Philosophy and feminism in Francesca Gargallo. Autonomy, difference, community

Abstract

Francesca Gargallo Celentani (1956-2022) was a multifaceted Sicilian intellectual (philosopher, historian, essayist, novelist, and poet) who settled in Mexico in the early 1980s. From her vast body of work, this article focuses on her feminist thought, which is characterized by its focus on three fundamental categories: difference, autonomy, and community.

By choosing Mexico City as her new place of residence, Francesca embarked on an intellectual and biographical journey in which her feminist ideas entered into dialogue with a new social and political reality, which she successively designated as «Latin America» (or «Latinoamérica»), «our America», and «Abya Yala».

This shift in the signifier designating her object of study is accompanied by transformations in the methodological perspective adopted. The article focuses on these modifications and, based on them, outlines a periodization of her feminist thought. It draws primarily on three of her books: Latin American Feminist Ideas (2004), Anthology of Our American Feminist Thought (2009), and Feminisms from Abya Yala: Ideas and Proposals from Women of 607 Peoples in Our America (2012).