Impactful women in our lives

Women’s History Month

Sol Garcia | THE RIDER

When Marisa Palacios Knox was 10, she read “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë for the first time. 

“It imprinted on me,” Knox said. “I was very inspired by the sort of moral strength and independence of Jane and the idea of being able to hold to principle in spite of passion and desire.”

She has looked at Jane’s characteristics as something to aspire to, and now Knox, an assistant professor in the Literatures and Cultural Studies department, teaches “Jane Eyre” in her courses. 

Knox’s mother, Valentina, has also influenced the assistant professor. 

“[She] immigrated here when she was 17 and raised me as a single mother, and was a nurse caring for premature babies and psychologically and mentally ill children,” she said. “She did the most challenging work of all and was just infinitely resourceful and caring.” 

Like Jane, her mother showed Knox the importance of independence. 

“[She] set a really good example for me, [in] terms of not feeling like I needed to depend on anyone, that it is very important that I’d be able to provide for myself in life,” Knox said. 

Mariana Alessandri, a philosophy associate professor, is influenced by Gloria Anzaldúa, the late leading theorist and philosopher from the Rio Grande Valley.

“She was a woman who paved the way for all people who feel like they’re in between cultures,” Alessandri said. “She speaks for people who feel like a hybrid, who feel half-and-half, who feel like they don’t belong in either culture.” 

Anzaldúa has made Alessandri, a Chilean American, consider her identity more positively.

“She gave me, and I think she gives to many of our students, a way to think about ourselves that is more dignified and is more proud than shameful, because I think a lot of us experienced a lot of shame growing up about feeling like we didn’t belong,” she said. 

In her work, Anzaldúa describes herself as a “little Chicanita from the sticks” who wasn’t encouraged to learn about philosophy but did, inspiring Alessandri. 

“She inspires me to risk and to go for what I want, even if I don’t think I was born for that or if I don’t think people will want me to do that,” the assistant professor said. 

Now, Alessandri is able to teach Anzaldúa’s work in her lectures. 

“It’s just a delight to teach students about a Valley philosopher,” she said. “It’s just really fun to introduce them to something that they’ve never heard anything like it before so that they could be proud of who they are.”

When English senior Laura Izaguirre was exposed to Anzaldúa in a class, she was inspired to read more feminist literature. From there, she discovered Mary Wollstonecraft, a writer from the 18th century who promoted equality between men and women in particular areas in life, according to Wikipedia. 

“She just wanted to say, like, ‘Hey, you know what? We’re women here, but we deserve to be treated equally as [men],’” Izaguirre said.  

She believes Wollstonecraft’s literature remains relevant today. 

“[Women] have some more rights … but still, I don’t think it’s the same as [men] in the level of politics,” she said. “If you see [U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], she states how she’s a woman, she’s a political figure, but she still gets harassed.” 

Since Izaguirre experienced a cultural expectation that requires women to take care of the household, Wollstonecraft’s criticism of sexism in society resonated with her. 

“I was raised in a Mexican household, where the women do everything in the house,” Izaguirre said. “So, when I was reading her literature, it surprised me that her mentality in the 18th century was … ‘We need to change the society. We need to see that women are much more than what you think they’re capable of.’”

Recognizing women role models helps motivate other women to accomplish more, Izaguirre said.

“The more we read about what women [are] capable of, the more we can aspire to be,” she said. “We have seen how so many inspiring women have done so many things, and I think it helps us to view ourselves. You can do much, much more.”