Palma Guillén. The long road to a ministry

Abstract

Based on Genaro Estrada Archives, the article reviews the diplomatic work of Palma Guillén. She was the first Mexican woman appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary and was sent to Colombia in 1935. As a woman of letters, Palma Guillén had held several positions in the Mexican government before she was charged with a diplomatic designation. She was involved in the intellectual environment at the turn of the century and was involved in the construction of the postrevolutionary State. As a teacher, she worked with José Vasconcelos at the Ministry of Public Education. Her work next to Gabriela Mistral and Alfonso Reyes and her friendship with them both led her to diplomatic commissions in Colombia, Denmark, Italy, France and the League of Nations. She worked there with Mexican diplomats such as Isidro Fabela and Gilberto Bosques during those terrible years of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. Women just began to appear in diplomatic positions not only in Mexico but in the whole world. After her last diplomatic assignment in 1943, Palma Guillén worked at the National University, where she had previously studied.