Introduction to Flora Tristan!

Hello! I am Flora Tristan! I am a Peruvian socialist writer and activist and also a feminist. I wrote several works, but my best known are Peregrinations of a Pariah, Promenades in London, and The Workers’ Union. My father was Mariano Tristan y Moscoso, a Peruvian colonel of the Spanish Navy, and my mother was Anne-Pierre Laisney, a French woman. I was born on 7 April 1803 in Paris, France. After my father died when I was four, my mother’s, brother’s and my life changed considerably from the high-class standards we were used to. My father’s debt was very high and my mother had little money. In my father’s will, he denied us any money, so we were forced to live in poverty. Although we were left with little money, my mother was able to make some money with various jobs and was eventually able to pay off my father’s debt. We then moved to the countryside. When I was fifteen, my mother and I both moved to Paris to find more work. I was poorly educated, unable to support myself, and had no one to marry. Not only did this set me apart from all the other girls my age, but it also forced me into a relationship I did not care for. It all began when I found my love for art. I had begun taking dancing lessons and working as a porcelain painter, but I could not earn enough money to support myself. This forced me to find another job. I was then employed by an engraver who owned a workshop named Andre Chazal. I was able to work mostly at home and could take a few lessons from him at his workshop. However, because of my continued financial instability, I had no choice, but to marry Chazal. For the next four years, I lived with Chazal and had two children, but when I became pregnant with the third child, I could not handle Chazal any longer; he was abusive and unforgiving. So, I left him although I was pregnant and still financially desperate. Because of this decision, I was looked at with disgrace and seen as an improper woman. I soon took up a job as a maid, where I would discover the poor working conditions and the mistreatment of women. Throughout all those years, I had kept a diary that was later published as Peregrinations of a Pariah. This was the start of my famous socialist and feminist career. I then began to write about the poor working conditions in France and started a lecturing tour in France about my philosophies on utopian socialism. I traveled because I wanted to form committees that would continue my work to organize a universal workers union. It was during these times that I wrote an essay titled The Workers’ Union. Throughout my travels, I learned much about myself and the struggles of other women. I continued to vouch for women’s rights and travel for a while, but I died while I was on my tour on 14 November 1844 in Bordeaux, France.

Works Consulted: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_Tristan; http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/imow-Tristan.pdf