Maria Baldó i Massanet

Maria Baldó i Massanet (2 July 1884 - 17 February 1964) was a Spanish pedagogue, feminist, ethnologist, and folklorist. She was involved in the political, social, cultural, and educational fields of Catalonia.

Biography She was a daughter of Santiago Baldó i Domènech and Maria Mansanet (or Massanet) i Santacreu. She came to live in Catalonia as a child.

Trained as a folklorist, at the age of just over twenty, there is already evidence of various activities, such as the evening organized by the (School of Institutions and Other Careers for Women), in which she read her work Notas sobre las mujeres del Quixote (Notes on the women of the Quixote).

From her first marriage with Josep Serra Chartó (died 1911), her son, , was born in 1909.

Baldo wrote for several periodicals, such as La Veu de Catalunya, Una védade, Art jove, Companya, Portantveu del Club Femení i d’esports de Barcelona, La Dona Catalana, and while in French exile, Tramontane.

She stood out among the women who shaped the first Catalan feminist movement at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1910, she taught a course on "Women's culture" at , which she published in book form. On 28 April 1912 she published the article (About female school education) in the women's magazine Feminal. In 1933, she published El libro del hogar (The home book), which was republished on several occasions. In 1916, she took part in conferences on women's education, also at Ateneu, alongside other speakers such as Carmen Karr, Leonor Serrano, and Dolors Monserdà.

As a teacher, her career was closely linked to the La Farigola de Vallcarca school (currently, Escola La Farigola de Vallcarca). The school was established on 27 March 1922, the first female school of the (School Board of the Barcelona City Council). and the vice presidency of the executive committee of the Union of Women of Catalonia. She was part of the Second New Unified School Council. At the proposal of this body, she chaired the Adaptation Commission of the teaching staff of the Generalitat's technical bodies to the needs of the war. She was also general secretary of La Dona a la Reraguarda, section of the Propaganda Commissariat of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

Baldó was a supporter of Republicanism in Spain. She was a member of and an activist for the Republican Left of Catalonia. At the end of the Civil War, in 1939, Baldó went into exile in Toulouse, France, with her second husband, Lluís Torres Ullastres. In the old quarter, with other intellectuals and republican exiles such as , , Antoni Rovira i Virgili, and Pompeu Fabra, they quickly organized to continue the intellectual training of their children. Baldó, with the collaboration of her husband, directed the residence of exiled intellectuals in Toulouse, which depended directly on the Fundació Ramon Llull, although its management was highly questioned by various exiles such as the same Rovira i Virgili, , and .

Death and legacy Maria Baldó died in Toulouse, France, 1964.

In the vicinity of La Farigola school, there are gardens that bear her name. Established in 1906, the Jardins de Maria Baldó occupy part of the gardens of the old Camils convent and have an area of nearly .

Selected works El libro del hogar, 1933