Elena Torres

Elena Torres Cuéllar (3 June 1893 – 19 October 1970) was a leading Mexican revolutionary, feminist, progressive educator and writer. A member of the communist party, in 1917 she was the only woman to participate on behalf of the Liga Central de Resistencia at the first meeting of the Yucatán Socialist Party in Mérida. In 1919, she founded the Mexican Feminist Council campaigning for better social and economic conditions for women as well as the right to vote. She devoted considerable efforts to improving education in Mexico, especially by facilitating the training of primary school teachers in rural areas.

Biography Elena Torres Cuéllar was born 3 June 1893 in Mineral de Mellado, Guanajuato, to Macedonio Torres and Francisca Cuéllar. She graduated from the public schools and attended night classes at the Guanajuato State Normal School, working at the mine hospital during the day. Torres graduated in 1912 and became principal of the Normal School. She also taught at the Silao Elementary School and the Casa del Obrero Mundial (The House of the World Worker), Socialist schooling methods, based on "scientific" principals had been brought to Mexico at this time from Spain. Torres and the teachers she worked with became increasingly radicalized and favored the rational Spanish method over the Catholic parochial schools. In 1918, she associated with Trotsky's Third International, joining Felipe Carrillo Puerto in establishing Yucatán's Socialist Party in which she campaigned for women's rights. She fought for improved teacher training and became head of the Bureau of Cultural Missions which targeted improved conditions for primary school teachers, especially those working in rural areas. By 1926, six missions had been established covering over 2,000 rural teachers, expanding to 18 missions and more than 4,000 teachers over the next ten years.

In 1924, Torres was granted an international scholarship to study abroad