Flora Botton
Flora Botton | |
---|---|
![]() Botton in 2022 | |
Born | |
Nationality | Spanish Mexican |
Other names | Flora Botton Beja |
Occupation | academic |
Years active | 1956– |
Relatives | Flora Botton Burlá, cousin |
Flora Botton Beja (born 1 March 1933) is a Mexican sinologist and gender studies scholar. She was born in Greece, but acquired Spanish nationality through her parents and naturalized as Mexican after her arrival in Mexico in 1949. She was a co-founder of the gender studies and a pioneer of Oriental studies programs at El Colegio de México. She was one of the first academics to focus on China in Mexico and Latin America. Her works have widely been influential in the region and she was one of the founders of the Asociación Latinoamericana de Estudios de Asia y África (Latin-American Association of Asian and African Studies).
Early life and education
Flora Botton was born on 1 March 1933 in Thessaloniki, Greece, to Spanish nationals, Sara Beja and Jaime Botton (Botón) Saporta, who dealt in the textile industry.[1][2] Her family were part of the Sephardic Jewish diaspora.[1][3] When she was seven, Thessaloniki became an occupied territory, first by Italy and then in 1941 by the Nazis. Assisted by friends, the family fled to Athens which was still under the control of Benito Mussolini's forces. In early 1944, the Nazis took over the occupation and in April, Flora’s brother, parents, grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins were arrested in the middle of the night and transported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. With the Allied Forces closing in, plans were made to transport prisoners to Austria.[1] One week before the British liberation of the camp, three train loads carrying prisoners left the camp on 6, 7, and 9 April 1945. Close to five thousand evacuees in Botton's group were abandoned at Magdeburg where they were discovered by a Ninth United States Army soldier on patrol on 13 April.[1][4] The Ninth Army had arrived in Magdeburg two days prior during the assault on the Ruhr pocket.[5]
Cared for by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, the Botton family was evacuated in the summer of 1945 to Brussels, Belgium.[1][4] After three months in a refugee camp, they were sent to Marseille, France, and continued on to Bari, Italy, finally arriving back in Athens in October.[1] Jaime re-established his store, and Botton continued her education at the American School until 1949. That year at the end of the school term, the family moved to Mexico City, motivated by post-war tensions in Greece.[1] Her paternal grandmother, Flor Saporta, after whom she was named, migrated with them.[6] Botton completed her high schooling at the Colegios Garside, one of the first bilingual academies in Mexico.[1][7] In 1950, she enrolled at Mexico City College, earning a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, cum laude, in 1952 and continuing her studies there, completing a master's degree (also cum laude) in 1953. Furthering her education, Botton moved to Paris and studied European history and Spanish literature for a year at the Sorbonne.[1]
Career
In 1955, Botton returned to Mexico City and began her career teaching in a private finishing school. She was hired to teach philosophy at her alma mater in 1956.[1] In 1964, she was accepted into the first 2-year master's degree program in Oriental studies at El Colegio de México (Colmex).[8][3][9] Between 1966 and 1968, Botton studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and then spent spent several months studying at the National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei.[3][8][10] In 1969, she joined the Center for Asian and African Studies at Colmex.[3][8] This was the first department in Latin America to focus on Chinese studies.[8] Funded by UNESCO the program was initially taught by visiting scholars from around the world with the plan to replace the teaching staff with Mexicans once they were trained.[9] Botton became the first Mexican sinologist to join the center.[3][8] Between 1972 and 1974 she worked on her doctorate, studying modern and classical Chinese language, history, and culture at the University of Michigan.[3][8][10]
Botton was one of the founding editors of Fem in 1976 and remained on the editorial board until 1990.[8][11] That same year, she became one of the founders of the Asociación Latinoamericana de Estudios de Asia y África (Latin-American Association of Asian and African Studies).[12] Between 1978 and 1980 she served as a cultural attaché at the Mexican Embassy in Beijing, China.[3][8] She returned to Mexico in 1981 and served as the director of the journal Estudios de Asia y África until 1987.[8] Involved in the feminist movement, Botton founded, along with Lourdes Arizpe and Elena Urrutia, the Programa Interdisciplinario de Estudios de la Mujer (PIEM, Interdisciplinary Women's Studies Program) at Colmex in 1983, which at the time was not favorably considered by many academics in Mexico or Latin America.[13][Notes 1] In 1991, she became the director of the Center for Asian and African Studies at Colmex, serving until 1997.[8] In addition to teaching at Colmex, Botton, a naturalized Mexican,[15][10] has been a visiting professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Harvard University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, and Renmin University of China in Beijing, among many others.[8]
Awards and recognition
Botton is a member of the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (National System of Researchers).[15] In 2012, a group of her students published China: estudios y ensayos en honor de Flora Botton Beja (China, Studies and Essays in Honor of Flora Botton Beja) in recognition of her influence over Sinology in Latin America.[8] She was honored in Chile in 2016 for her work in founding the Asociación Latinoamericana de Estudios de Asia y África (Latin-American Association of Asian and African Studies).[12] The 5th International Congress on Chinese Studies, hosted in March 2020, was held in her honor, recognizing her pioneering role in the field.[16] In 2021, Arizpe, Botton, and Urrutia (posthumously) were recognized for their founding of the gender studies program at Colmex.[13]
Selected works
Botton has extensively published varied works on China. Her preliminary works dealt with Chinese philosophy, but she moved into studies of history and then contemporary cultural and social issues.[8]
Books
- Botton Beja, Flora (1984). China: su historia y cultura hasta 1800 [China: Its History and Culture up to 1800] (in Spanish) (1a ed.). Mexico City: El Colegio de México. ISBN 978-968-12-0282-8. (Second edition published in 2000.)[17]
- Maeth, Russell; Botton Beja, Flora; Page, John (1984). Dinastía Han, (202 a.c.-220 d.c.) [The Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD)]. Serie Fuentes para el estudio de China (in Spanish). Vol. 2 (Primeraición ed.). Mexico City: El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios de Asia y Africa. ISBN 978-968-12-0241-5.[17]
- Wang, Meng (1985). Botton Beja, Flora (ed.). Cuentos [Stories] (in Spanish). Translated by Ruochuan, Duan (1a ed.). Mexico City: El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios de Asia y África. ISBN 978-968-12-0316-0.[17]
- Botton Beja, Flora; Cornejo Bustamante, Romer (1993). Bajo un mismo techo: la familia tradicional en China y su crisis [Under One Roof: The Traditional Family in China and Its Crises] (in Spanish) (1a ed.). Mexico City: El Colegio de Mexico. doi:10.2307/j.ctv3dnrft. ISBN 978-968-12-0549-2.[17]
- Botton Beja, Flora, ed. (2010). Historia mínima de China [Short History of China] (in Spanish) (Primeraición ed.). Mexico City: El Colegio de México. ISBN 978-607-462-066-5.[17] (Second edition published in 2018.)[18]
- Botton Beja, Flora (2019). Ensayos sobre China: una antología [Essays on China: An Anthology] (in Spanish) (Primeraición ed.). Ciudad de México, México: El Colegio de México. ISBN 978-607-628-577-0.[19]
- Botton Beja, Flora; Cervera, José Antonio; Chen, Yong (2021). Historia mínima del confucianismo [Short History of Confucianism] (in Spanish) (Primeraición ed.). Mexico City: El Colegio de México. ISBN 978-607-564-174-4.[20]
Notes
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Byerly 1956, p. 6.
- ^ National Registry 1949, pp. F, J, S.
- ^ a b c d e f g Bermejo Mora 2019.
- ^ a b Hantzaroula 2021, p. 147.
- ^ West Point Academy 1946, p. 48.
- ^ National Registry 1949, p. G.
- ^ Fernanda 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cornejo 2012, pp. i–ii.
- ^ a b Botton Beja 2020.
- ^ a b c Botton Beja 2021, p. 1.
- ^ Pereira et al. 2004, p. 184.
- ^ a b National Library of Chile 2016.
- ^ a b Poy Solano 2021.
- ^ CEG 2021.
- ^ a b Enciclopedia de la literatura en México 2018.
- ^ Aladaa Internacional 2020.
- ^ a b c d e Cornejo 2012, p. 591.
- ^ Pacific University Publishing 2018.
- ^ Ríos 2020, p. 191.
- ^ Programa Universitario de Estudios sobre Asia y África 2022.
Bibliography
- Bermejo Mora, Edgardo (26 October 2019). "Flora Botton y China" [Flora Botton and China]. La Crónica de Hoy (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico. Archived from the original on 25 March 2022. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
- Botton Beja, Flora (2021). "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). ceaa.colmex.mx (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico: El Colegio de México. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 May 2022. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
- Botton Beja, Flora (October 2020). "Descubrir el mundo" [Discover the World]. Diálogos de El Colegio de México (in Spanish). 13. Mexico City, Mexico: El Colegio de México. ISSN 2594-0376. Archived from the original on 17 May 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
- Byerly, Bob (26 April 1956). "Meet the Faculty: Philosophy Teacher Recalls Years of Nazi Terror" (PDF). Mexico City Collegian. Vol. 9, no. 10. Mexico City, Mexico: Mexico City College. p. 6. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 April 2022. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
- Cornejo, Romer (2012). "Introducción". In Cornejo, Romer (ed.). China: estudios y ensayos en honor de Flora Botton Beja [China: Studies and Essays in Honor of Flora Botton Beja] (in Spanish) (Primeraición ed.). Mexico City, Mexico: El Colegio de México. pp. i–xi. ISBN 978-607-462-346-8.
- Fernanda, María (19 January 2014). "Colegio Garside" [Garside College]. Chilango (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico: Grupo Expansión. Archived from the original on 11 April 2022. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
- Hantzaroula, Pothiti (2021). Child Survivors of the Holocaust in Greece: Memory, Testimony and Subjectivity. New York, New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-01896-1.
- Pereira, Armando; Albarrán, Claudia; Rosado, Juan Antonio; Tornero, Angélica (2004). "Fem". In Pereira, Armando (ed.). Diccionario de literatura mexicana: siglo XX [Literary Dictionary of Mexico: 20th Century] (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. pp. 184–185. ISBN 978-970-32-1760-1.
- Poy Solano, Laura (11 March 2021). "Reconoce el Colmex a tres pioneras de los estudios de género" [Colmex Recognizes Three Pioneers of Gender Studies]. La Jornada (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico. Archived from the original on 11 March 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
- Ríos, María Elvira (March 2020). "Reseñas: F. Botton Beja (2019). Ensayos sobre China. Una antología" [Reviews: F. Botton Beja (2019). Essays on China: An Anthology] (PDF). Estudios de Asia y África (in Spanish). 55 (1). Mexico City, Mexico: El Colegio de México: 191–194. doi:10.24201/eaa.v55i1.2585. ISSN 0185-0164. OCLC 8512588254. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
- West Point Academy (1946). The Invasion of Western Europe, Part 2 (January to May 1945). West Point, New York: United States Department of War. OCLC 6390885.
- "Centro de Estudios de Género (CEG)" [Gender Studies Center (CEG)]. CEG.colmex (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico: El Colegio de México. 2021. Archived from the original on 28 October 2021. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
- "Flora Botton". Programa Universitario de Estudios sobre Asia y África. Mexico City, Mexico: National Autonomous University of Mexico. Archived from the original on 25 March 2022. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
- "Flora Botton Beja". ELEM – Enciclopedia de la literatura en México (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico: Fundación para las Letras Mexicanas. 27 February 2018. Archived from the original on 3 March 2021. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
- "Fondo Editorial de la Universidad del Pacífico publica libro sobre historia de China" [Pacific University Publishing Fund Publishes Book on Chinese History]. El Fondo Editorial (in Spanish). Lima, Peru: Universidad del Pacífico. 25 July 2018. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
- "Fundadora de Aladaa valoró realización del XV Congreso Internacional en nuestro país" [The Value of the Founder of Aladaa Recognized at the XV International Congress in our Country]. BCN.cl (in Spanish). Santiago, Chile: Biblioteca Nacional de Chile. 27 January 2016. Archived from the original on 19 July 2017. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
- "Registro Nacional de Extranjeros en México: Archivos de migración" [National Registry of Foreigners in Mexico: Migration Archives]. pares.mcu.es (in Spanish). Madrid, Spain: Ministry of Culture and Sport. 13 December 1949. pp. Flora (f), grandmother (g), Jaime (j), Sara (s). Retrieved 3 May 2022.
- "V Congreso Internacional de Enseñanza del Chino 2020: En homenaje a Flora Botton, pionera en los studios sobre China en México" [V International Congress on the Teaching of Chinese 2020: In Tribute to Flora Botton, Pioneer in Studies on China in Mexico] (PDF). Aladaa Internacional (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico: Asociación Latinoamericana de Estudios de Asia y África. 14 February 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 May 2022. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
- 1933 births
- Living people
- Holocaust survivors
- Mexico City College alumni
- University of Paris alumni
- National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni
- El Colegio de México alumni
- Academic staff of El Colegio de México
- Gender studies academics
- Mexican ethnographers
- Sinologists
- Greek emigrants to Mexico
- Jews from Thessaloniki
- Mexican Jews