Teresa Flores
{{Infobox person
| name = Teresa Flores
| image = Teresa Flores.jpg
| alt = Teresa Flores wears a black headscarf during the funeral of her partner Luis Emilio Recabarren
| other_names = Compañerita
| birth_date = January 4, 1890
| birth_place = Iquique, Chile
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1952|10|5|1890|1|4}}
| death_place = Santiago, Chile
| occupation = Labor leader and feminist activist
}}
Teresa Flores (January 4, 1890 – October 5, 1952), known as Compañerita,{{Cite web |last=Avilés |first=Daniela |date=2015-04-02 |title=Feminismo obrero. "Compañerita Teresa Flores" |url=https://www.laizquierdadiario.cl/Companerita-Teresa-Flores |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=La Izquierda Diario |language=es |archive-date=2025-04-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250409174434/https://www.laizquierdadiario.cl/Companerita-Teresa-Flores |url-status=live }} was a Chilean labor leader, feminist, and founding member of the Chilean Socialist Workers' Party.{{Cite web |last=Maturana |first=Cristián |date=2019-03-09 |title=COMPAÑERA TERESA FLORES, ¡PRESENTE EN LA LUCHA! |url=https://elpueblo.cl/2019/03/09/companera-teresa-flores-presente-en-la-lucha/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406213558/https://elpueblo.cl/2019/03/09/companera-teresa-flores-presente-en-la-lucha/ |archive-date=2019-04-06 |website=El Pueblo |language=es}}
Biography
Teresa Flores was born in Iquique, Chile, in 1890.{{Cite book |title=Registro Civil, Libro de Nacimientos 1890–1891 |publisher=Cementerio Parroquial de Maipú, Libro de Sepultaciones |language=es}} Her mother, María Flores y López, was a seamstress; her father's identity was not recorded.
In 1912, Flores was the only woman among the founders of the Socialist Workers' Party in Iquique.{{Cite book |last=Lafertte |first=Elías |title=Vida de un comunista (páginas autobiográficas) |date=1971 |publisher=Empresa Editora Austral |location=Santiago |pages=86 |language=es}}
She became associated with the prominent Spanish anticlerical and anarchist activist Belén de Sárraga, who visited Chile in 1913. After Sárraga's departure, the {{Interlanguage link|Belén de Sárraga Anticlerical and Free Thought Center|es|Centro Femenino Anticlerical Belén de Sárraga}} was established in Iquique, following one created in Antofagasta, and Flores invited women of all ages to join.{{Cite news |date=1913-04-10 |title=Permítanme que desde las columnas de nuestro periódico haga saber ... |work=El Despertar |language=es}} She served as secretary and later president of the center. Expanding throughout the saltpeter mining communities and to cities like Valparaíso, the Sárraga centers focused on anti-alcohol activism, promoting modern ideas in youth education, and anticlericalism. At their first conference on May 17, 1913, held at the offices of the newspaper El Despertar, they proposed creating a Women's Federal Council within the {{Interlanguage link|Federación Obrera de Chile|es}} (FOCH), which was realized a few years later.
Flores and other women set up housewives' committees at the mining camps, organizing a kitchen strike to protest food shortages, the presence of weevils, contaminated flour, and other grievances. The women refused to cook, forcing the men to support them in their demands. If anyone attempted to light the stoves, the strikers would put them out by throwing water down the chimneys.
In 1922, Flores became the first woman to join the Federal Executive Council, the highest tier of leadership of the FOCH.{{Cite book |last=Barnard |first=Andrew |title=El Partido Comunista de Chile, 1922–1947 |date=2017 |publisher=Ariadna Ediciones |location=Santiago |pages= |language=es}}
From 1912 (perhaps earlier) until his death in 1924, Flores was partners with the Chilean labor leader Luis Emilio Recabarren.{{Cite book |last=Grez |first=Sergio |title=Historia del comunismo en Chile |date=2011 |publisher=Lom Ediciones |location=Santiago |language=es}} After being widowed, she was featured in the 1924 film "Los funerales de Recabarren."{{Cite web |title=Los funerales de Recabarren |url=http://www.ccplm.cl/sitio/funeral-de-luis-emilio-recabarren/ |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=Centro Cultural la Moneda |language=es |archive-date=2019-09-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190919171904/http://www.ccplm.cl/sitio/funeral-de-luis-emilio-recabarren/ |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |title=Exhibición del documental "Los Funerales de Luis Emilio Recabarren 1924" |url=https://www.archivonacional.gob.cl/galeria/exhibicion-del-documental-los-funerales-de-luis-emilio-recabarren-1924 |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=Archivo Nacional |language=es}} Around 1932, she lived in Maipú with her partner Tomás Conelli, a communist leader and longtime collaborator of Recabarren's.{{Cite web |last=Lagos Mieres |first=Manuel Andrés |date=2020 |title=FLORES, Teresa |url=https://diccionario.cedinci.org/flores-teresa/ |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=Diccionario Biográfico de las Izquierdas Latinoamericanas |language=es}}
Flores died in Santiago in 1952. Today, she is recognized by feminist groups who celebrate her as one of the country's first female labor leaders.{{Cite news |date=2020-03-09 |title=Mujeres arman huelga en Chile y marchan contra violencia |url=https://www.unotv.com/noticias/portal/internacional/detalle/mujeres-arman-huelga-en-chile-y-marchan-contra-violencia-576653/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250104114451/https://www.unotv.com/noticias/portal/internacional/detalle/mujeres-arman-huelga-en-chile-y-marchan-contra-violencia-576653/ |archive-date=2025-01-04 |work=UnoTV |language=es}}