Dora Mayer

Dora Mayer (12 March 1868 - 7 January 1959)[1] was an activist,

essayist, and intellectual, who championed the rights of indigenous
people in Peru.[2]

Contents
Early life
Activism
Women's rights
Relationship with Pedro Zulen
Death and legacy
References
External links Dora Mayer at 35 years old

Early life
Dora Mayer was born in Hamburg, Germany, the daughter of Anatol Mayer, a merchant,[3] and Mathilde de
Loehrs.The family moved to Callao, Peru in April 1873. [4] Educated at home, Mayer was a motivated
autodidact, reading widely, and writing novels, plays, essays, and articles.[1]

Activism
Mayer wrote on women's rights, philosophy, social concerns,[1] and 'extensively in denunciation of the endless
abuses of landowners and authorities, and the absence of effective labor legislation' for the indigenous people
of Peru.[5] As a journalist, she contributed to numerous publications and edited four herself: El Deber Pro
Indígena, La Crítica ,Concordia and El Trabajo.[6]

Like many other pro-indigenous activists of the time, Mayer was influenced by Manuel González Prada.[7] In
his 1905 manifesto Nuestros Indios (Our Indians), Prada had argued that indigenous Peruvians had been
ravaged by exploitation and discriminatory attitudes and practices, rather than inherently doomed by their
perceived racial inferiority.[8] In 1909, Mayer co-founded the Asociación Pro-Indígena, or Pro-Indigenous
Association, with philosopher Pedro Zulen and sociologist Joaquín Capelo.[9] According to Frank Salomon,
the Association worked principally through legal assistance and research, and 'invoked the Indians' status as
legally entitled, though disenfranchised, citizens in order to win them such rights as protection from debt
imprisonment.' [8] Though 'humanitarian, altruistic, and moral,' the organisation was 'unable to solve the
problem of indigenous exploitation'.[9] The group ultimately devolved in 1917.[4] It was, however, a notable
precursor to the burgeoning Indigenismo movement, which gained momentum in the 1920s.[7] Mayer was
later a supporter of the Tahuantinsuyo Indigenous Rights Committee (active 1919-1925).[9]
In 1911, Mayer prepared a paper for the First Universal Races Congress in London concerning the treatment
of indigenous people in Peru.[10] The abstract of her paper, as described in a pamphlet produced for the
Congress, read in part:

The natives of Peru have been accused of dishonesty, hypocrisy, and idleness. It is a fact that
modern civilisation has corrupted, rather than improved, them. European employers have done
nothing, either from the material or moral point of view, to uplift and civilise them; on the
contrary, they have merely set them an example of immorality... The Peruvians, nevertheless, have
all the qualities of the cultivator; if they were given the means of developing these qualities and
exploiting the natural wealth of their soil, it would mean their salvation, and further the progress
of the country.[10]

In 1913, in her capacity as President of the Press Committee of the Pro-Indigenous Association, Mayer
published The conduct of the Cerro de Pasco mining company.[11] In it, she notes that although the initial
operations of the North American mining company were legitimate:

as the company became initiated into the secrets of the judicial and political habits of the country,
it made up its mind to take advantage of the frailties which unfortunately are to be found in our
social system, and entered fully into the ways of fraud, bribery and violence... We would make no
remark upon the easy corruption of the businessmen who arrived here, if the Anglo-Saxon
peoples did not brag so much about their moral superiority over the South-Americans and started
in their diplomacy from the idea that, whilst protecting their countrymen in the exterior, they were
defending the cause of civilization and morality. [11]

Mayer went on to describe the company's 'inhumane conduct towards the aboriginal workmen' it employed.
[11] She was a staunch critic of the abusive or exploitative practices of transnational companies, from both

social and environmental angles.[12]

Women's rights
On the role of women in society, Mayer prized the role of the homemaker, but acknowledged the
disadvantages for women of domestic work being insufficiently recognised.[1] She argued that:

In the current moment power depends on economic conditions, and in this respect women once
again find themselves at a disadvantage, because their labor as homemaker is not assigned
mercantile value […] It may be indispensable to give wives and mothers a wage in order to make
men understand that they are not simply ‘giving’ women half of their fortunes, but rather that
work done in the feminine world is as important as that of the man’s.[1]

Relationship with Pedro Zulen

Pedro Zulen, twenty-two years younger than Mayer but for many years her 'partner in indigenista activism',
reportedly rebuffed her romantic advances repeatedly. Nevertheless, she was public in her passion for him, and
in published works from 1920 onwards, used the name 'Dora Mayer de Zulen'. This is also the name used on
her tombstone.[1]
Death and legacy
Dora Mayer died in Peru on 7 January 1959, at the age of 91.[13] In 2019, philosopher Joel Rojas edited a
collection of Mayer's writings entitled The Sun that Dispels the Clouds: Essential texts, and an exhibition was
held in Lima about her life and work.[13][14] In the same year, the National University of San Marcos
embarked on a project to digitise Mayer's materials held in their archives.[15]

References
1. "The Dora Mayer Duty" (https://popula.com/2019/02/21/the-dora-mayer-duty/). Popula.
Retrieved 2020-09-18.
2. "Zulen, Pedro S., and Dora Mayer de Zulen | Encyclopedia.com" (https://www.encyclopedia.co
m/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/zulen-pedro-s-and-dora-mayer-d
e-zulen). www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
3. Mayer, Enrique (2016). "In love with comunidades". A return to the village: community
ethnographies and the study of Andean culture in retrospective (https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv
13pk8pt.15). University of London Press, Institute of Latin American Studies. pp. 233–264.
ISBN 9781908857248. JSTOR j.ctv13pk8pt.15 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv13pk8pt.15).
4. "Dora Mayer: Una mujer de avanzada" (http://elperuano.pe/noticia-dora-mayer-una-mujer-avan
zada-76231.aspx). elperuano.pe (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-09-18.
5. de la Peña, Guillermo (2005). "Social and Cultural Policies toward Indigenous Peoples:
Perspectives from Latin America" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/25064905). Annual Review of
Anthropology. 34: 717–739. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.34.081804.120343 (https://doi.org/10.1
146%2Fannurev.anthro.34.081804.120343). JSTOR 25064905 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/25
064905) – via JSTOR.
6. "Tras los pasos de Dora: vida y obra de Dora Mayer | Blog de Redacción de la PUCP" (http://bl
og.pucp.edu.pe/blog/blogderedaccion/2019/05/13/tras-los-pasos-de-dora-vida-y-obra-de-dora-
mayer/) (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-09-18.
7. Tarica, Estelle (2016-03-03). "Indigenismo" (https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/view/10.1
093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-68). Oxford Research
Encyclopedia of Latin American History. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001 (http
s://doi.org/10.1093%2Facrefore%2F9780199366439.001.0001) (inactive 2020-09-26).
Retrieved 2020-09-18.
8. Salomon, Frank (February 1985). "The Historical Development of Andean Ethnology" (https://w
ww.jstor.org/stable/3673224). Mountain Research and Development. 5 (1): 79–98.
doi:10.2307/3673224 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F3673224). JSTOR 3673224 (https://www.jsto
r.org/stable/3673224) – via JSTOR.
9. Gonzales, Osmar; Breña, Mariana Ortega (September 2012). "The Instituto Indigenista
Peruano: A New Place in the State for the Indigenous Debate" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/417
02282). Latin American Perspectives. 39 (5): 33–44. doi:10.1177/0094582X12447276 (https://d
oi.org/10.1177%2F0094582X12447276). JSTOR 41702282 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/41702
282). S2CID 144180337 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:144180337) – via JSTOR.
10. "Universal Races Congress. First Universal Races Congress pamphlet (http://credo.library.uma
ss.edu/view/full/mums312-b007-i068)" (1911). W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312). Special
Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries, Purdue
University.
11. Mayer, Dora (1913). The conduct of the Cerro de Pasco mining company (https://archive.org/det
ails/conductofcerrode00mayerich/page/n11/mode/2up). Lima: Peru: Asociación pro-indígena.
pp. 5–6.
12. "Joel Rojas: "Dora Mayer fue una genuina representante del indigenismo" " (https://limaenesce
na.pe/joel-rojas-dora-mayer-fue-una-genuina-representante-del-indigenismo/). Lima en escena
(in Spanish). 2019-02-05. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
13. PERÚ, NOTICIAS EL COMERCIO (2019-01-07). "El Dominical: Dora Mayer: Una erudita en
un país en transición | NOTICIAS EL COMERCIO PERÚ" (https://elcomercio.pe/eldominical/hu
ella-dora-mayer-noticia-585425-noticia/). El Comercio Perú (in Spanish). Retrieved
2020-09-18.
14. "Alionca Respaldiza: "Dora Mayer fue una pensadora admirable" " (https://limaenescena.pe/ali
onca-respaldiza-dora-mayer-fue-una-pensadora-admirable/). Lima en escena (in Spanish).
2019-01-30. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
15. "San Marcos digitaliza archivo de Dora Mayer" (https://exitosanoticias.pe/v1/san-marcos-digital
iza-archivo-de-dora-mayer/). EXITOSA NOTICIAS - NOTICIAS DEL PERU Y EL MUNDO (in
Spanish). 2019-05-08. Retrieved 2020-09-18.

External links
Works by Dora Mayer (https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AMayer+de+Zulen%2C+Dora.
&&dblist=638&fq=) at WorldCat
The conduct of the Cerro de Pasco mining company (1913) at Internet Archive

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