Campoamor, Clara (1888–1972)

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Campoamor, Clara (1888–1972)

Spanish lawyer, politician, and feminist at the time of Spain's Civil War. Born in Madrid, Spain, on February 12, 1888; died on April 30, 1972, in Lausanne, Switzerland; daughter of Manuel Campoamor Martínez and Pilar Rodríguez Martínez.

A native of Madrid, Clara Campoamor was born to working-class parents on February 12, 1888. Her father, Manuel Campoamor Martínez, died during her childhood, leaving her mother, Pilar Rodríguez Martínez , to raise the family under difficult economic circumstances. Clara Campoamor worked as a seamstress and then for the Spanish postal service before obtaining a position as teacher of typewriting. She also worked as a secretary for the newspaper La Tribuna and translated French for a publishing house. In 1923, she finished a university diploma by taking evening classes and the following year earned a law degree. These were significant accomplishments, given the few women who even gained admission to Spanish universities.

Increasingly drawn to politics, Campoamor championed women's rights. Affiliating with the Spanish Social Party, she worked to improve conditions for women. When Manuel Primo de Rivera, dictator from 1923–1930, nominated her to join the Junta of the Ateneo, she refused and also turned down the Great Cross of Alphonso XII, another attempt by the regime to win her support. Active in legal and education circles, Campoamor was more interested in female suffrage and other women's rights than adherence to a political party. After Primo de Rivera fell and Alphonso XIII abdicated in 1931, Spaniards declared the Second Republic, and Campoamor won election to the Constituent Cortes (Assembly). While another prominent female deputy, Victoria Kent , urged the Cortes to postpone dealing with the issue of female suffrage, Campoamor refused to wait. Trying to win female support, she founded the Feminine Republican Union. Her insistence that the Republic grant suffrage alienated many male deputies and left Campoamor isolated, even within her own party.

She failed to win reelection in 1933, but the Lerroux government made her director of social services. Campoamor served, however, under a rightist minister and soon resigned. In 1934, she was part of the investigating commission sent to Oviedo following the brutal suppression of the miners' strike. She attempted to stand for election in 1936 but no party would support her.

When the Civil War began in July 1936, Campoamor immediately went into exile. She published her account of events in Spain in 1937: La révolution espagnole vue par une républicaine. Along with many other Spanish exiles, Campoamor made her way to Argentina. She attempted to return to her country, but the Franco government refused to grant her residence. Despondent over the failure of the Second Republic and what had happened to Spain, Campoamor abandoned politics. Instead she translated French novels into Spanish and wrote several biographies, including one of Juana Ines de la Cruz , the 17th-century Mexican poet and intellectual. Another request to return to Spain was denied in 1951. Campoamor moved to Switzerland in 1955, where she worked in the legal office of Antoinette Quinche , a marital lawyer and longtime friend. Campoamor was discouraged and yearned to return to her homeland. Nearly blind, she died from cancer on April 30, 1972. After her death in Lausanne, Campoamor's cremated remains were buried in San Sebastian.