María Correa Morandé

María Cristina Correa Morandé (26 January 1912 – 17 December 2009) was a Chilean writer and politician.

A member of the Liberal Party, she served as Deputy of the Republic between 1957 and 1961, and was later active in the National Party and National Renewal.

She was one of the few women parliamentarians of her generation and a prominent voice for women's rights in mid-20th-century Chile.

Correa Morandé was born in Santiago to Enrique Correa Rodríguez and Cristina Morandé Quiroga. She studied at the Colegio Universitario Inglés in Santiago, later taking philosophy courses in Paris and art studies in Italy.

She married Carlos Cruz Lavín on 26 May 1934, with whom she had two sons, Carlos and Jaime. After his death, she married Juan Smitmans López in 1959.^[1]

Correa began her literary and journalistic work in 1938, contributing to El Imparcial, El Diario Ilustrado, and El Mercurio.

Her novels explored Chilean identity and the social roles of women. Her best-known works include Inés... y las raíces en la tierra (1964), awarded by the Association of Spanish Institutions of Chile and recognized by the Ministry of Education; La guerra de las mujeres (1974); and México y los dioses (1992).

She was also a self-taught painter who exhibited in collective and solo shows and lectured on Chilean history and the role of women in civilization.

She joined the Liberal Party in 1948, becoming president of its Women's Department and a member of its executive board for four terms.

In 1957, she was elected Deputy for the 7th Departmental Grouping (Santiago 1st District) for the 1957–1961 legislative period.

She was one of only three women in that Congress, alongside Ana Ugalde Arias and Inés Enríquez Frödden.^[2]

She served on the Permanent Commission of Labor and Social Legislation, the Special Commission on Housing (1957, 1959), and the Special Commission to Study Child Vagrancy (1958–1959).

In 1959, she visited the United States at the invitation of the United States Department of State, where the U.S. Congress passed a symbolic resolution on social housing in her honor.

Among her legislative initiatives were:

• Law No. 12 588 (21 October 1957) — amending Article 349 of the Commercial Code of Chile to expand the legal capacity of married women.
• Law No. 13 989 (31 August 1960) — amending Law No. 7 295 to extend family allowances.

She also supported laws authorizing construction of the Votive Temple of Maipú and establishing free milk distribution for children under two years.

After leaving Congress, she joined her husband on diplomatic missions to Mexico (1954) and Colombia (1964). In 1966 she entered the National Party, where she served as head of its Women's Section and was its only female founding delegate.

She later helped found the Poder Femenino movement (1972), which opposed President Salvador Allende,^[3] and in 1987 became one of the founders of National Renewal.

• Inés... y las raíces en la tierra (1964)
• La guerra de las mujeres (1974)
• México y los dioses: historia novelada (1992)

• BCN Profile