International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Virginia Bolten, a feminist and anarchist worker called “Rosario's Louise Michel,” was born in San Luis, Argentina, the daughter of an exiled German liberal. As a teenager, after her parents divorced, she moved to Rosario, the main industrial city after Buenos Aires, known as the “Argentine Chicago.” Initially employed in a workshop as a shoemaker, she subsequently entered the big Argentine Sugar Refinery and was arrested for the first time for distributing anarchist pamphlets among female refinery workers. One of the speakers on May 1, 1890, in Rosario, Virginia headed a column carrying a black flag with the motto “ 1° de Mayo. Fraternidad Universal ” written in red letters. In 1899, she participated in a women's group, “Rosario's Proletarian Women,” which edited the newspaper La Voz de la Mujer ( Woman's Voice ). From the 1890s on, she spoke in a number of strikes and protests and toured Argentina as a representative of the Federación Obrera de la Región Argentina (workers' Federation of the Argentine Region, or FORA). Deported to Uruguay in February 1905 with her husband Manuel Manrique, a shoemaker union leader, Virginia participated in the International Center of Social Studies in Montevideo and contributed to the anarchist newspapers El Combate (1905) and La Nueva Senda (1909), speaking at Labor Day protests and, during her later years, also on Women's Day. SEE ALSO: ... log in or subscribe to read full text