On October 1, we commemorate Architect''s Day in Mexico. A day to reflect on the place and contributions of architecture to social reality and remember the responsibility they have to improve life quality. In many professions, it seems women were inserted at the wrong time and have had to fight against misogyny in educational and workspaces.
Maria Luisa Dehesa Gómez Farías
She was born in Xalapa Veracruz on June 30, 1912. She was the first Mexican woman to receive a degree in Architecture from the Academia de San Carlos, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
She faced the discrimination that women received at the university from professors and colleagues, who believed that a woman should not be an architect. There were only five women in her generation, and she was the first to graduate with the thesis "Type Artillery Barracks" in 1939.
Maria Luisa worked in the Public Works Directorate of the Federal District Department, was part of the Union international Women Architects (UIFA), and was the University Federation of Mexicans'' founder.
Mariana Ordóñez and Jesica Amescua
These architects know that work done between women can conquer the world and help other women.
The COMMUNAL project was founded in 2015 by Mariana Ordoñez Grajales, a graduate of the Autonomous University of Yucatán. In 2017 she partnered with Jesica Amescua Carrera, a graduate of the Universidad Iberoamericana.
The COMMUNAL encourages and facilitates women''s participation in enterprises they develop with communities. They have opted for Participatory Architecture and the Social Production of Habitat. They consider that architects should take the role of facilitators and mediators who accompany communities in defense of their habitat.
Its mission is to contribute to the improvement of living conditions and living in rural communities in Mexico. On their website, you can check their projects and make donations.
Frida Escobedo
She was born in Mexico City and obtained her degree as an architect and urban planner from the Universidad Iberoamericana. She did a master''s degree at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard and has served as a professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana and the Tecnológico de Monterrey.
In 2004 she was the recipient of the Young Creators Scholarship from the National Fund for Culture and the Arts in Mexico. Among her most notable awards are the Young Architects Forum, organized by the Architectural Association of New York, and the Emerging Architecture award in 2016.
One of her most recognized works is the restoration of La Tallera de Cuernavaca.
Gabriela Carillo
In 2017, she won the International Women in Architecture Award for her design of the complex that houses the courtrooms in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, where she took up the Purepecha construction model called "Las Trojes."
A graduate of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), she also received the Silver Medal at the XIII Biennial of Mexican Architecture in 2014 and the Silver Medal at the Mexico City Biennial.
Marcela González Veloz
She is one of the most recognized architects today. She co-founded the architecture studio Oficio Taller, where she mixes her interest in socio-environmental architecture and her passion for colors and Mexican culture.
Traducción: Valentina K. Yanes