Irene Robledo

Irene Robledo García (April 5, 1890 – August 8, 1988) was a Mexican educator and humanist from Jalisco. She was a co-founder of the modern era of the University of Guadalajara. Her personal motto was "For a more human humanity".^[1]

She broke with the feminine stereotypes of the early twentieth century by studying to be a teacher, and later as a homeopathic doctor, dentist, and social worker. She was considered a normalist teacher who overcame her class limitations and gender stereotypes by inserting herself into groups with intellectual interests.^[2] Robledo retired from teaching after working for 64 uninterrupted years in the educational field, including at the Faculty of Commerce and Administration, at the Faculty of Economics, at the Preparatory and Normal School for Young Women, at the Normal Mixed School and High School, at the Faculty of Dentistry and at the Faculty of Social Work.^[3]

She participated in the organization of the first labor unions, established night high schools, instituted school breakfasts, developed cooperatives of normal school teachers, and was the chair at the Universidad Obrera.^[4] In 1905, she entered the Normal School of Guadalajara.^[3] She actively participated with the group of intellectuals that Governor José Guadalupe Zuno met with for the re-opening of the University of Guadalajara in 1925. Robledo placed emphasis on integral education, on the participation of women in careers which had been exclusive for men, on the installation of the Institute of technology, and on providing a social culture based on freedom to make education available to everyone.