Concepción Arenal Alba Casas and Abel Fáfula Hi, my name is Concepción Arenal. I was born on January 31st 1820 in Ferrol (A Coruña, Spain) and died on February 4th 1893 due to a chronic bronchitis in Vigo. I was a Spanish thinker, journalist, poet and drama author in literary realism. I was considered a pioneer in Spanish feminism. My father was a soldier who was imprisoned for his liberal ideas and died in jail in 1829, when I was only 9 years old. That year, I moved with my mother and my two sisters to Armano (Cantabria), to my grandmother’s house, where I received a strong religious education. Some months later, my sister Luisa passed away and after some years, with the help of my relative Antonio Tenreiro-Montenegro and Caveda (second count of Vigo), I moved to Madrid so as to study at a school for young ladies. I always obtained very good marks, so when I grew up I was encouraged to keep on with my education, becoming the first woman in Spain to attend University. To do so, I was forced to dress as a man while attending classes. Later on, in 1848, I graduated in Law School at the Central University (nowadays the Complutense University of Madrid) and married Fernando García Carrasco, with whom I had three children. My preparation led me to be appointed inspector of women's prisons in 1864, becoming the first woman to receive the title of visitor of women's prisons, where I denounced the situation of women at prisons. During my birth, the reign of Fernando VII (1814-1833) took place, in which he tried to impose an absolutist government. Nevertheless, there were some liberal attempts to change the Spanish
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