Mexican Federal District. From 1954 to 1964 she worked in the secretariat of the interior. In 1964 she became the first female president of the Mexican senate to be elected from her home state. She served on United Nations and national commissions and presided over the Alianza de Mujeres de México (Alliance of Mexican Women) in the 1960s and the Academia Mexicana de Educación (Mexican Academy of Education). From 1976 to 1980 she served as undersecretary of public education, and from 1982 to 1984 directed the nation's textbook commission. The author of many articles on delinquency, human rights, and women, she received awards such as Woman of the Year (1963), the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights (1973), the Justo Sierra Medal from the state of Campeche (1981), the Belisario Dominguez Medal from the Mexican Senate (1985), and the René Cassin Prize from the Mexican Tribuna Israelita. She died on April 23, 1996.

                                  Roderic Ai Camp

                       Claudia Carballal Benaglio