Born: 16 February 1872, Dominican Republic
Died: 1 January 1958
Country most active: Dominican Republic
Also known as: NA
Mercedes Laura Aguiar was a writer, teacher and feminist from the Dominican Republic. As a journalist and poet, she wrote works that promoted gender equality and Dominican sovereignty, in opposition to the US occupation. She fought for women’s right to vote, women’s right to education, and employment protections for women and children.
In her youth, Aguiar attended the Dominican Republic’s first higher education facility for women, the Instituto de Señoritas, established by Salomé Ureña. In 1887, Aguiar was in the school’s first graduating class, with Leonor M. Feltz, Altagracia Henríquez Perdomo, Luisa Ozema Pellerano, Catalina Pou, and Ana Josefa Puello.
After completing her studies, Aguiar taught at the Institute and until 1893, when the school closed due to Ureña’s illness. She then worked in a school founded by her classmate Luisa Ozema Pellerano and Pellerano’s sister Eva María and then served for 30 years in the Institute of Salomé Ureña.
When the United States invaded and occupied the Dominican Republic in 1916, Aguiar and other outspoken women formed the Sociedad Amantes de a Luz (Society of the Lovers of the Light of Day). She served as secretary for the group, which spoke out against the invasion and violation of Dominican sovereignty. She also served as secretary for the Junta Patriótica de Damas (Board of Patriotic Ladies), which worked for the recognition of not only nationalist rights, but women’s rights and auses including establishment of maternity and children’s hospitals, orphanages and nurses’ training facilities; free health care and medical services for the poor, health campaigns throughout the country to end endemic diseases, nutrition education, sanitary housing and playgrounds for working class neighborhoods and child care centers for working mothers; and educational improvements such as school breakfasts and lunches, adequate uniforms, development of school libraries and trade education.
In 1942, she was appointed as the Santo Domingo delegate to the First Congress of Dominican Women, with the goal of improving the educational opportunities of women. Dominican women won the right to vote later that year. In 1945, Aguiar was a special delegates appointed to counsel the Convention of the Dominican Party so that “The Reform of the Principles and Statutes” addressed women’s concerns, such as reforms for maternity laws to protect women workers.
Aguiar published many articles in such journals as La crónica, La Cuna de América, El Eco de la Opinión, Letras y Ciencias, Listín Diario, and La Revista Literaria. While most of her works have been lost, Adolfina Henríquez de Smith collected some of her most noted works, including the speech she made at the 1942 Women’s Congress. In 1937, after 50 years of teaching, she was commemorated by the Ministry of Education and in 1944 granted the Gold Medal of Honor for Education by the government.