Meet Prudencia Ayala, an Indigenous Salvadoran woman who was the first (and to this day, the only) woman to ever run for the presidency of El Salvador, or anywhere in Latin America, in 1930 despite women not being able to vote and much less run for election.

Her unlawful candidacy made universal suffrage possible in El Salvador and was a watershed moment for women’s rights in all of Latin America.

Her government platform included the support of unions, honesty, and transparency in public administration, the limitation of the distribution and consumption of liquor, the respect of the freedom of worship and the recognition of "illegitimate children".

She was a writer, a poet, a social activist, a mystic and a proud unionist.

She manifested in favor of anti-imperialism, feminism, and Central American unionism, as well as her repudiation of the United States's gross invasion in Nicaragua.

The great Salvadoran poet, philosopher, scholar, statesman and writer, Alberto Masferrer, said of her and of her presidential platform:

““Prudencia Ayala defends a just and noble cause, which is the women’s right to vote and to hold high positions. Her government program is not inferior in justification, practical sense and simplicity, than other candidates that are taken seriously.””

Ultimately the Salvadoran Supreme Court did not allow her application to be allowed to run for President. Women would be allowed to vote and run some 20 years or so later.

While we aren’t certain that she participated in the great worker’s uprisings in El Salvador in the 30s, it’s generally understood she collaborated somehow.

She died in San Salvador on 11 July 1936.

Because of her, I can.