Collection of Short Novels and Recreational Articles (1880)

The work of Josefa Martínez Torres established decisive connections with local and international Spiritism that extend from Puerto Rico, to the Constancia Society of Argentina, to the Barcelona periodical La Luz del Porvenir (The Light of the Future), to the Library of Congress of the United States, to the Puerto Rican Athenaeum. Known as “La Cieguecita de la Cantera” (“The Little Blind Woman from the Quarry”), Martínez Torres was born in Ponce between 1862 and 1863 in a poor family. She was blind in one eye since childhood, at eight years old she lost vision in the other eye, and at ten she was left orphaned by her mother. Marínez Torres stood out for her dictations from the afterlife. She was an auditory medium, although she practiced briefly, only two years, since she died on December 7, 1881 because of a fever. Manuel de Jesús Morel y Pastor, a scribe from Coamo, helped the young woman develop her mediumistic faculties and share her work with the public, transcribing her dictations and making them accessible to the international spiritist community.

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A Monestary Within: Dictation from the Afterlife by the Spirit of María del Pilar (1893)

In 1885, at centro Grupo Familiar de Jesús (the center Familiar Group of Jesus) in Mayagüez, Suárez received a dictation from the Spirit of María del Pilar, which she entitled Un monasterio por dentro. The work was published by La Industria (The Industry) printing press of San Germán in 1893. The text tells the story of María del Pilar, the daughter of the marquises of Santacruz during the reign of Philip II. In 1571, her father sent María del Pilar to the Monastery of Carmelite Monks to separate her from her lover Luis, who was the son of his enemy. In the monastery, the fifteen year old woman discovers, along with Sister Pura, Sister Carmen, Sister Margarita, Sister Inés, and the Abbess, the atrocities and abuses that occur there. Behind closed doors, Father Joseph leads a lustful life that violates and destroys the lives of the nuns. Forbidden love, illegitimate pregnancies, rape, the infamous Inquisition, and the relationship between the Catholic Church and the State all play a large role in the plot, which is made up of twenty-three very short chapters that move quickly, driven by intrigue and mystery.

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Our Response to Dr. Manuel Guzmán Rodríguez’s Article Entitled “The Religion of the Future” (1892)

In 1892, Francisca Suárez published Nuestra réplica al artículo del Dr. Manuel Guzmán Rodríguez titulado “La religión del porvenir” (Our Response to Dr. Manuel Guzmán Rodríguez’s Article Entitled “The Religion of the Future”). Manuel Guzmán Rodríguez, who graduated from the University of Barcelona in 1887 as a surgeon, had published an article in the Mayagüez newspaper El Imparcial entitled “La religión del porvenir” (“The Religion of the Future”). In this article, Dr. Guzmán Rodríguez stated that superstition, mental disorders, the tropical temperament, and hysteria, were all typical of women and formed the basis of Spiritism. As Suárez explains in Nuestra réplica, Guzmán Rodríguez’s article stemmed from an invitation made by Mayagüez spiritists in the newspaper El Estudio to continue an earlier discussion. Nuestra réplica includes three texts: “La religión del porvenir” (“The Religion of the Future”) by Guzmán Rodríguez, “Los delirios del Sr. Guzmán” (“Mr. Guzmán’s Delusions”) by Francisca Suárez, and “Opiniones notables de los hombres más autorizados en todas las ciencias sobre los fenómenos del Espiritismo” (“Notable Opinions of the Most Knowledgeable Men of all Sciences Regarding the Phenomena of Spiritism”), a pamphlet of spiritist propaganda that presents the opinions of fourteen distinguished physicists, astronomers, doctors, mathematicians, and writers from around the world who consider the spiritist doctrine incontestable…

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Refutation to the Capitular Vicar (1899)

On December 19, 1899, Francisca Suárez published a refutation addressed to the Capitular Vicar, Dr. Juan Perpiña, who had published an article entitled “Cementerios” (“Cemeteries”) in the Boletín Eclesiástico (Ecclesiastical Bulletin). The newspaper La Correspondencia (The Correspondence), based in San Juan, republished the text on December 25, 1898. The Spanish-American War had come to an end on August 12 of the same year. Francisca Suárez’s article is particularly important because it captures the vital moment of the separation of the Church and State on the Island as well as the debates that emerged as a result of the change in government. During that time, the Puerto Rican people, fed up with the relentless Spanish colonial regime, receive the United States’ liberal and democratic ideology with hope. Refutación also demonstrates how the Puerto Rican woman benefited from the colonial transition. As Suárez explains, it allowed her to express her voice; a strong and well-grounded voice that made use of reason and freethinking Spiritism to make her opinion heard. Other important themes from this historical moment come to light in Suárez’s essay, including: the power and abuse of clergy during turn-of-the-century Puerto Rico, the identity of the Puerto Rican people, the all-at-once ecumenical, local, and international perspective of Francisca Suárez, various key principles of Kardecian Spiritism, and the liberal ideology of the new democracy that embraced citizens’ rights…

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Impressions: A Collection of Articles (1894)

Distinguished writer, spiritist, and dedicated activist, Lola Baldoni belonged to the first generation of Puerto Rican spiritist, a group of educated women, active in spiritist study and social justice work. As historian Sandra Enríquez Seiders argues in her valuable book El Espiritismo en Utuado: La historia de las hermanas Baldoni (Spiritism in Utuado: The Story of the Baldoni Sisters), “there is no doubt that Lola belonged to the so-called first feminism movement that fought for women’s rights to education and suffrage.” Indeed, Baldoni’s work clearly and elegantly addresses the issue of women’s rights as well as Spiritism in its most abstract dimensions. Baldoni was a well-known writer in Puerto Rico and Spain for her valuable journalistic contributions to the periodicals El Iris de Paz (The Iris of Peace), led by Agustina Guffain, and La Luz del Porvenir (The Light of the Future), led by Amalia Domingo y Soler of Spain. Lola Baldoni’s most extensive work, Impressiones: Colección de artículos (Impressions: A Collection of Articles), was published in 1894 in Ponce…

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Effluviums of the Soul: Collection of Articles and Thoughts (1907)

Agustina Guffain de Doittau was one of the most prominent and influential spiritist leaders of her time. In 1898, she lived in the city of Mayagüez with her husband Carlos Doittau, a well-known philanthropist, merchant, landowner, and store owner. As Teresa Yáñez Vda. de Otero explains, the couple were firm advocates of the spiritist doctrine since 1898, promoting Spiritism in their home on Méndez Vigo Street in Mayagüez. They would perform scientific and philosophical readings on a daily basis, and during mediumistic sessions they would receive instructions from the Spirits. Their consistent study led them to found the Grupo Esperanza center (the Hope Group center). Yáñez de Otero explains:

The Doittau Guffain household could not accommodate all the visitors because so many people came to their readings. To solve this problem, they decided to make an additional room in their family home, with enough space to accommodate more than one hundred people…

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Bouquet of Lilies (1908)

In 1908, Simplicia Armstrong de Ramú published Ramo de azucenas (Bouquet of Lilies), a true defense for free thinking in which the author praises, defends, and justifies the woman’s right to freedom of thought. In thirty-four chapters, the author addresses various relevant themes for spiritist of her time, such as women’s rights in regards to domesticity; class and sustainable economies; societal customs; and the relationship between Spiritism and spirituality. The originality of Armstrong de Ramú’s arguments deserves careful attention, not only because of the knowledge they offer, but also because they shed light on the strategies of solidarity used by the spiritists of her generation to promote the spiritist knowledge and emancipate women…

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My Opinion: On the Freedoms, Rights, and Duties of Woman as a Partner, Mother, and Independent Being in the Home, Family, and Government (1911)

Luisa Capetillo—feminist writer, international labor leader, spiritist, and defender of universal suffrage—put forward a non-conformist premise regarding women and workers based on anarchism and Spiritism. She questioned and challenged the dominant ideas of gender and sexuality of her time and skillfully responded to the political and economic conditions that emerged in the first decades of the twentieth century in Puerto Rico. The period of colonial transition, between 1890 and 1920, had profound consequences that transformed Puerto Rican society. These include the establishment of the unions and new social actors as well as the emergence of freethinking ideologies, which competed with those established by the insular Spanish government…

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